This the 10th anniversary of Payne Stewart's tragic death in a plane crash. I remember him winning his first big tournament in 1991 on the same Hazeltine course that hosted last week's PGA Championship. He beat Scott Simpson in a 18-hole playoff for the U.S. Open title.
Like most young players, he had to lose a few before he won his first major.
Ten years ago in June, Stewart won his second U.S. Open here in North Carolina at Pinehurst. Many local fans saw him hold off Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson just a few weeks before he left us.
To close out that championship, he became the first golfer in history to make a 15-20 foot putt on the final green to win a U.S. Open.
Stewart was one of the best-loved players on the PGA Tour and it was evident by the tremendous number of his peers at the memorial service.
Paul Azinger, one of Stewart's best friends, spoke at the service and had his pant legs tucked into his socks, paying homage to the plus-fours (knickers) Stewart always wore when playing.
There has been no one to take Stewart's place as the game's most colorful player. Only Woods and Mickelson are real drawing cards everywhere they tee it up.
With Woods missing a large number of events over the past year from knee surgery and now Mickelson's limited schedule because of his wife's cancer, the tour is really hurting.
New kid in town
We were never quite sure but now we know that Woods is human. Time after time he had an opportunity to make one of his patented clutch shots in last weekend's PGA Championship but couldn't pull it off.
I think many fans thought he would tie or win on the 18th hole, but unknown Korean Y.E. Yang hit the shot of the tournament, and of his life, to close out the world's best.
Yang's victory will probably be good for golf and give many other touring pros more reason to improve their game. Yang stayed right with the world's best, hole after hole, and hit only one poor shot all day, his first putt on 17.
To Woods' credit, he's around the lead in almost every tournament, taking on the tour's hottest golfers for that particular week and usually beats them.
Greater Hickory Classic
The Greater Hickory Golf Classic is coming up Sept. 14-20. Many local charities are helped by the ticket sales for this event, with purchasers able to mark their favorites when they purchase the ticket.
If you have never seen a pro hit a tee shot, it will be well worth the admission price to take the trip to Conover.
Freedom football
Freedom High School lost another member of its very first football coaching staff last week with the death of Johnny Anderson.
Anderson was a member of the late Jug Wilson's staff several years before returning to McDowell County to take over the head football job in his hometown of Marion.
Everyone who ever knew Anderson liked him and his players respected him.
Roy Waters is a sports columnist for The News Herald. Waters was baseball and basketball coach at Salem High School from 1955-66, where his teams won 18 championships. In 2007, he was inducted into the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.
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