Payne at Pinehurst: The Greatest U.S. Open Ever

by Bill Chastain, Tracey Stewart (Foreword by)

Overview

Payne at Pinehurst presents a fascinating re-telling of the 1999 U.S. Open--considered by many golf experts as the greatest U.S. Open ever played--where Payne Stewart dramatically sunk a fifteen-foot putt on the 18th hole to defeat Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and a host of other golf greats just four months before his untimely death in a bizarre plane crash.

It has been called the greatest U.S. Open in the Open's over one hundred-year history.

Veteran sports journalist, Bill Chastain, crafts the dramatic story of Payne Stewart's 1999 U.S. Open victory by combining extensive research with interviews of those who made it unique. Payne at Pinehurst shows how Stewart dealt with his stunning U.S. Open defeat in 1998 and planned victory for the championship that meant so much to him.

Stewart's conquest of Pinehurst No. 2, while fending off Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, David Duval, and Vijay Singh in an epic battle where every swing held significance, is the stuff of which golf legends are made. From compelling action by the best golfers in the world to the tournament's dramatic conclusion, Payne at Pinehurst shows readers why the 1999 U.S. Open is regarded as the best U.S. Open ever played.

"A fresh and concise look at Payne Stewart's victory at the 1999 U.S. Open."--Golf Digest

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466829381
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	318
Sales rank:	536,943
File size:	367 KB

About the Author

Bill Chastain spent 12 years as a sportswriter for The Tampa Tribune working as a columnist and baseball writer. His byline has appeared in numerous national publications and he has written two other books, The Steve Spurrier Story: From Heisman to Head Ball Coach and The Streak. Chastain lives in Tampa with his wife, Patti, and their two children, Carly and Kel.

Editorial Reviews

Under Chastain's microscope, Stewart ultimately emerges a fulfilled man, a winner in life as well as on the links. A remarkable photo of a triumphant Stewart happily clutching the Open trophy seems to confirm Chastain's assertion that the golfer made it to the top of the world before he left it.
— The Washington Post

Bob Ivry

One year after blowing a sizable, final-round lead to lose the U.S. Open by a single stroke, Payne Stewart made a remarkable comeback in 1999 and won the coveted tournament in memorable fashion on the No. 2 course at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina. But only a few months later, Stewart died in a plane crash after his chartered jet inexplicably lost cabin pressure. Chastain (The Steve Spurrier Story) recounts the story of this final victory and the talented golfer who was perhaps more famous for his signature knickers and tam-o'-shanters than his many professional achievements. Along with chapters on Donald Ross, the prolific architect who designed Pinehurst No. 2, and the history of the U.S. Open, Chastain describes the circumstances leading up to the 1999 showdown and follows one unknown club professional who qualified for the only PGA Tour event that is truly "open" to anyone able to pay the entry fee and survive the demanding qualifying rounds. Yet this account is so chock-full of quoted remarks-from Stewart's wife, caddy and psychologist to fellow golf professionals, sports commentators and USGA officials-that Chastain hardly has space left over to cram in a few lines of his own. While the author has unearthed some piquant tidbits of golf lore, the extensive interviews anatomize the minutiae of Stewart's life and the overcrowded, piecemeal composition results in a characterless, secondhand narrative. In a tale that is frequently digressive and occasionally tedious, Chastain never explains why this particular Open was the "greatest ever." Agent, Frank R. Scatoni.(June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"You don't have to be from North Carolina to understand what happened at the 1999 U.S. Open, and how it felt; it was an Open brushed by an angel's wing, an Open that in retrospect seems almost fictional. That Sunday in Pinehurst, when it all happened there in the mist, is one of the most memorable days in the history of the U.S. Open. Everything about it is more profound now, and yet somehow unreal."

- Ron Green Sr., PGATOUR.com columnist and author of Shouting at Amen Corner

From the Publisher