25 years later: How a putter switch and a tip helped Payne Stewart to U.S. Open victory
PINEHURST, N.C. – A few months before Payne Stewart holed that 15-foot putt on Pinehurst’s 18th green to win the 1999 U.S. Open, he was rolling putts with the same putter, a SeeMore Bronze FGP, on the practice green at Pebble Beach.
Stewart had been putting “horrendously,” says caddie Mike Hicks. He was an equipment free agent for the first time in five years after his deal with Spalding ran out the year prior, and at the urging of friend Lamar Haynes, Stewart switched into Mizuno irons, and a Titleist driver and golf ball, in November 1998 – “It’s time for you to come home,” Haynes told his buddy, tossing a Titleist ball at Stewart’s feet; Stewart was soon also giving Haynes specs for a set of Mizuno Pro MS-4’s. But Stewart was still searching for the most important club in his bag (the bag cost $139.99 at Edwin Watts in Orlando, Florida, and also included Orlimar fairway woods and a 56-degree Cleveland wedge; he later added a 60-degree Ping wedge, which he hit into No. 18 Sunday at Pinehurst).
So, when SeeMore rep Arnie Cunningham suggested the putter, Stewart threw it in the bag for a practice round. He left the headcover on for all nine holes that Wednesday before returning to the practice green, where he’d spend the next couple hours. Stewart wasn’t afraid to switch things up with his putting, but what the SeeMore’s system did was make him more consistent the way he set up to the ball.
“He then asked me, ‘What do you think?’” Hicks recalled.
To which Hicks replied to Stewart: “Well, you can’t putt any worse than you’re putting.”
Stewart won the tournament, edging Frank Lickliter by a shot in 54 holes. In the following months, he’d finish second at the Honda Classic and lose in a playoff at the MCI Classic at Harbour Town.
He never used another putter.
Fast forward to Saturday evening at Pinehurst in 1999, and Stewart had retreated to the practice green with his wife, Tracey. Hicks had already started his 70-mile commute back home to Mebane, North Carolina. When Stewart’s father died in 1985, he wrote Tracey a letter of things to watch for in Payne’s game. One of them was keeping his head still.
Following Stewart’s 72 in brutal scoring conditions (the third-round scoring average was 75.97), that was the fix.
On Sunday, in a battle with Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, Stewart needed just 24 putts, including one-putts on each of his last three holes:
A miraculous 25-footer for par at No. 16. (Stewart had struck a branch with his 2-iron on approach and followed with a poor chip well past the hole; Mickelson bogeyed the hole to drop back into a tie with Stewart.)
A 4-footer for birdie at No. 17 that gave Stewart the lead.
And the 15-footer at the last, still the longest putt ever made on a 72nd hole to win a U.S. Open.
“He just didn’t give up,” Hicks said. “He never quit fighting.”
And he kept his head still.
“I did it, lovey,” Stewart could be heard telling Tracey while they hugged off the 18th green on Sunday evening. “I kept my head still all day. … All day I did it.”
“I’ve got to thank my wife for the putting tip that she gave me, which was to keep my head still,” Stewart said in his winner’s presser afterward. “She watched me yesterday and she said you’re moving your head. So, I worked on it a little bit last night and I kept my head still on that putt. And when I looked up, it was about 2 feet from the hole, and it was breaking right in the center, and I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I’d accomplished another dream of mine.”