A friend of mine had 2 tickets to the final round and invited me to go. I gladly went even though by the final round Scott Hoch had something along the lines of a 6 stroke lead.
We followed the players at the practice tee's. Payne in his usual throw back golfer's outfit in Houston Oilers blue and white. The day went fine, it was clear and sunny, a little on the hot side. Later in the afternoon my friend thought it'd be a good idea to head to the 18th hole and find a nice place to watch the players finish thier rounds. I thought it'd be a better idea to head out early and beat the crowd, Hoch still having this huge lead. So we decided to head to the 18th and finish the day there, watching the leaderboard. Then, slowly, we saw Hoch losing his lead and Stewart creeping up on him. By the time they finished their rounds they were tied...and we had a great view from the 18th for the sudden death. Stewart eventually one the hole, and everyone cheered for him.
Upon sinking his putt, Stewart pulled the ball out of the hole and threw it up in the air, towards the crowd. More importantly, he threw it in our direction. I looked to my left and saw the people grouping together trying to get the best angle to catch the ball. As the clump of people were well to my left, and it included my friend joining them, I backed off a couple of steps to let them fight for the ball. The ball came down, they all jumped at once to catch the ball, and it bounced out of thier grasp, arched back into the air, and right into my hands. I stood there in disbelief. Immediately I was besieged by people wanting to see it. I showed it with a huge smile on my face, my friend patting me on the back. It's a Titleist "0" ball, no "Payne Stewart" or anything like that on it at all. I decided later that the ball should go to my friend, he was the one that said we should stay. And so I did. Later, as we all know, Payne was killed in a freak accident in his private jet.
