Payne Stewart's Last Major

Payne Stewart arrived at the 72nd hole of the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst No. 2 tied with Phil Mickelson, who was playing with a pager clipped to his bag in case his wife went into labour during the round. Stewart's approach left him a difficult, downhill fifteen-foot putt for par to win the championship outright.

He read it, struck it, and watched it fall, breaking into his trademark fist pump and knee kick before turning to Mickelson, taking his face in both hands, and telling him fatherhood was about to change his life for the better, a moment of sportsmanship as widely remembered as the putt itself. Stewart won by a single stroke, his third and final major title.

Just over four months later, on 25 October 1999, Stewart was killed when the private jet carrying him suffered a cabin depressurisation and flew on autopilot for hours before crashing in South Dakota. His win at Pinehurst, and the pose from the 18th green, are now memorialised in a bronze statue at the course, and the moment carries a weight it could not have had at the time.