Payne Stewart tragically passed away 25 years ago today at age 42. Even so, he lived more in four decades than most of people could ever dream of. Born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, the three-time major champion has statues of himself around the world, victories on multiple continents and a look that remains instantly linked to his name.
There will be plenty of tributes and remembrances, our own included in the now-on-sale November issue of Australian Golf Digest, for the iconic athlete, but how many of them will include the time he nearly sold his house to Michael Jackson… a very real thing that almost happened.
In the June 1999 issue of Golf Digest magazine (US), Guy Yocom sat down with Stewart to discuss everything under the sun: golf dry spells, equipment changes and favourite Ryder Cup captains. But, there was only one possible anecdote to lead with. Everything else paled in comparison.
“When Payne Stewart recently put his Orlando mansion up for sale, one of the prospective buyers was pop singer Michael Jackson,” Yocom wrote. “As Jackson toured the house, his manager informed him the seller was ‘the famous golfer, Payne Stewart.’ Jackson was clueless at first, and then his manager told him Stewart was the golfer who wore colourful knicker[bocker]s. ‘Oh, that guy,’ Jackson said. ‘I know who he is.’”
It’s pretty tough to mix up the always-colourful Stewart (figuratively and literally) with his golf brethren. Even the King of Pop could place him in between record-setting albums and worldwide tours.
“It was funny. Aaron had some music playing in his bedroom, and when we showed Michael the room, he started dancing a bit, just moving with the music,” Stewart said. “He didn’t have a clue who I was or what I did for a living. Then his manager explained that I was the golfer who wore knickers.”
Going back through the Golf Digest archives, it’s clear Stewart had quite a fascinating relationship with GD. To be fair, that’s what’ll happen when you shoot a cover featuring a chimpanzee.
“If you can’t laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at anybody else?” Stewart once asked.
Dubbed “Golf’s Great Gatsby”, Stewart would speak to someone at GD every so often and as luck would have it tell a once-in-a-lifetime story every few months.
This is your annual reminder that Payne Stewart once played in the Masters Par-3 tournament while wearing a tuxedo pic.twitter.com/m9B9AYpTm9
— Michael Wolf (@bamabearcat) April 10, 2024
Maybe it’s how he went to Malaysia to golf and somehow met his eventual wife (a lissome blonde vacationing in Malaysia to watch her brother play golf – Australian Tracey Ferguson, sister of tour pro Mike Ferguson) or how he first wore his patented knickerbockers while teeing off with Lee Trevino (“Lee kidded me when he first saw them, of course, but later he told me they really looked sharp”), every Stewart story could be adapted into its own movie, or at least short film.
