📍Springfield, MO, USA
1957 – 1975“I was born William Payne Stewart in Springfield, Missouri, in January 1957, the youngest of three children and the only son of Bill Stewart, a travelling salesman for a bedspring company, and my mother, Bee. We lived in a ranch-style house on Link Street, and Springfield was a friendly Ozarks town of churches, ball fields and country clubs. My father was a fine amateur golfer who had played in the 1955 US Open, and he gave me my first set of clubs when I was four. I spent my boyhood at Hickory Hills Country Club, learning the game from my father and chipping and putting for hours on the club's small greens. An old touring pro named Ky Laffoon used to hustle me on the practice green, and it taught me to hold my nerve. I also played Little League baseball, basketball and football, and I was a lively, mischievous kid who loved music and a good joke, just like my dad. My mother was a strong, opinionated woman who covered the front yard with political signs. At Greenwood, the laboratory school on the campus of what is now Missouri State University, I led the golf team to a state championship. I went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, winning the Southwest Conference title in 1979, and after a spell on the Asian tour I joined the PGA Tour. In my trademark plus fours and flat caps, I won three major championships, the last the 1999 US Open at Pinehurst. Back in the Ozarks, the Payne's Valley course near Branson is named after me.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today