The 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 produced one of the most enduring images in golf history: Payne Stewart, fists clenched, leg kicked back, eyes turned to the heavens after a curling 15-foot putt fell on the 72nd green. It was a major championship decided by a single stroke, a story bound up with a young Phil Mickelson’s pager and a baby that was due any minute, and a winner who would be gone four months later. This guide tells the story of that championship, breaks down the shots that decided it, and explains why Pinehurst No. 2 produced such an unforgettable Sunday.
The Stage: Pinehurst No. 2 In June 1999
Donald Ross’s masterpiece in the North Carolina Sandhills had never hosted a U.S. Open before 1999. The USGA wanted to test the world’s best on the famous turtleback greens – surfaces so subtly crowned that any ball not struck cleanly trickles into the surrounding closely-mown swales. Pinehurst No. 2 does not punish you with rough or water. It punishes you with proximity. You can be 60 feet from the pin on the green and putting; you can be six feet from the pin in a swale and chipping with the same lie repeated four times.
That uniqueness is exactly what made the championship feel different. Players were forced to land the ball short of pins and let it release, to use the natural slopes rather than fight them. For more on how those greens dictate strategy, see our guide to playing Pinehurst No. 2’s crowned greens.
The Field And The Build-Up
Stewart, 42 years old and already a two-time U.S. Open champion (1991 at Hazeltine), had arrived at Pinehurst in good form but with the lingering memory of his collapse the previous summer at Olympic, where he had blown a four-shot final-round lead to Lee Janzen. The 1999 season had been one of patient rebuilding for him, including a win at Pebble Beach earlier that year.
Phil Mickelson was 28, brilliant, and famously without a major. His wife Amy was due to deliver their first child during the week of the tournament. Mickelson wore a pager throughout the championship and made it clear he would walk off the course mid-round if it buzzed. He was the people’s favorite. Tiger Woods, then 23, was the world No. 2 and a constant presence near the lead. David Duval, the world No. 1 at the time, was also in the mix.
Rounds One Through Three
Stewart opened with a steady 68 to share the first-round lead with David Duval. He followed with a 69 in round two to take sole possession of the lead at -5, and a 72 on a difficult Saturday left him one ahead of Mickelson going into the final round. By Saturday evening Pinehurst was already proving brutal – only two players were under par for the championship.
The Sunday weather added a final layer of difficulty. Light, persistent rain made the run-offs around the greens slick and the pins all but unreachable. The leaderboard contracted instead of spreading. With four holes to play, Stewart, Mickelson, and Woods were within a stroke of one another.
The Final Nine: A Putt, A Pager, And A Final Stroke
Stewart bogeyed the par-3 13th and lost his lead. Mickelson, playing in the same group, took a one-shot advantage at the 15th. Tiger Woods, in the group ahead, missed a short par putt on 17 that ended his chances at minus one for the tournament.
The pivotal stretch came at 16, 17, and 18. On the par-4 16th, Stewart faced a 25-footer for par after a poor approach. He drilled it. On the par-3 17th, he made another curling, downhill 4-footer for par after Mickelson narrowly missed his birdie putt. That meant Stewart and Mickelson arrived at 18 tied for the lead, both knowing it was now a one-hole shootout.
The 72nd Hole
Pinehurst’s 18th is a 446-yard par-4 with a green that falls off on three sides. Stewart pulled his drive into the rough. Faced with 191 yards from a flier lie, he laid up to 75 yards with a wedge. His third was a beautiful pitch that stopped 15 feet below the hole. Mickelson, having played the hole in regulation, lay 25 feet for birdie. He missed, leaving Stewart his putt to win the championship outright.
The putt broke gently from right to left. Stewart took his familiar slow, fluid stroke. The ball travelled the full 15 feet and dropped dead-centre. The reaction – the leg kick, the fists clenched, eyes closed – is now cast in bronze on the course itself. It was the longest 72nd-hole putt to win a U.S. Open since Jerry Pate’s 5-iron at Atlanta Athletic Club in 1976.
“You’re Going To Be A Father”: The Moment With Mickelson
Within seconds of the celebration, Stewart turned to Mickelson, took his face in his hands, and delivered the line that has outlived almost any other in the sport: that nothing – not majors, not money, not titles – would compare to becoming a father. Phil’s daughter Amanda was born the next day. The embrace between winner and runner-up has become a kind of moral lesson in the history of major championship golf: that empathy and competition can occupy the same square foot of grass.
Scorecard Summary
Stewart finished at 1-under 279 (68-69-72-70), one shot clear of Mickelson at 280. Tiger Woods finished T3 alongside Vijay Singh at +2 (282). The cut had fallen at +8. Only three players in the entire field finished under par.
- Winner: Payne Stewart, -1, 279
- 2nd: Phil Mickelson, even, 280
- T3: Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, +2, 282
- Final-round low: David Duval, 70
The Tragic Coda And The Bronze Statue
Four months later, on 25 October 1999, Stewart was killed when the Learjet carrying him from Orlando to a tournament in Houston suffered a depressurization event and flew on autopilot for several hours before running out of fuel and crashing in South Dakota. He was 42. He had captured his third major in June and was, in the autumn of 1999, the favourite to lead the United States Ryder Cup team that September. He played his part in the U.S. comeback at Brookline only weeks before his death.
Pinehurst Resort commissioned a bronze statue of Stewart’s 72nd-hole celebration. It stands behind the 18th green of No. 2 and is the most photographed object on property. When the U.S. Open returned to Pinehurst in 2005 and again in 2014 and 2024, every winner walked past it on the way to receive the trophy.
Why The 1999 U.S. Open Still Matters
Stewart’s 1999 win is studied for at least three reasons. First, it was a master class in U.S. Open strategy on a course that rewarded patience and shot shape over raw distance – lessons still relevant when the modern game leans heavily on bombers. Second, it produced one of the great closing nine holes in major championship history, with three consecutive long par-saving putts of the kind that decide majors. And third, the image of Stewart and Mickelson on the 18th green remains a useful counterweight to a sport that can sometimes seem to forget its own better instincts.
For more iconic U.S. Open moments, you might also enjoy our breakdowns of Tiger Woods’ 15-shot win at Pebble Beach in 2000 and Tom Watson’s chip-in on Pebble’s 17th in 1982.
Payne Stewart’s Playing Style
Stewart was almost as famous for his clothes as for his swing. Throughout his career he wore traditional plus-fours, knee socks, and a tam o’shanter – an homage to golf’s Scottish origins and a deal he had signed with the NFL to wear team colors. At Pinehurst in 1999 he played in the colors of the Tennessee Volunteers in the early rounds and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, an outfit so unmistakable it became part of the visual record of the championship.
His swing was the polar opposite of the modern power-loaded action. Stewart used a slow, languid tempo with a high finish and a flowing release. He was never a long hitter even by 1990s standards. What he had – especially in his last two years – was a beautifully calibrated short game and one of the best putting strokes on tour. The 15-foot putt on the 72nd hole was not a fluke. He had ranked inside the top ten in putting in each of his last three full seasons.
The Pinehurst Restoration Connection
The 1999 championship arrived in the years before Pinehurst No. 2 had been fully restored to Donald Ross’s original design intent. The sandy waste areas, native wiregrass, and dramatic chipping zones that define the modern course were not yet present; the rough between fairways was still cut to traditional U.S. Open length. Coore & Crenshaw’s restoration, completed in 2010, would change the visual character of the course significantly. Watching footage of Stewart’s win today is therefore a small history lesson in itself, showing No. 2 in a transitional state somewhere between Ross’s vision and the modern restored masterpiece.
Quick Facts
- Tournament: 99th U.S. Open Championship
- Course: Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst, North Carolina
- Dates: 17 – 20 June 1999
- Winner: Payne Stewart (third career major)
- Final margin: 1 stroke over Phil Mickelson
- Winning score: 1-under 279
- Total purse: $3,000,000 (winner’s share: $625,000)
- Notable: Stewart’s third and final major; killed in plane crash 25 Oct 1999
