AS A special tribute to Payne Stewart, who was killed in a plane crash on Monday, Waterville are to proceed with their plan to have him as their honorary captain for next year. It means his name will go on the club's honour board, alongside the functioning captain for 2000, Willie O'Driscoll.
Further plans to honour the memory of this year's US Open champion will be discussed at a committee meeting tomorrow evening. In the meantime, the flag is flying at half-mast and the Waterville club will be represented at the player's funeral in the US by Jay Connolly, its president and managing director.
It is also planned to close the links on the day of the funeral as a mark of respect.
"We're all shattered down here," said Paul Mulcahy, captain of Waterville GC yesterday. "There is a profound sadness about the place at the loss of such a man whom we all considered as a friend. Everybody loved him."
Stewart made two visits to Waterville, in July of 1998 and this year, both prior to the British Open. And, according to Mulcahy, "he was in every bar in the village, making others feel good".
Then, of course, there was golf, at which he excelled, returning a personal best of three-under-par 69 over the famous links.
Mulcahy recalled a particularly warm gesture during his first visit there. "It was about six months after the dreadful tragedy to the Fogarty family in the hurricane of Christmas 1997," he said. "That was when Damien Fogarty was killed and his younger brother Patrick was badly injured when a building fell on them."
The Waterville captain went on: "On being told of the tragedy, Stewart visited the house to offer his condolences. Then, a few days later, he was dining in the Shieling Restaurant with Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara when he was told that Patrick was about to return home from hospital.
"Whereupon, on Stewart's suggestion, the three of them went into the Fogarty house and were sitting there waiting to greet Patrick on his arrival home. Not surprisingly, the young man was overwhelmed by the gesture, not least because he happens to be a very keen golfer."
While in Waterville, Stewart indulged his love of fly-fishing in the upper lakes, with Connolly and local gillies Paddy Carey and Vincent O'Sullivan. So, he was understandably delighted with a rather special presentation which was made to him in Brookline, two days before the Ryder Cup.
According to the Waterville captain, the conferring by Connolly of honorary captaincy for next year was accompanied by the gift of an inscribed, handmade fly-fishing rod.
"Payne was thrilled to accept it and greatly appreciated the unique honour which we bestowed on him," said Mulcahy.
By a remarkable coincidence, the presentation took place on September 22nd, five years to the day after the death of Paul Mulcahy's uncle, Jack Mulcahy, who returned from the US to develop the Waterville golf club complex in 1970.
The captain concluded: "In our sadness, all of us down here realise that we're very much the better for having known Payne Stewart."
Across the Atlantic the sentiment was by echoed PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. "Payne was a great champion, a gentleman and a devoted husband and father. He will always be remembered as a very special competitor, and one who contributed enormously to the positive image of professional golf," he said.
And a relatively recent golf visitor to Kerry, US President Bill Clinton, was similarly effusive in his praise: "I am profoundly sorry for the loss of Payne Stewart, who has had such a remarkable career and impact on his sport and a remarkable resurgence in the last couple of years," he said.
