Death On Autopilot

Payne Stewart, one of the world's best and boldest golfers, dies in the mysterious crash of a private jet

Last Monday morning, pro golfer Payne Stewart awoke with the world on a string. He was to fly from his home in Orlando, Fla., eager to scout a site in Dallas that might be used for his fledgling golf-course-design business. Then on to Houston for the Tour Championship, a prestigious, season-crowning showdown among an elite field of the year's Top 30 money winners. Buoyed by a religious faith to which his young children had led him, Stewart, 42, was happier than friends had ever seen him. And thanks largely to a June victory at the U.S. Open, he was having the...

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