Sports Writing on Deadline
Sports Staff / Palm Beach Post

(Left to right) Mike Van Sickler, Al Tays, Greg Stoda and Tim Burke. Not pictured: Craig Dolch.

The coverage in the Post after Payne Stewart's death reflected how sports staffers had connections to the flamboyant golfer.

Executive sports editor Tim Burke owns a videotape library of Stewart's victories on the PGA tour. Columnist Greg Stoda recalled small wagers on NBA games that he made with Stewart, an Orlando Magic fan.

Oct. 26, 1999

Staff writer Craig Dolch once apologized to Stewart during a call-in show on television's Golf Channel, saying that a story he wrote about Stewart "choking" in a match was a "bogey" that Dolch had made on deadline.

Aiding sports' coverage, Mike Van Sickler of News reported on the golf course designer who died in Stewart's plane.

The Post's exhaustive coverage even included a sidebar by Al Tays about Stewart's trademark knickers, "a golf fashion that can be traced to the game's infancy," Tays wrote.

Stewart adopted the colorful dress after a 1982 tournament. There, he said, he "looked up and saw two players wearing the exact same thing I was wearing — same red pants, same white shirt with a red stripe. I decided I was tired of looking like everyone else."

"It was the toughest story I've ever had to coordinate given my ties to Stewart back in his hometown of Springfield, Mo., in the early '80s," said Tim Burke.

"But the personal connection our staff had to Stewart allowed us to cover the stunning news of his death in a more insightful, humanistic way. We knew what stories to tell. We knew what photos to use. We knew what the headline should say.

"Stewart's death indeed was a national story, but our staff brought it close to home for our readers."