Payne Stewart

"First of all, I have to give thanks to the Lord. If it weren’t for the faith that I have in him, I wouldn’t have been able to have the faith that I had in myself on the golf course." Later he added, "I’m proud of the fact that my faith in God is so much stronger, and I’m so much more at peace with myself than I’ve ever been in my life."[--after winning the 1999 U.S. Open, just months before his October 25, 1999 death]

Collingsworth, who became a friend of Stewart's over the last 18 months, spoke with Stewart at a post-U.S. Open party thrown last July by his wife. "He told me he wasn't going to be a 'Bible thumper;' that wasn't his style. But he wanted everybody to know it was Jesus, Jesus, Jesus who had done this great thing in his life, and that was all-important."