On the day after the J P McManus International Classic at Limerick GC last July, a group of leading American players, including Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara, were at Waterville on a sad assignment. They went to honour former colleague, Payne Stewart, at the unveiling of a larger-than-life bronze of the 1999 US Open champion, who had been killed in an air crash the previous October.

Tracey Stewart was there. And the impact of the local community on herself and her late husband, is richly reflected in the authorised biography of Stewart, published recently by Harper Collins. Indeed Waterville, where Stewart was the posthumous honorary captain this year, can feel proud of how it took the player to its heart.

Of the 1999 visit to Waterville, the collaborative work between Tracey and leading American author Ken Abraham, tells us: "While Payne was there, he arranged to have a special gift made for each of the guys that he fished with on the trip. Sean, their fishing guide, framed two-by-four-foot maps of Ireland, with real fly-fishing lures used in various parts of the country, displayed accordingly on the map.

"It was a highly unusual gift, the kind that takes time to design and produce. In fact the guys didn't get the gifts until Christmas 1999 (two months after Stewart's death). When Mark O'Meara opened the large box in which the gift arrived, he gazed at it and nearly cried as the memories of the guys' fishing trips wafted back over him. `It's one of the most special gifts I have ever received,' he said.

"Payne loved walking through the small town of Waterville, talking to the shop owners and the people in the restaurants. The people of Waterville responded warmly, adopting Payne as one of their own. Since the town was too small to have a mayor, the highest honour they could give Payne was to name him as the honorary captain of the Waterville Golf Club.

"They bestowed the honour at the Ryder Cup matches in September at a special ceremony at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts."