Bill & Payne Stewart Municipal at Bill & Payne Stewart Municipal Golf Club

Bill & Payne Stewart Municipal Golf Course in Springfield, Missouri, carries the legacy of two significant figures in the game. The course honors Bill Stewart, a longtime Springfield golf professional who fostered the sport locally for decades, and his son Payne Stewart, the three-time major champion who grew up playing municipal golf in Springfield before his tragic death in 1999. The facility serves as a tribute to both the teaching professional who shaped countless local players and the Tour star who never forgot his public-course roots.

The course was designed by Perry Maxwell, the influential Oklahoma-based architect whose work during the Golden Age of golf design includes restorations at Augusta National and original designs throughout the Midwest and Southwest. Maxwell's routing philosophy emphasized strategic options and natural land movement, characteristics that appear in his municipal designs as well as his private club work. The Springfield layout reflects Maxwell's ability to create interesting golf on relatively modest terrain, using green contours and strategic bunkering to challenge players of varying abilities.

The course operates as a public facility, maintaining the accessible, welcoming spirit that defined both Bill Stewart's teaching career and Payne Stewart's public acknowledgment of his municipal golf upbringing. Springfield's golf community regards the course as both a playable daily-fee option and a memorial to a father and son whose influence on the game extended well beyond their hometown. The facility continues to introduce new generations to golf in the same unpretentious environment that shaped one of the sport's most popular champions.