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PINEHURST -- Aaron Stewart will finally walk where his father walked today, taking the last strides up the 18th fairway and, he hopes, the first giant steps toward the same road his dad took years ago.

Ten years after the late Payne Stewart won the riveting 1999 U.S. Open at the famed No 2. course, his son will compete on the same layout with the same caddie using the same yardage book.

He'll walk the winding links through the pines and up the long, last hill where a statue behind the green stands on one leg, fist pumping and smiling.

"He's smiling on the statue," Aaron, 20, said Monday. "I think he was yelling ... when he actually made the putt."

The bronze sculpture depicts Payne Stewart at the moment of victory, an instant frozen in time capturing one of the greatest putts in golf history and a painful reminder of what came next. Four months after that surreal day in June, the man who won the Open died in a plane crash.

His son now attends SMU, as Stewart did, and plays golf. Aaron Stewart said he wants to follow in his father's footsteps as far as he can. He's even allowed himself to dream of winning this week. He's here to play in the 109th North & South Amateur, which begins today with qualifications.

Stewart will tee off at 9:30 a.m. today on the first tee, and about four hours later he will walk up the 18th toward the green, the flag, the putt and the statue.

"It would be really special, but I'm just going to go out and try to play my best and whatever happens, keep focusing on that and not think about the outcome," he said.

There will be a lot to not think about today.

Part of the job of keeping young Stewart focused will be on caddie Mike Hicks from Mebane, who caddied for Payne Stewart in 1999. Hicks said there are many things that remind him of that week, and the mannerisms of Aaron are reminiscent of his fiery dad.

Aaron was 10 years old when his father won here. He was home watching on TV and remembers getting calls from Pinehurst from his dad that week. Through the years, Pinehurst has become a special place for him and his family.

"My family has always thought very highly of the people here and of Pinehurst overall," he said. "When I found out about the North & South -- I didn't even know about it last year -- when I found out about it I thought if I could get in, it would be a lot of fun to play."

Hicks said Aaron Stewart will carry the blue-marked yardage book his dad carried that week 10 years ago, the book telling him not where to hit the ball but where not to hit the ball, and together they'll try to make their way around a course synonymous with the Stewart family. Hicks said every time he comes here he thinks of something that happened that week.

"I think about him every day, though," he said. "His picture's on my refrigerator."

Aaron Stewart said the thing that makes him most confident about today is who's on his bag.

"It's pretty special," he said. "I've know Hicksy forever, and it's been cool to catch up. And who knows this place better than him?"

Aaron Stewart is a pretty good golfer, a red-shirt sophomore at SMU who started late and struggled to play regularly on his high-school team in Florida. He has the same piercing eyes of his dad and the makings of the fluid golf swing that made his father one of the best of his time. He draws the line at his dad's fashion sense: the distinctive knickers and Hogan hats and long socks and classy golf shoes.

"That's not me," he said, smiling.

He works with the same swing coach and plays golf with the men his dad played with at home, Lee Janzen and Stuart Appleby, John Cook and Tiger Woods, all of whom live in Islesworth just outside of Orlando.

And sometimes out on the course, he'll think back to the days when he would play golf with his dad, who really didn't care if Aaron played or not.

Stewart said in an interview just before his death that he wanted Aaron to learn the most important things about golf: sportsmanship, following rules and getting what you put in out of the game.

Aaron used those exact words Monday as he talked about playing professionally some day.

"I'm in college," he said. "A collegiate player, as good as you are, you're never going to stand out in the golfing world. You have to prove it on the world stage, the highest stage. I'm very proud of my name. I want to be seen as my own player, but there'll come a time."

His time this week is at Pinehurst, on his own, with the bronze image of his dad watching over him. He'll try to stay focused on each shot today and qualify for match play later in the week. And then who knows?

"After college I want to play professionally," Aaron Stewart said Monday from Pinehurst. "I want to be on that world stage."

His father's footsteps lead to the biggest stage in golf. But they start right here, 15 feet from the flag on the 18th green at Pine-hurst No. 2.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com