Golf: Houston pro-am event cancelled

HOUSTON - The United States PGA Tour cancelled tomorrow's pro-am golf event at the Tour Championship following the death of Payne Stewart.

United States Open champion Stewart was one of the elite field of the tour's top 30 money-winners this season set to play in the Tour Championship at Champions Golf Club starting on Friday.

Stewart, aged 42, who was third on this season's money-list with more than $US2 million ($3.92 million) in earnings, was killed when his private Learjet plane crashed in a South Dakota farm field. None of the five people on board survived the crash.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem issued a statement saying that in view of the "sudden and tragic death of Payne Stewart" the Tour had cancelled the pro-am at Champions Golf Club, as well as tomorrow's skins game at the tour's Southern Farm Bureau Classic in Madison, Mississippi.

Finchem said the normal schedule at the Tour Championship and the Mississippi tournament would tentatively resume on Friday.