The second round of the Tour Championship in Houston, featuring America's top 30 money-winners this season, may be delayed as Payne Stewart's fellow professionals pay tribute to the man who died in a plane crash on Monday.

The tournament begins tomorrow at the Champions Golf Club, with the second round scheduled for Friday, the day set for Stewart's funeral. The ceremony will be held at the First Baptist Church of Orlando at 4 p.m. Irish time. Stewart's death could be marked at the Tour Championship by a minute's silence on the opening day or with players being given black ribbons to wear in memory of one of the most colourful characters in the whole of sport.

A blue ribbon was tied around Stewart's nameplate at the club yesterday and a wreath has also been laid there, while flags were put at half-mast at the US Tour headquarters in Florida.

At the Montecastillo course in Spain, where Europe's top players have gathered for the Volvo Masters, also beginning tomorrow, flags also hung at half mast.

A spokeswoman for St Andrews where, as at the home of the European Tour at Wentworth, flags also flew yesterday at half mast, said: "We have raised the Stars and Stripes along with our flag in memory of Payne. It is a very sad day for golf."

Discussions were also being held yesterday about what to do with the Grand Slam of Golf in Hawaii next month. That involves the winners of the four Major championships this season and Stewart was to have played Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal in the semi-finals.

The world number eight, a frequent and popular visitor to Europe, would have been in Spain next week for the American Express world championship at Valderrama.

Stewart, who leaves a wife, Tracey, and children Chelsea (13) and Aaron (10), was flying to Texas when the Lear jet he partly-owned apparently lost pressure and killed all those on board - Stewart, two of his management team and two pilots.

It then flew pilot-less for nearly 2,000 miles before running out of fuel and crashing in South Dakota. Fighter jets tracked it and might have shot it down if it was thought to be heading towards a populated area.

Tracey Stewart was forced to watch on television while her husband's doomed jet flew for four hours on automatic pilot, knowing he was probably dead inside.

She tried to call her husband on his cellular phone, her brother said.

"She was trying to ring him on his mobile and couldn't raise him. It's just really bad for my sister to be watching it on CNN, knowing that it was her husband on board," said Mike Ferguson, himself a professional golfer.

Stewart met Tracey Ferguson, who is from the Gold Coast, when she was travelling in Asia. They married 15 years ago. Stewart is believed to have died after the a window blew out in the Lear jet, causing immediate de-pressurisation. Jack Nicklaus said he feared one of his golf course designers, Bruce Borland, 40, also died in the crash.

Also killed were Stewart's agents, Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, and the two pilots, identified as Michael Kling, 43, and Stephanie Bellegarrigue, 27.

"It's going to be harder to concentrate this week because of this," said Montgomerie. "This is too close to home and we're all hurting.

"I was stunned when I heard last night and coming so soon after the Paddington rail crash it proves how fragile life is and how important it is to enjoy the time you have."

Montgomerie has never liked flying from the time he and his family suffered severe turbulence on a flight to Ibiza, but while not actually owning one the Scot now uses private jets just like nearly all of the world's top players.

"Our job is global and it's just the way we travel nowadays," he stated.

"I have a special deal with British Aerospace and regularly fly in either a Jetstream or Hawker Siddeley jet.

"It's like having your own plane because you get to know the pilots. For a number of years now, though, we are going to be more anxious when making trips like the one I did today.

"After our singles match in Boston Payne spoke to my wife, gave her a hug and a kiss and said he was sorry for the way the crowd behaved and that it should not have happened.

While golf mourns his passing, it also gives thanks that in the final year of his life he achieved two great ambitions - winning the US Open again and winning the Ryder Cup again.

Olazabal, who played Stewart twice in Ryder Cup singles and who paid an emotional tribute soon after hearing of his death, said yesterday that he just cannot imagine what Pebble Beach will be like next June.

That is the California course where the 2000 US Open is being staged and it will be a championship without a defending champion.

Stewart will be remembered by fans for his clothes as well as his golf - and by those who knew him best for his musical ability too. He was a fine harmonica player and guitarist.

He played in the band "Jake Trout and the Flounders" with fellow tour player Peter Jacobson, who amazingly had an air scare only last week.

Jacobson was flying to Pinehurst in North Carolina - scene of Stewart's US Open triumph in June - for a pro-am, but the British Aerospace jet's landing gear would not come down fully.

The plane was diverted to nearby Fayetteville, landed on two wheels and the left wing scraped the runway.

Fire engines had to spray the plane with foam, but none of the three people on board were injured.