Sports: Azinger's finish puts Strange at ease

Azinger's finish puts Strange at ease

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer

CHASKA, Minn. -- A tie for sixth on Sunday at the Buick Open was a much-needed boost for Bradenton's Paul Azinger -- and probably for Curtis Strange, too.

Azinger had missed the cut at the Masters and U.S. Open, and withdrew from the British Open because of a back injury that has plagued him for much of the year. He hadn't had such a finish since the Match Play Championship in February. "I lost a lot of confidence in what I was trying to do," Azinger said.

And his status as one of Strange's captain's picks for next month's Ryder Cup was not looking good, though the Buick result helped change that.

"I kept telling Curtis not to worry about it, that I was fine, that it wasn't that bad," Azinger said. "I played bad most of the year. But I just said, 'Hey, just relax. I'll be there when the bell rings.' "

Typically, much is to be decided at the PGA Championship in a Ryder Cup year. It is the last tournament in which players can earn points. And the U.S. captain makes his at-large picks after the tournament.

But the 2001 Ryder Cup was postponed because of Sept. 11 and rescheduled for this year, with the same teams that qualified a year ago. The Ryder Cup is Sept. 27-29 at the Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.

Strange said there likely will be nothing to commemorate the Sept. 11 tragedy at the Ryder Cup, other than the team will still wear 2001 uniforms.

"I just don't think you have to remind people in a really loud fashion why we are playing this year. I really don't," Strange said. "Behind the scenes, I can envision it being talked about it between us. But you don't want to use that. You get to the point where are you reaping a benefit because of a terrible disaster? I never wanted to do anything like that."

NO REGRETS: At last month's British Open, Padraig Harrington missed a playoff by a stroke after bogey on the final hole. Harrington was coming off birdie at No. 17, felt he needed another at 18 to get into a playoff, played aggressively with a driver off but got into trouble and made five. He has no regrets. Harrington, 30, a winner of four PGA European Tour titles, has finished in the top 10 at all three majors this year.

"I'm putting myself under more pressure and there are some expectations," Harrington said. "I'm actually trying to play that down a bit, trying to treat this like a normal tournament. It's nice to have to deal with it. Many people might consider me as an outside chance, so that puts a certain amount of pressure on from Day 1."

DEJA VU: There are 34 players in the field who played in the 1991 U.S. Open at Hazeltine, including four who were in the top 10 -- Larry Nelson (tied for third), Fuzzy Zoeller (fifth), Scott Hoch (sixth) and Jose Maria Olazabal (tied for eighth). Others who were here 11 years ago are Azinger, Lee Janzen, Bernhard Langer, Strange, Davis Love, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Tom Watson, Nick Price, Phil Mickelson (as an amateur) and Greg Norman.

NOT SO FAST: The PGA Championship had boasted coming into the week that it had all of the top 100 players in the world ranking. That changed a bit this week when the rankings were reshuffled. Tsuneyuji Nakajimia (No. 97) of Japan and Fred Jacobson of Sweden (99) moved into the 100. Neither is playing the PGA. The tournament has 103 of the top 105 in the world.