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Putter puts Azinger alone atop TPC field

The 41-year-old from Bradenton has no top-10 finishes in 2001.

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 23, 2001

PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- This is how it frequently used to be for Paul Azinger: a slew of birdie chances, a number of good putts, his name somewhere atop the leaderboard.

During a different era, in what must have seemed like a different life to him, Azinger was considered among the best. He once won tournaments in seven straight years and defeated Greg Norman in a playoff to win a PGA Championship.

Now he is known more as a cancer survivor than a major-championship winner. His victory at the Hawaiian Open was the feel-good story of 2000, yet it remains his only win since being diagnosed with lymphoma late in 1993.

So, at age 41, Azinger's flirtations with a tournament title are to be savored, not taken for granted.

His 6-under-par 66 on Thursday during the opening round of the Players Championship was Azinger's lowest of the year and put him alone at the top.

"It's all about Tiger Woods right now," Azinger said. "We all know that. We've all been minimized to a degree. Even Greg Norman has been minimized, as great as his career was and as much as he was the main guy. He's probably the best example of fleeting star power. It's all about one guy right now, and someday, somebody will replace him.

"For me, last year I played pretty well and I got my share of interviews to feed and stroke my little ego. I got to play on the Presidents Cup team and all that. But you better be aware that one day you're the man and the next day you are going to walk by all those press guys and they are not even going to look at you. I've lived it for four years, and it's nothing personal, and I totally understand."

Azinger, a 12-time tour winner who lives in Bradenton, is off to a slow start this year, with no top-10 finishes, after a 2000 season that was his best post-cancer. Azinger had seven top-10 finishes and won more than $1.5-million to rank 27th on the money list, his best finish since 1993, when he was second.

The 66 was his lowest in 49 rounds on the TPC-Sawgrass Stadium course, but just one ahead of Vijay Singh, Scott Hoch, Jonathan Kaye. Billy Mayfair, Robert Allenby and Skip Kendall were another shot back at 68. In all, 36 players broke par.

Woods was not one of them. The winner of Sunday's Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando pull-hooked his tee shot at the 18th hole into the water and made double-bogey 6. From lurking just four shots back of Azinger, Woods dropped back to par 70, in a tie for 37th.

It was at Bay Hill where Azinger produced his best tournament of the year. Despite being unable to break 70, he finally saw his putting come around and tied for 15th.

Ironically, it was the funky putter he switched to late in the 1999 season that helped propel him to victory and a strong season. Azinger was the first of a now growing number of players who uses a medium-length putter. Held with a conventional grip, the top of the putter rests on his stomach. Singh switched to the model within months of his Masters victory last year.

"It's not foolproof by any means, but it helped me," Azinger said. "If you look at my statistics last year versus 1999, there was a huge improvement. I hit a lot of putts with the short putter a couple of weeks ago, just messing around, and clearly I was better with the long putter."

Azinger began his round with three birdies, then birdied three in a row starting at No. 8. From there, he parred in, making no bogeys.

"This is clearly the strongest field assembled all year, there's no arguing that," Azinger said. "It (winning) would be a nice feather. Very difficult course to win on. Takes moxie. There's a lot of good players, the list of champions that have won this tournament. ... Azinger's would fit in nicely.

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