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Bradenton's Azinger finishes bogey-bogey, and Clearwater's Huston makes seven on 17.
By BOB HARIG
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 19, 2001
DULUTH, Ga. -- The punishing finishing holes at the Atlanta Athletic Club can take a toll at the PGA Championship. Two Tampa Bay area players will attest.
Bradenton's Paul Azinger and Clearwater's John Huston were looking to put themselves in position Saturday for a run at the title today. But their hopes were all but gone by the time they walked off the course.
Huston followed double bogey at the 16th hole with quadruple bogey at the 17th. Azinger's slip was more subtle, but just as damaging -- bogeys at the 17th and 18th knocked him from contention. "I'm a little disappointed, obviously," said Azinger, who finished with 69 and was tied for seventh, eight shots behind third-round leader David Toms. "I hit it good, I just missed a bunch of putts. I feel like I let a great chance get away. I had a real good opportunity."
Azinger, who won the 1993 PGA Championship at Inverness and is in position to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team, missed makeable birdie putts at the second and fifth holes but was within two shots of the lead after a birdie at the 11th.
Then he saw four good birdie opportunities pass.
"I'm hitting it better every day, that's the only encouraging thing," Azinger said. "But if you're not going to make the putt ... it just gets harder and harder. I know if my putter was hot, it would be a lot different scenario for me."
After missing all those opportunities, Azinger's first three-putt came at the par-3 17th. That seemed to take the steam out of him, and he missed the fairway at No. 18, forcing him to lay up, leading to another bogey.
It comes as no consolation, but the 15th, 17th and 18th holes ranked as the three most difficult during the third round.
Huston was a somewhat surprise contender after a lackluster summer that saw him miss five cuts in eight tournaments. But after opening with rounds of 67-68 and birdieing two holes on the front nine, he was in the thick of the tournament. Even after bogey at No. 9, he was within sight of the leaders and was 6 under par for the tournament through 15 holes.
Then he three-putted the 16th for double bogey. And his 4-iron approach to the 17th green found the water and led to quadruple-bogey 7.
"I wasn't playing very well, but I was hanging in there pretty well," said Huston, who shot 41 on the back nine, finished with 75 and dropped to 210 and into a tie for 43rd.
"It was just more of the same. That's how this year has gone. It was just a matter of time. Certainly, the difficulty of the holes had something to do with it. But in other years in that situation, I mis-hit that ball on 17 and the wind doesn't pick up enough to knock it in the water. It's on the green instead of in the water.
"This year, it seems every time there is a situation like that, something crazy happens. Boom, 6 over in two holes."