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Azinger Ready To Lead Way

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

TAMPA - The 37th Ryder Cup begins Friday at Valhalla Golf Club outside Louisville, Ky., and American golf is sweating bullets. Three in a row and five of the past six biennial competitions have been won by Europe. And the foreign squad is again a lopsided favorite.

There are various theories, including that the Americans' failures in recent years can be traced to an inability to put away the "me-first" attitude of a spoiled PGA Tour pro to play for a team, they are overwhelmed by the pressure they put on themselves and choke their guts out, or they're simply not as good as they think they are.

Now, the American team arrives without the world's No. 1 player. Tiger Woods sits at home recovering from surgery and unsure when he will pick up a golf club again after winning the U.S. Open in June on one leg.

It sure is a good thing America has its secret weapon.

Ladies and gentlemen, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger is at the podium.

Q: Can anything other than a win be regarded as a success for you?

Azinger: "Well, I mean, what do you think?"

Q: I'd like you to say it?

Azinger: "Say what?"

Q: What do you think.

Azinger: "About what?"

Q: My question.

Azinger: "What was the question again?"

Q: Can anything other than a win be regarded as a success?

Azinger: "What do you think?"

Q: I'm not paid to be Ryder Cup captain.

Azinger: "I'm not paid, either. Next question."

Make no mistake. Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry and Boo Weekley are among the golfers on the U.S. team. But, if the United States wins the three-day competition, Azinger, a longtime Bradenton resident, will be its star.

Who better - in an election year, no less - to lead a downtrodden, underdog American squad than a flag-waving, politically opinionated, Rush Limbaugh-listening, son of a career military man with emotions hanging from his sleeve?

"Just representing your country, I think, is a huge honor," Azinger said. "It's about as good as it gets. Dying for your country is a huge honor as well. I never had to go to any wars or anything like that. So I just think this is an honor.

"That was one of the great things in '89 as a player for the first time, a great realization when you are there. They are playing the national anthem and they are raising the flag. It's the first realization that you are actually representing your country. I was real proud of that."

In golf, Azinger always has enjoyed the popular vote.

Paul William Azinger, born Jan. 6, 1960, won 11 PGA Tour titles including the 1993 PGA Championship in a career that was successful but shortchanged.

The former Florida State Seminole spent almost 300 weeks in the Top 10 of the official World Golf Rankings between 1988 and 1994, but just when he appeared to be reaching a career peak he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"My shoulder hurt off and on for three years," he said. "Even at the PGA, I could barely put my scorecard in my back pocket my shoulder hurt so bad. I knew something was wrong. ... It changed my life completely; I've never been the player that I was at that time."

An avid poker player, who competed at the 2006 and 2008 World Series of Poker, Azinger did not fold. After surviving the disease, he won the Sony Open in 2000 for his first tournament victory in seven years.

He is smart and likable - one of the most popular players on tour - but with a caustic and unmuffled edge about him. He can throw down an attitude with the best of them - see his Ryder Cup playing career when going against Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo - yet, he is deep enough emotionally to have given a remarkable eulogy at the funeral of good friend Payne Stewart following his death in a plane crash in 1999.

It is a personality vista - from hard-boiled to over easy - that should serve Azinger well this week.

"You might see both," Azinger said. "Heck, I don't know what my personality is going to be like. I may cellophane everybody's toilet seats before the matches start. I don't know.

"I'm just going to be myself. I think my emotions, or style, whatever it is, is just going to be depending on the makeup of team and the situation. I'm the captain, not the coach. You can't rule with an iron fist like you have been coaching them for two years. I'm just going to figure out who wants to play with who and let's go get 'em."

Dave Stockton, who captained the U.S. to victory in 1991 - a team Azinger played on - will serve as an assistant to Azinger this week, and he has an idea what to expect.

"He does not like to lose," Stockton said. "He will tell you like he thinks. What's on his mind. I'll try to control him to some extent, because I know he will get too excited. He just gets all fired up and ready to go, and we got to go take 'em out, the whole nine yards. Which is fine, because he cares."

Azinger's passion for the job was enough to convince the PGA of America to allow him to reconstruct the qualifying criteria to his liking. Also, instead of two captain's picks, Azinger was allowed four. And he has been actively involved in the setup of the Valhalla course, demanding it play to the Americans' strengths.

"It's just a different captain's way of going about what he believes is the best way to position our team towards a positive outcome, and I've got to be honest with you, I'm excited about Paul Azinger," PGA of America president Brian Whitcomb said. "I'm excited about Paul and his strategy of what he's doing."

Next question.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.

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