Azinger Pulls Foldo, Giving British Open to Steady Nick Faldo : Briton Wins Tourney in the Clubhouse as American Finishes With Two Bogeys

For those who like their golf tournament finishes dashing, flashing and hard-charging, the 116th British Open was not their cup of tea.

Sunday’s wrap-up was as quiet as last call. It was a variation on the old hare-and-tortoise theme, with no hares, three tortoises and a slow Walrus.

Slow and steady won the championship and the cash, of course. Great Britain’s own Nick Faldo shot par on all 18 holes of Muirfield to win by one stroke.

Paul Azinger, the intense American who woke up Sunday morning with a one-stroke lead, pinched himself, then bogeyed four of the last nine holes, including 17 and 18, shot a 73 and lost by a stroke.

Azinger finished in a tie with knicker-clad Australian Rodger Davis, who had started the day four strokes back of Azinger. Davis made a clutch putt in the final round, a 12-footer for a birdie on No. 17. So his round might be considered a charge of sorts, except that Davis bogeyed 15 and 16 to earn the 32nd second-place finish of his strange career.

Payne Stewart shot an erratic 70 to finish tied for fourth with Ben Crenshaw, who was three-under on the back nine for a 68.

Quietly and gradually, contenders fell by the wayside. Tom Watson (74), Craig (the Walrus) Stadler (75) and David Frost (74) took turns shooting themselves down.

In the end, there were no fireworks. It finished with Faldo waiting in the clubhouse, listening to television but not watching, as Azinger hit his approach shot to the 18th green into a bunker.

Then the PGA’s leading sand player hit a mediocre shot 27 feet short of the pin. He needed the whole nine yards to force a playoff, but the putt curled a foot short and off-line.

Faldo emerged from his shell--the clubhouse--to accept his trophy and the adulation of the crowd, which had rooted hard for the home boy, charisma or no. Steady counts in golf, and Faldo had 10 birdies and 5 bogeys in 72 holes.

“You play well and wear the other guys out,” Faldo said, summing up his style.

Even the weather was dull Sunday--a whippy and nippy wind, a misty and murky fog, but tame and playable conditions for a Scottish seaside course.

Nobody could use weather as an excuse. What, then, happened to Azinger, the 27-year-old instant superstar? Did he choke on the big one? Did he gag up the title under the first major-tournament pressure of his life?

“I don’t feel like I succumbed to the pressure,” Azinger said. “I felt in complete control and I really felt like I would win. . . . I liked the way it (the pressure of leading) felt, and I handled it well. I came out of the box like a trooper. I was not at any time any more nervous than on the PGA tour.”

He blamed the loss on his putter and on “ridiculous club selection” on the 17th, where he teed off with a driver instead of a one-iron, and landed in a bunker. He punched out of the trap sideways. He had a shot at par from 14 feet but rolled the putt four inches off-line.

Faldo, in the twosome just ahead of Azinger, needed to sink a five-foot putt to save par on 18, and calmly nailed it.

“Just hit it hard enough,” he told himself. “Don’t dribble it, and it’ll hold its line.”

Conservative golf?

“It might look conservative by the scoreboard but I think it was aggressive,” Faldo said. “It’s a tough golf course.”

OK, call it a conservative aggressiveness. Faldo even dresses conservatively. Azinger showed up for work Sunday in a bright red sweater. Davis wore his plus-twos and monogrammed socks and looked more like one of the Three Musketeers than one of the three finishers. Watson wore a bold, op-art sweater, and Stewart his knickers.

Faldo sported a quiet yellow sweater. He’s that kind of guy, a family man, an English gentleman from Wentworth, who turned a quiet 30 years old Saturday. He’s been on the European Tour since 1978 without making waves.

Faldo won a tournament in America in 1984 (the Sea Pines Heritage event), and 13 other tournaments with names like Car Care Plan International. His only win this year was at the Spanish Open, though he was second at the Deposit Guaranty Classic.

In all, a solid, steady fellow. Years ago he was considered Britain’s greatest golf hope, but that promise was never fulfilled. Until Sunday.

In 1984 he completely overhauled his swing under coach Dave Leadbetter of Florida. It was a grueling two-year project that came to fruition with Sunday’s spectacularly unspectacular round.

“I just wanted to go for it 100%,” Faldo said, quietly. “I didn’t want at the end of the day to say I threw it away.

“I didn’t look at the leader board all day. Well, I glanced at it once when he (Azinger) was one ahead. I am going to play the course and my own game. I could sense it was so close.

“If you want a crazy quote, here it is: I knew I’d do it. I knew I’d do it this week. And I knew I had to do it.”

The final round was a battle of the bunkers. Where Azinger, who considers sand shots the best part of his game, came up short on his bunker play in pressure time, Faldo was--what else?--solid.

“I had three great bunker shots, at 7, 8 and 10,” Faldo said. “The one at 8 was fantastic, a 35-yard shot and I knocked it to three feet. It was unbelievable.”

He said if someone had told him Sunday morning that an even-par round would win him the tournament, “I would probably have said no. There were great players out there. On a day like today I was sure someone would break out.”

But no one did, except in nervous hives. Azinger birdied 4, 5 and 8, with putts of 16, 8 and 15 feet, but then opened the back nine by teeing off into a bunker on 10 and the rough on 11, and narrowly missed both par-saving putts.

Watson, the five-time British Open champion who was hoping to revitalize his sagging career on his favorite turf, lost his putter somewhere in the gloaming. He blew three-footers at 2 and 3 and managed only one birdie.

Behind the front-line tortoises, there was some color. Stewart, blowing bubbles and sticking out his tongue at errant putts, played holes 7-10 in birdie-double bogey-eagle-bogey. Stadler spiked a club in anger on the 17th.

Bill Andrade, an American who recently turned pro, shot a hole-in-one on the 185-yard seventh. Frost made an more rare shot, holing out from the bunker on No. 16, on the fly .

But in the end it was Nick Faldo winning the 75,000 pounds (about $130,000), and becoming the 18th different player to win in the last 18 major tournaments.

After all the ceremonies and interviews, Faldo left the course quietly, in a golf cart with his wife.

“I just want a quiet evening,” he said, fittingly.