Azinger Reveled in It--Collapse and All

I think you’re going to like this guy.

In a sport where players tend to view their job in the same romantic light as a tool-and-die worker, Paul Azinger pictures himself as a Mick Jagger or Sir Laurence Olivier with a sand wedge.

“I enjoyed being center stage,” Azinger said Sunday, after blowing the British Open at Muirfield with bogeys on the 17th and 18th holes. “I wanted to play in front of everybody in the whole world, and I was, and I played my butt off for 70 holes.”

So that’s what happened to it. Azinger is a long-legged and Jagger-lean 6-foot-2.

Not to de-glorify Azinger’s crowd count, but a few people in the whole world probably missed the show. Still, the Florida flash did a splendid job this weekend of introducing himself to the golf fans of the world.

He played a great 70 holes, then his game went into the loo.

“I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me,” Azinger said in the press tent. “I’ve had a great year. It’s not the end of the world. I lost a chance to win a great title, but I’ve proven I could play with anyone in the world. I’ve proven I’m one of the best wind players in the world. I’ve proven I’m a contender.”

Right there it would have been a nice effect if he’d been carried off on a stretcher.

Instead, the kid--he’s 27, but looks 20--stuck around to pour out his heart some more, to anyone who would listen.

He said the cheers from the pro-Nick Faldo gallery when Azinger landed in the sand on No. 18 didn’t bother him. It was so un-golf-like a reaction from the crowd that tournament chairman Alister Low publicly rebuked the fans afterwards, saying, “I’m sorry about the unsporting reception that Paul Azinger received at the second shot on the 18th hole.”

Hey, Azinger can relate to a little emotional involvement.

“They were pulling awful hard for Nick and I can’t blame them,” he said

Azinger talked about how he felt when he missed the putt that would have sent him into overtime with Faldo.

“I wanted so hard to hold my head up, I wanted to pause and try to gather myself,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘I just lost.’

“The three tournaments I’ve won, nobody lost. I won . I made a 25-footer (on the 18th) in Vegas to win $225,000. I made an eight-footer at Hartford (on the 18th) to win by one shot. I don’t choke . . .

“If you’re afraid of center stage, you’re nowhere. I used to be afraid of it. Last year I just decided I wanted to learn not to be afraid. Right now I’m proud to say I’m not afraid to win. I just let it get away . . . It was my golf tournament to win or lose.”

Last year Azinger was 29th on the PGA money list, with zero tour wins. This year he’s No. 1 on the cash list. Besides winning at Las Vegas and Hartford, he also won Phoenix.

From off-Broadway, he’s suddenly playing lead roles on the biggest stages in the golf world. And enjoying it.

Other players come to the press tent and discuss golf strokes and technical aspects of their game. Azinger stops by to level his sincere gaze at the press and talk about the way he feels .

He would have loved the BBC telecast of Sunday’s round. The BBC chaps were so fervently yet discreetly pulling for Faldo, the Britisher. They continually described his shots as “lovely” and “courageous.”

With Azinger, the announcers repeatedly speculated on how the poor lad might finally choke this one away. When Azinger teed off on No. 18, one announcer said, in a voice devoid of all sincerity, “I wish him luck.”

And surely Azinger appreciated the last theatrical touch of the afternoon. As his caddie, Kevin Woodward, was walking off the course at the end of Sunday’s round, a man approached and said:

“Tell Paul that the first time I played this course, 27 years ago, I bogeyed the last two holes to lose the tournament.”

The man was Jack Nicklaus, who overcame that shaky finish in that long-ago amateur tournament to go on to a decent career.

Exit, stage right, Nicklaus, caddie and Azinger. Fade the spotlight. Drop the curtain.