Azinger Leads by One Over Club Pro in PGA

After two rounds of the PGA Championship, the leaders are two guys who live just 40 miles apart in Florida but who wouldn’t know each other from a hole (1 through 18) in the ground.

Paul Azinger, a lanky package of arms and legs from Bradenton, Fla., shot a 5-under-par 66 Friday at hot, muggy Oak Tree Golf Club to take a one-shot lead over Jay Overton, a surprise package from Tarpon Springs, Fla.

Azinger’s 36-hole score of 133 is just a step ahead of Overton, a club pro who clubbed his way out of obscurity with a first-round 68 and came back with an equally startling 66.

If this continues, Azinger is certain to recognize Overton, but right now, he doesn’t.

“I don’t know Jay Overton,” Azinger said.

Who could blame him? They should get to know each other today when they are paired together for the third round. Here is a clue, anyway: Overton looks like what you’d get if you crossed Tom Kite with Tim Simpson. So far, he has played like Ben Hogan.

Overton’s 36-hole score of 134 is the best by a PGA club pro in the 70 years of the PGA Championship, which by the way, no club pro has won since the format switched from match play to stroke play.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, Overton said he will be satisfied.

“By God, I finally made a cut (in the PGA),” he said. “I can hit the ball six times in the water on the first hole tomorrow and I’m still going to be happy.”

Once again, Oak Tree made a lot of golfers downright ecstatic. Forty-four players shot below par, more than in any single round in PGA Championship history. They broke the record of 31, which they had tied the day before.

Azinger, who has had problems with muscle spasms in his back, is going to be looking over his shoulder at some formidable challengers trying to run him down from behind.

Three shots behind Azinger at 136 were Raymond Floyd and John Cook. Floyd, who scored his second consecutive 68, actually thought Oak Tree could have been treated even worse.

“Personally, I don’t think the scores are all that low with the conditions we have,” he said. “I don’t call this real low scoring.”

No, real low scoring is what David Rummells did when he broke the one-day-old course record with a 64.

“At one point, I felt like I could shoot in the 50s,” he said.

Rummells shot himself into contention at 137, only four strokes behind Azinger, in a group with David Graham, Steve Jones, Tommy Nakajima and Gary Koch.

Not one of the golfers left in the field is as close to the lead as Overton, even if he does have an identity problem. When he reached the No. 16 green Friday as the leader, Overton overheard a television cameraman in the tower asking for a clue to what Overton looked like.

“He said, ‘What the hell color is he wearing?’ ” Overton said. “ ‘Which one is he?’ They had no clue which one was leading the tournament.”

Overton, who said he was just trying to keep the ball in play, bogeyed the par-3 No. 17 after his 4-iron shot was buried in a bunker.

Azinger began play just as Overton was finishing up. He birdied four of the first seven holes, including the par-4 No. 6 when his second shot, a sand wedge, landed 2 inches from the hole.

He started the back side with another birdie when he rolled in an 8-footer at No. 10. Azinger’s only bogey came at No. 15 when he found a bunker, but he got that shot back when he chipped within a foot and birdied No. 16.

Azinger has not won a major, but it took consecutive bogeys to cost him the 1987 British Open on the last two holes, the same year he was named PGA player of the year.

Overton has not won a major either. Club pros from Innisbrook Resort just don’t do that. But the same year Azinger nearly won the British Open, Overton did win the Izod International. Five years before Azinger was named player of the year, Overton was named the PGA merchandiser of the year, resort category.

“If I come in dead last or win, it’s not going to change one thing I do,” Overton said. “I’m a club pro and proud of it.”

Azinger said he felt the pressure of being in the lead but felt no problems from his back.

“It’s not a factor except when I sleep,” he said. “I’m not real comfortable on either side of my back.”

If Azinger made it look easy, others were not so fortunate. Seve Ballesteros, the newly minted British Open champion, shot a 75 and missed the cut by two strokes.

Ballesteros could have begun packing his bags after a disastrous triple-bogey 6 at No. 13 when he nearly hurt himself with his own shot.

His drive on the par-3 hole missed the green and landed at the bottom of a rock embankment. Ballesteros tried to loft the ball over the rocky wall, but instead it ricocheted back over his head and landed about 20 yards behind him.

From there, it was all uphill.

Jack Nicklaus, with a 79 and a 151 total, also missed the cut of 144, which set another PGA record. Besides Nicklaus, two of golf’s other playing icons missed the cut--Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer.

Nick Faldo (71) and Doug Tewell (68) were five shots back of Azinger, and Greg Norman led a group at 139 after he shot a 71.

“I’m still in the thick of things,” Norman said. “I’m not that far out of the lead, and there are still 36 holes to go. Many strange things can happen out there.”

Such as Jay Overton?

“Well, he must be a good player, but don’t forget that in the first two rounds, people like that can just go out and whale at it and try to make the cut,” Norman said.

“The next two days, with payday coming up, I’ll be interested to see how he holds up.”

Maybe he will hold up well. At least, Overton knows how to handle a golf club. The first time he touched one was when he was 2 years old, after Sam Snead handed it to him. Overton’s dad, a club pro in Charlotte, N.C., set up the meeting when Snead was there to play an exhibition.

Since he has grown up, Overton has had four other chances to play in the PGA Championship and missed the cut each time. But he didn’t stop dreaming.

“I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about leading a golf tournament,” he said.

Floyd said he has to respect Overton after his first two rounds.

“No, it doesn’t surprise me to see a club pro play so well,” he said. “Yes, it would surprise me if he held on and won.”