GOLF ROUNDUP : Azinger Has a Blast at Memorial

Paul Azinger sank a 72nd-hole bunker shot for an improbable victory over a stunned Payne Stewart in the Memorial Tournament on Sunday at Dublin, Ohio.

Azinger went to his knees in the sand trap after one of the most dramatic triumphs in golf since Bob Tway beat Greg Norman on a similar shot in the 1986 PGA Championship.

“A miracle,” Azinger said. “The bunker shot of my life.”

“It’s part of the business,” Stewart said with a shrug.

Stewart held a one-shot lead over Azinger when the two friends, playing in the final twosome on Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club course, went to the tee on the par-four 18th. Both hit their second shots into bunkers around the green.

Stewart ran his shot some eight feet beyond the cup. Azinger faced a similar shot, but from a different angle. Any thought of making it, Azinger said, “was not really realistic.”

But that’s what he did.

The birdie pulled Azinger even and shifted the pressure onto the shoulders of Stewart, who was trying to snap a two-year run without a victory.

His eight-footer ran by the hole, and he missed coming back. A probable winner only moments earlier, Stewart, with a 74 and a 276 total, ended up in third place behind Corey Pavin, whose closing 67 put him at 275.

Azinger had a three-under-par 69 for a 14-under 274 total, and marked the seventh consecutive season in which he has won at least one tournament. The victory, the ninth of his career, was worth $252,000 from the purse of $1.4 million.

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Bob Wynn made a 22-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win the $550,000 NYNEX Commemorative at Scarborough, N.Y., his first PGA Senior Tour victory.

He shot a four-under-par 66 to finish at seven-under 203, one stroke better than Bob Charles, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Larry Gilbert.

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Jane Geddes, playing almost flawlessly, earned her first LPGA title since 1991 with a one-stroke victory in the Oldsmobile Classic at East Lansing, Mich.

She shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round at Walnut Hills Country Club to finish at 11-under 277, one shot ahead of Alice Ritzman, Trish Johnson and Tammie Green. The victory was worth $82,500.