GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Azinger, Palmer Heighten Intrigue at the 76th PGA

The 76th PGA Championship will begin Thursday in the summer heat at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., complete with better-than-usual plot lines.

They center on, in no particular order, how will Paul Azinger play in his return, how will Arnold Palmer say farewell and how long will it take for the Oklahoma sun to melt a seven-iron?

Azinger, the defending champion, will be playing in his second tournament since being treated for the cancer in his shoulder diagnosed more than eight months ago.

Azinger made his comeback last week in the Buick Open, a strategy that let him get in some golf before defending his title and also remove some of the media attention from him this week.

At the Buick Open, Azinger saved energy by limiting his practice. He hit enough balls to warm up and then iced his shoulder afterward.

Palmer is playing in his last PGA. Although it may not be as fond a goodby as his experience at the Open, Palmer lists the PGA as one of his favorite events, even though he has never won it.

In 36 years, Palmer’s best results in the PGA have been ties for second in 1964, ’68 and ’70.

Although the 76th PGA Championship hasn’t begun, preparations for the 77th are well under way.

Next year’s tournament will be held Aug. 10-13 at Riviera, which last staged the event in 1983.

To get ready, Riviera has spent more than $1.2 million on rebuilding the greens, planting new bent grass, recontouring the greenside bunkers and rebuilding tees.

Ben Crenshaw supervised the major greens work that not only included the new grass, but basically returned the greens to their original size of 1926, when architect George C. Thomas’ work was completed.

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He’s back: At a news conference Tuesday at Southern Hills, Azinger admitted he wasn’t being totally honest about something he said when things weren’t going so well.

“When I was diagnosed and after a few treatments, you know, I talked about not really caring too much about the game of golf, but deep down inside, my goal was to be healthy enough to be able to come back and play in this tournament,” he said.

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Deadline U.S.A.: A Spaniard won the Masters, South Africans won the U.S. Open and the British Open . . . notice a trend here?

American golfers are down to their last shot at the PGA--win it or get shut out of this year’s major titles.

Since the advent of the Masters in 1934, there never has been a year in which an American golfer has failed to win at least one major.

Said U.S. Open champion Ernie Els: “It will be quite a deal for you if an American doesn’t win a major this year.”

That’s an understatement.

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New old friend: Nick Faldo will take a new putter to the PGA Championship. Better make that a new, old putter.

In the Buick Open, he re-debuted a putter he last used in 1990. It sounds like a good idea.

Faldo has two top-10 finishes in eight PGA Tour events this year, and his record in the majors is sort of minor--he finished 32nd at the Masters, missed the cut at the U.S. Open, tied for eighth at the British Open.

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Pick ‘em: For what it’s worth, Golf Digest has established Nick Price as the favorite to win the PGA Championship.

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What do Palmer, Bob Hope and Gerald Ford have in common? They are all winners of the PGA Distinguished Service Award, which Palmer officially will receive today at Southern Hills.

It’s also Arnold Palmer Day today in Oklahoma, according to a proclamation issued by Gov. David Walters.

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Good team, man: Greg Norman and Price will play as a team in the sixth Franklin Funds Shark Shootout Nov. 15-20 at Sherwood Country Club.

The $1.1-million event also includes Curtis Strange in a field of 20. It benefits children’s charities, including the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and Casa Pacifica.

Details: (805) 379-2664.

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Smiling Senior: Lee Trevino has won nearly $1.1 million in seven months on the Senior PGA Tour. In more than 26 years on the regular PGA Tour, Trevino has won $3.47 million. Obviously, it pays to get old in golf.

Golf Notes

Defending champion Jill McGill, 22, of Denver is one of three former champions playing in the U.S. Women’s Amateur this week at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va. The other champions are 1973 winner Carol Semple Thompson of Sewickley, Pa., and 1958, ’61 and ’63 winner Anne Sander of Santa Barbara. . . . Defending champion John Harris of Edina, Minn., and 1991 champion Mitch Voges of Simi Valley are among 12 golfers exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championship, which will be played Aug. 22-28 at the TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Gil Gerard is the celebrity host for the City of Hope Invitational Celebrity Golf-A-Thon, on Aug. 29 at Braemar Country Club. . . . Clint Eastwood, chairman of the board of the Monterey Peninsula Golf Foundation, announced that the 1994 AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am raised $1.5 million for charity. . . . Inner-city children from the West will complete in the 14th Western States Golf Assn. junior golf tournament Thursday and Friday at Jesse Owens Par 3 on South Western, Westchester golf course on Manchester and Chester Washington golf course on 120th Street.

The Don Drysdale Hall of Fame golf tournament will be held Nov. 10-11 at Desert Falls and Rancho La Quinta. The event benefits the Boys and Girls Club of the Coachella Valley. Details: (619) 778-4300. . . . Julius Erving, James Worthy, Jerry West and Alan Thicke have said they will play in the Byron Scott Pro-Stars Celebrity golf shootout on Sept. 9 at Tustin Ranch golf club. The event benefits Southland charities. . . . The fifth McDonald’s-Maywood Lions Club charity golf tournament will be played on Aug. 26 at California Country Club in Whittier. Details: (213) 562-5014.