Paul Azinger - Part 2 (Early Tour Wins)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Let me take you back to something you mentioned, Paul, because I'm sure our listeners had their interest peaked when you talked about career influences. You mentioned a couple. Crenshaw Trevino with the shut face thing. Tell us a little bit more about what you're talking about. Just give us a couple of examples of those influences.

Paul Azinger 0:31

Well, uh around the greens, you know, I played with Crenshaw and Sevy after I lost the British Open in 87. We played at PJ National. And there was no first cut or rough in 1987 down there. It was either fairway or three inches. And every fairway I missed, I made I missed the green. And every green I missed, I made Bogear double. I didn't get one up and down. I double chipped. It was a disaster. And and I'm playing with Sevy and Crenshaw, the two greatest short game artists I'd ever seen. And I I I'd kind of I hadn't given up, but I was in the 80s both days, and I think, and I remember just with arms folded, watching Crenshaw and thinking, there's no way I'm getting this up and down. I don't know how to do it. And he pitched it in there, gimme. And then Savvy would get in a spot, and I have my arms folded over there thinking, No way. I don't think I know how to get that up and down. I swear to God, this was in 1987 now. And I you know who helped me first off was Dennis Watson. I saw him a couple weeks later. And he I had a ping sandwich, the one I hold all the bunker shots with.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Right.

Paul Azinger 1:35

And I kept it in the bag, but I added an a 60 degree, a 59 degree after being with Dennis Watson at Hilton Head chipping around. And um turns out that the club I hold all those bunker shots with had about 55 degrees of loft. Which is a standing, really. He said he said to me, There's no way in hell you're gonna be able to hit a decent chip shot. You you can you got not enough loft. He said, This is the worst sandwich I've ever seen. And I didn't know. And we're talking about, you know, later in your career, '87, I was the player of the year in 1987. And I didn't know how to, and I had a 55-degree sandwich. Think about that, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 2:13

Yeah, that's wow. So it's amazing.

Paul Azinger 2:15

Yeah, I learned so Dennis Watson got he flipped me into getting the 60-degree wedge, which I did, and uh Crenshaw won me on on my bag, smoking a cigarette, watched me chip and pitch for two hours one day, him and Redmond, and he changed my life. And then Trevino, the same thing back in Colonial early on. Trevino taught me stuff about how to curve the ball, when not to do this. You know, uh it's just it's invaluable stuff. Invaluable stuff. Hale Irwin, Raymond Floyd, Andy Bean helped me so much, it's incredible. And I had my Andy Bean technique. You know, I think I was halfway decent at trying to imitate what I thought they looked like and being able to produce a result that they were getting. Crenshaw taught me how to hit a pitch to where you could read the logo on the ball and it's spun perfectly straight. Not that side spinny thing. He taught me how to pitch it where you could read the logo on the ball. Holy cow.

Bruce Devlin 3:16

Interesting.

Mike Gonzalez 3:17

Very interesting. I remember our talk with Tom Watson, and he talked about the same thing about trying to get better with chipping and pitching. And he said at some point, I don't know where he picked it up, but he had he had somebody sort of cutting across the ball, right? Cutting across the ball. He tried that a few times and he said, boom, from that moment on, I just felt like I could chip everything in.

Paul Azinger 3:41

I remember Watson did a little commercial and talked about his right knee moving forward. And um, that was in 1988, and that's I remember thinking every chip shot to make sure my right knee went forward as I pitched the ball out of this Bermuda Rough at the PJ Championship. Uh, and I ended up losing to Sluman that year when he shot 65 on Sunday. But I was thinking about Watson and what Watson said. So, you know, the influences are incredible, aren't they? Things that we launched on to.

Mike Gonzalez 4:13

Yeah, let's uh let's go back to life on the road, then we'll recap your your record a little bit. But uh you mentioned uh you mentioned the uh the motorhome. Was that the 1983 Vogue?

Paul Azinger 4:24

It was. It was, it was a 1977 Vogue or 19, but we bought it in '83. It wasn't brand new, so if it was in the book, it was written wrong. Um, but it was a Vogue mini motorhome. And today, enthusiasts, they don't they've never even heard of that brand. I don't know what happened to it, but we loved it. We had a cat named Cleo that we bought in uh at the BC Open at the mall in Binghamton. Uh you remember that? We bought a cat named Cleo, and that cat lived with us in the motorhome for four years. Played the mini tours and lived in Orlando and really the Sheridan Twin Towers parking lot, and uh played the JC Goosey Mini Tours. There were great times. I remember one time up at we were on the turnpike up in New Jersey or New York somewhere, and we got on the turnpike and we're cruising along and get to the toll booth, and the motorhome doesn't fit in the toll booth, and uh we had missed the sign. I was I was driving, missed the sign where we weren't allowed on there. There's no way to go but backwards. So I was on the shoulder and went backwards in this motorhome, looking in my mirror for a couple miles before I got back to the exit. One of the scariest things ever. We had all kinds of stuff happen. My wife was driving at one time, leaving Durral, went through the toll booth and it didn't fit, and just ripped the awning right off the side of the whole thing. It was a great time though. Great times of our life we're living in that camper. And uh, but we finally, when she started, when she got pregnant with Sarah Jean, our our first daughter, she had her in December of 85. We finally got out of there. I got a deal, uh and we lived in a villa in Bradenton, a parish, a town called Parish, at River Wilderness. And I wore this logo on my hat for five years for$25,000 a year. And at the time I probably could have been getting about two or three hundred thousand a year, but I had signed this five-year deal and I was trapped, so I just I just did it.

Mike Gonzalez 6:30

Days on the Road, Curtis Strange uh tells us that uh his budget, he and Sarah's budget for hotels back in the day was eighteen dollars a night.

Paul Azinger 6:40

Yeah, well, Curtis had the reputation for having short arms, deep pockets.

Mike Gonzalez 6:45

Deep pockets and those alligator, alligator arms, uh, at the at the dinner table.

Paul Azinger 6:54

That's right. But uh, I'll tell you this, and at the Houston Open in 1984, my wife and I stayed at a Motel 6, and it was but at the time I think they were Motel 12s. Remember, they went up to like$12.99. And you still had to pay like three dollars to get the key to the television. But when uh I opened the door the next morning to go to the course, I couldn't open the door, and I looked over the air conditioner out the window, and there was a dude laying there um blocking the door, and he was dead or passed out. I didn't know. I so I called the front desk and I said, There's a dead man stretched across my front door, and they it was just a homeless guy. We were right in a homeless area, and it was a homeless guy just passed out drunk. I couldn't open the door. So that that was you know, remember, I remember we had some hairy situations on our tour, places that we stayed back in the day. Scott and Sally Hoke were actually tied up and robbed in their hotel. Uh an incredible story. And uh Scott never talks about it, but what a horrifying thing for both of them. And we always we stayed in places we shouldn't have been, I think a lot of us. The tour didn't help that much with accommodations, and if you didn't know what you were doing back then, you could have ended up in a scary spot. Well, I did it at Riviera at my rookie year. I flew out to LA and landed at 11 o'clock at night. I had a couple hundred dollars with me and was had to qualify at LA North for the Riviera tournament. And I went out of that place right past nude, nude, nude, right into Anglewood, into the worst section. But I went into LA and and I couldn't get in a hotel room because no one would break a hundred dollar bill. And so I went into a 7-Eleven and I walked in there, and there was an empty cash door on the counter, and this guy came out white as a sheet. Somebody had just put a gun to his head, and I he must have walked out as I pulled in. There's so many little things, you know, back then. We stayed in some scary spots in the early 80s.

Mike Gonzalez 9:01

Uh Sarah Strange, one time she walks into a room. This is a room with red uh shag carpeting, crushed velour pillows, and I don't know if it was the maid or somebody approaches her in the room and says, Young lady, does your mother know who you where you are?

Paul Azinger 9:17

I believe it.

Mike Gonzalez 9:18

And she says, What well, yeah, as a matter of fact, I just talked to her, and turns out uh as as Curtis said, this place was this place was rented by the hour.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Mike Gonzalez 9:32

And he was probably at the golf course, you know.

Paul Azinger 9:34

You know, we were all it's a naive generation that came out in the 70s and 80s. You know, the internet now, it's I I mean, you almost wish for some naivety for the young folks now. Everybody knows everything.

Mike Gonzalez 9:50

So who'd you travel with back then? Did you have some friends that you would try to travel with on a of either a Friday night or a Sunday night or a Monday morning?

Paul Azinger 9:59

Or No, my wife traveled with me every week until the kids got to school age. She homeschooled for a while, and uh I never hung. I roomed with Ronnie Black one time pretty much and didn't really like being rooming with anybody. I didn't want to hear their round. I didn't want to tell them mine, and that was kinda I just never did it.

unknown 10:23

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 10:24

I had plenty of friends, so don't get me wrong. We all hung out, but I never traveled with anybody. But on the road, practice rounds, you know, I played a lot with Kalkovecki and Ken Green. And I played a lot of practice rounds with Raymond and Lanny. Um you know, you want to play with players. Oh my god, that was all money games.

Bruce Devlin 10:45

Play for all money games.

Paul Azinger 10:48

That's but that's good, isn't it?

Bruce Devlin 10:51

Absolutely. That's the way to do it.

Mike Gonzalez 10:54

Something on the line.

Paul Azinger 10:56

That's what Mickelson does every Tuesday, and he's dragging these guys in there. And you know, he might he might get fleeced once in a while, but I really believe Mickelson's trying to instill something in in these younger guys. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 11:10

Well, let's let's uh let's recap your your record uh briefly for our listeners. Uh for Paul Azinger in his professional days. 16 professional wins, including 12 PGA tour victories, uh two wins on the European Tour, uh, the 1990 and 1992 BMW International Open, both in playoffs, by the way. Uh highest world ranking, fourth in 1993. And Paul spent nearly 300 weeks in the top 10 on the tour. That's a pretty good record right there.

Paul Azinger 11:39

Well, world rankings when we were playing was a it was owned by IMG at the time. And uh when I was fourth, you know, I mean I should have been one. I wasn't maybe the best player, but I was damn sure the hottest player. I had 11 top threes in ten months, and I'd won four tournaments. The Tour Championship at Pinehurst, Jacks Tournament, and the PGA. And I went from like seventh to fourth in the World Rank. I mean, a few years ago, Luke Donald won five tournaments in five years and was number one in the world. I'm like, I won four tournaments in eleven months, and the three biggest, and it was just a terrible system. I would love to have been able to say, Oh, yeah, I was number one on the world rankings, but I look at it now like the world rankings really only recently, probably within the last 10 or 15 years, has been worth a darn. And um I agree with you. Yeah, when I wasted my time on the player advisory council on tour, I think the one argument that I always tried to make was that the world ranking was IMG. Why are we starting to use it to exempt players into fields? And I hated that. I said players should know on their own based on their own merit how they got in, not based on some world ranking system that you know, if you take three weeks off, you move up, and if you finish third in a week, you move back because you finished second the year before. It was a terrible system. It probably still has flaws for the guys on the bubble. I'm sure they don't like it either. But um, it's better than it was. It's probably pretty accurate now. It's hard to argue, really. Anyone on that world ranking that shouldn't be there, but I I could have been I could have been up there. I could have been a little higher than that. We all think that way, you know, but it's okay. It's one of those things.

Mike Gonzalez 13:28

Let me let me guess. You weren't represented by Mark McCormick.

Paul Azinger 13:32

No, I wasn't IMG. And if you weren't, you weren't gonna be there. You just weren't gonna ever be number one, and that's fine. That was the way it worked, and it was really in the end, it was very what a visionary he must have been to uh see the light, see Arnold and Jack as the way they would be. And you know, I think for for them to create that world ranking is just a stroke of genius.

Mike Gonzalez 13:55

Well, uh the devil was in that stable early on, too, so it was the the big three of the devil playing a lot of exhibitions back in the early 60s.

Bruce Devlin 14:03

Yeah, well, and uh we also had uh Bob Charles and uh who else was in there? Casper. Casper was in there for a while. Ormal movie? I mean, did you ever get Orbal? Uh I don't know, because I I I wasn't in there very long. I had a uh I had a sort of a falling out with uh with the group, uh which I probably don't need to go into, but uh uh the early part of my career with with IMG was great because I played a lot of exhibitions with Arnold and Jack, and uh I mean I mean that was that was that in itself was worth it, you know. Oh yeah. Fly into La Trobe and and play five exhibitions during the week week with Arnold and live with him is was you know, I mean that was reading reading about those guys when I was a kid in Australia and then have the chance to uh because I I I've known Jack since the 19 since 1960 when we both played in the amateur. And uh so you know that was I mean, how many chances do you get like that, you know?

Paul Azinger 15:13

Well, you know, and then you got Dow Fensterwald and and Rothburg back then, those guys you got to play with. You had to play with some greats. Uh the guys that when I got on tour, you know, there was no champions tour, no senior tour. So I ran into those guys still. Sneed would still play. So it was really cool. Now they jump ship by the time they turn 50, they're out of there. And uh I think it's a kind of the tour lost a little bit of its charm when that champions tour showed up, I think.

Bruce Devlin 15:47

The uh I I played quite a bit with with Sneed as well, and uh uh I I've had a lot of nicknames, but uh uh he had a special nickname for me. He never called me Bruce, he never called me Devil. Uh he used to say, Rui. Okay, Rui, you gotta turn in the barrel. Turn in the barrel, Rui.

Paul Azinger 16:09

Percy Boomer, baby. That's what he told you.

Bruce Devlin 16:13

Yeah, that's what he told me. Yeah, Rui, turn in the barrel.

Paul Azinger 16:17

That's what Redmond taught me. Turn in the barrel. Is that a big bar?

Bruce Devlin 16:22

Absolutely.

Paul Azinger 16:23

Yeah. And Sneed Sneed taught Redmond. I said that at the beginning of this thing. Sneed really taught Redmond, yeah, and uh it was turning turning a barrel, and uh Sneed watched me hit balls a lot, and Byron Nelson watched me hit a lot of balls. You know who I hit a lot of balls in front of is Mo Norman. That was quite a sight to behold to watch Mo Norman hit balls. What a what a ball striker he was. Wow. Little strike our generation, I think we we all wanted to be great ball strikers, didn't we? That that was kind of what you prided yourself in, like ball striking. Yeah. I didn't mean Jack. All that all that matters is if you could score.

Bruce Devlin 17:01

Yeah, right. Put that put that number on the card. That's it all that matters.

Mike Gonzalez 17:06

Wasn't Mo a bit of a savant?

Paul Azinger 17:10

Well, I think he yeah, he had some issues there, but Mo was well, I met Mo when I was 18 years old and watched him hit on Redmond's range and uh, you know I'm trying to think. He he said, Oh, he he said about me. He loved my swing. He says, Everyone swings around the course, you swing through it because of my finish. I would finish out in front. He'd have loved like a Tommy Fleetwood style or that tiger pinch shot, you know, the stinger he hits. And that's how Mo says, Everyone swings around the the course, I swing through it. So he was straight up, straight at the target, and you know, right hand in the right hip pocket. He had, you know, used to have blood on his ankle when he was a kid, on the inside of his right ankle. You know, if you haven't ne ever watched Mo Norman hit, you should. It's the real deal. And Trevino's the real deal. Any footage or anything you can hear from Trevino, you gotta take it in.

Bruce Devlin 18:11

Yeah, yeah. Well, rank bull striking ranking for me was Hogan 1, Trevino 2. Bull Travis. There you go.

Paul Azinger 18:22

Hogan Trevino.

Bruce Devlin 18:24

That's what I think, Hogan Trevino.

Paul Azinger 18:27

Yeah, I I think yeah, for me, I I didn't catch, you know, I mean Trevino was just something that was to you just could listen to it. And then he would chatter his way around, he'd crawl in, he looked like he was in a different spot every time. But it was a sight to behold, really. I miss Jack in his prime and Wisecoff and some of those guys, but uh I think for us for me, watching like Ian Woosnum hit balls or Jose Maria hit balls, or even Ballasteros hit balls was a sight to behold. Faldo never impressed me, but he had great distance control. And and but he never hit a shot that would like blow you away. Uh Greg Norman was the best driver of the ball I've ever seen in my life by a mile.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 19:18

Um and uh probably was an underachiever because he wasn't the best wedge player, maybe. Um but what a driver of the golf ball. I I felt like Nick Price probably hit as many good shots as I've ever seen in my life. You know, I'm naming off so many international players, right? I'm not naming a lot of American golfers that that blew me away, but uh Tiger did. I remember hit picking up my balls one time. I was hitting balls on the range at Mirfield Village. I wasn't playing well. It was about 98 or 9, 90, probably 98, 99, maybe. And I listened to Tiger hit a few nine irons and I I watched it and then I just said to my caddy, I said, let's let's let's go over there. What's the matter? I said, That just is hurting my confidence. It was better, it was just something better about it. I didn't, you know, the ball went out, you know, he had the Nike logo, it went out like that Nike swoosh, didn't it, like a check mark.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 20:23

And then it came down like that. Spectacular. So uh that blew me away. He wasn't the most accurate player, but but there was you can say what you want. Tiger didn't hit it great. He he led Greens in regulation every year. He didn't drive it great, buddy. If he needed to hit the fairway on a par five that was reachable, it was in that fairway. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 20:45

Yeah, I I had that same thing happen to me with the name. I'm not sure that you would remember it, but there was used to be a guy on the tour by the name of Paul Bunderson. Do you remember his name? I don't. He uh he could hit uh he could hit it so good. Never, you know, never really had a great career. Uh but I wouldn't practice next to him. It was intimidating, you know?

Paul Azinger 21:11

Yeah, yeah. There's certain guys that are like that. You know, Chad Campbell hit it that that way. Guys that you know just weren't dominant superstars that were great. There were so many of them that that hit it just ridiculous, but they didn't have that short game or whatever that magic intangible is that we all want to put our finger on. There's just something uh that these guys will have a gift that can score. And they put that ball striking together with with that. Nick Price was unbelievable. I mentioned him trying to think of top Americans. Freddie, I don't think Freddie Couples ever missed a sweet spot to tell you the truth. Uh he's a lot like Watson, you know. Watson didn't always hit it where he was looking, but damn sure it was solid. Yeah, it sure was. I asked Bruce uh Edwards one time. You know, not to trash Greg Norman, it's not the point, but to kind of prop up how great Watson was You know, if if uh I said, What was the difference, you know, 'cause he caddied for both of them.

Bruce Devlin 22:11

Both of them.

Paul Azinger 22:11

What was the difference between those two guys? And he had already gone back to Watson at this point. And he left mad at Greg, so but he said, you know, he said the difference in those two guys, he said if Greg hit it in a divot, he'd say, I'm the unluckiest guy out here. And he said, if Watson hit it in a divot, he'd grab the club and say, Watch this, Bruce. Alright, there you go. There you go. And that, you know, it's it's attitude, isn't it? Yes, it is.

Mike Gonzalez 22:35

Yeah, it reminds me of uh something Tom uh who who told us the story, Bruce, uh, about Watson uh and what somebody learned from Watson in a bunker. He said uh there's there's three things that can happen when you get in a bunker and they're all good. He said you can hit a bad bunker shot and make the putt save the par. And he said you can hit a great bunker shot and tap it in for a par, or you can hold it.

Paul Azinger 23:01

I've heard him say that before. I can't remember who I don't know I I don't know. I remember Watson saying it only takes one good shot a hole to make a par. Bad drive, good second.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 23:17

Bad second, good chip. Yeah. Bad chip, good putt. Yeah. One good shot a hole, make a par. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 23:23

You talk about players that had an impact on your Bruce. Uh uh Billy Casper had an impact on you at one point, didn't he?

Bruce Devlin 23:29

Oh, he yeah. I'll tell Zing that story. I I played the uh back back in the day when you played 36 holes on Saturday. Uh I was playing the Western Open, paired last last pairing with Billy Casper, and I watched 36 holes of some of the greatest ball striking you've ever seen. I went back to the motel on the that night and I said to Gloria, my wife, I said, you know, I'm not sure I'm in the right game. He was uh he was a great player. I guess you probably didn't get to see much of him, did you, Zing?

Paul Azinger 24:06

No, I missed Billy Casper, unfortunately. I got to know him pretty well. I really liked him, but I never got to really watch Billy Casper sit there and beat boss. Um I got you knew who I got to watch hit balls was Orville Moody, and uh he blew me away. Yeah, he's a good guy named Dale Douglas was better than I thought. Yeah, you know. I and then he got out on a senior tour, won the U.S. uh senior open. Um Dumble D. I got to I played with Wisecoff, you know, those guys, it was such a different sport in the just the way of thinking and how players, you know, they held stuff tight to the vest. You know, it was hard to get great information from guys unless you really knew them well. Um nowadays it's like nobody wants to make anybody mad. I think that's why Brooks and Bryson having a feud is interesting because these guys are all so busy brand building, nobody wants to look like a jerk. Yeah. So uh it's just different.

Bruce Devlin 25:04

You think the forty million dollar bonus deal for the players is has anything to do with that?

Paul Azinger 25:13

Probably. It really irritates me. You know, um the tour was gonna have first place be 25 million at the tour championship, and um for some reason they backed it back, they they kept it at 15. So what are we gonna do with this extra 10 million? You know, I mean, I know we're on a podcast and everything, and I I could go straight to Jay Monaghan because I know him well enough, but you know, those I wish that 10 million would would help somebody like Ed Fiore who just had his heart transplanted, you know, he he could use it. He beat Tiger down the stretch when Tiger first got on tour at Quad Cities. Um guys like there's a lot of guys that if you really dug back that are still alive that could you could get those 10 guys or eight guys you're gonna give 10 million to and say, hey, look, here's what we decided we might want to do with this. And I guarantee every one of those guys say go for it. I don't need the money. Um but they don't they're not thinking like that. I don't I don't you know who's building the bru player's brand too, the broadcasters. You know, are we supposed to walk down the range with our pocket open saying, hey, I can say something nice about you or bad about you? I can build your brand or destroy your brand. I it's I think it has uh there's be unintended consequences, probably. Maybe not, but it could be the money could be used more wisely than just dumping it to the top eight guys that self-promote the best. Tiger's gonna be the number one draw. Why would you give him all the money? Just give give it to Arnold's foundation.

Mike Gonzalez 26:40

Yeah. You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Let's talk about uh uh some of your wins on PGA Tour. Obviously, the the big one, which we'll get to uh at some point, is uh is your 1993 win at uh Inverness in the PGA Championship. But uh uh you you mentioned earlier your your first win at Phoenix, uh, which is a great tournament run by uh a philanthropic organization called the Thunderbirds. Uh this is played at the stadium course at TPC Scottsdale. Your first win was by one over Hal Sutton.

Paul Azinger 27:14

Yep, it was. And uh, thank my caddy Billy Poor for that one. I think all my wins were I think I might have had three or four wins that were more than one shot. But when you win by one, you had a lot you had some help. So uh that was important. I remember holding a bunk or hitting a great bunker shot on the on the 16th hole and making about a 15 or 18 footer. Um that 16th hole was scary then, um, and it was already it was already wild. The first year they played. And that was the first year they had yeah, and it was already a wild place. They had already picked their spot and it is iconic now that spot. But yeah, I beat Hal Sutton that year, which was to me, he was my hero as a player in college and all that. He was a superstar, he was intimidating. He'd already won a major, you know. Um, he was the next Nicholas, and I I clipped him there. And I ended up beating Curtis and Hal again in May that year. I eagled the last hole in Vegas to beat those guys. Um, which was you know, that when you beat those two dudes, you know, and you idolize them and you know that they're grizzled because Curtis was player of the year in 85 and leading the money less with him and Dennis Watson and Hal's the man. And all of a sudden, I'm just this pooch that's only broken 70 for about five, four years, you know. Now I'm I'm taking down Curtis in a play, you know, be making Eagle in a last hole to be Curtis and Howe. Holy cow.

SPEAKER_04 28:43

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 28:44

That blew me away that one day.

Mike Gonzalez 28:46

What was the attendance like that first time that uh they had the tournament in Phoenix uh at the at the stadium course?

Paul Azinger 28:52

Uh on Saturday, there was 108,000 there on Saturday. And then Super Bowl Sunday was you know 50,000, 60,000, something like that. But yeah, there was already enormous, enormous crowds. Hartford brought them in like that too back in the day.

Mike Gonzalez 29:09

Yeah, and we'll we'll talk they did we'll talk about Hartford too. Uh uh, but this this particular tournament, largest attendance of any golf event on the planet, and uh I'm sure most of our listeners are familiar with what Paul's talking about with the Coliseum, as it's now called, the the 16th whole par three, which is pretty much built like a stadium now, isn't it?

Paul Azinger 29:29

It's fantastic. I I love the fact that they've created that environment. Um I didn't like it this year as much or the year before. It was so closed off that the public couldn't get in there. It was all it was so corporate. Um I don't know, you I don't want to cut out the little man. You know, let him in there and see what the heck that's all about. Yeah. Remember when uh I think Vince Gill made a hole in one there to win a family a house? There's been so much history there. Tiger's hole in one was so cool.

SPEAKER_04 29:57

Yeah, yeah.

Paul Azinger 29:58

It's an iconic place, they've created a heck of an environment, and uh I feel that as a spectator, it's probably uh one of the most anticipated spots down the stretch of any regular tour event.

Mike Gonzalez 30:13

Yeah.

Paul Azinger 30:14

What's gonna happen on 16?

Mike Gonzalez 30:16

Well, well before they came to this venue, uh back in 1975, Johnny Miller won this event by 14 shots over Jerry Heard. Of course, you remember that name. Uh uh Jerry Heard was uh was one of the guys hit by lightning at the Western Open back in 1975. That was the week after the uh the U.S. Open was played at uh at Medina that Lou Graham won, but uh um uh I think that's the year Hale Irwin won that one. Bruce, did you play in that Western Open?

Bruce Devlin 30:46

I stood on the 14th T and watched those guys get zapped.

Mike Gonzalez 30:51

You were close. I mean, that's I was close.

Bruce Devlin 30:53

I thought they were all dead. Hit that lake right there by you, didn't it? The lake on the left-hand side of that fourteenth hole. And uh, I mean the scorer and the kid carrying the banner around. I thought, oh my god, what's happened? You know, and that was that I think that incident was the one that really forced the tour into making sure that, you know, if there was any weather within, you know, eight or ten miles of us, get the hell off the golf course, you know. I mean, those boys suffered badly. All of them ended up with back problems. Yeah. Every one of them.

Mike Gonzalez 31:25

Uh Trevino got hit by Jerry Heard, Bobby Nichols. Uh Arnold. All three of them. Arnold and Tony Jacklin both had clubs knocked out of their hand uh because they were fresh. It was scary. Yeah, yeah. Let's move on to the Las Vegas. Uh, you mentioned uh later that year, the Panasonic Las Vegas invitational, again by one over Hal Sutton. At this point, he's got to be he's getting upset with you.

Paul Azinger 31:51

Yeah, he said uh his quote in the paper was he says, I didn't see it go in, I heard it go in because it hit the back of the hole so hard it flew up like that high hand. And it went in. But one thing, I'll never forget this. Uh we you know all wooden drivers back then. And that we were playing Vegas Country Club, and it was racetrack fast, and uh there's all these out-of-bounds on the right and left side of both fairways, and we got on the 12th T I Eagle 10. I shot 64 on Sunday to win by one, Eagle 10 and Eagle 18. And um I remember on 12 I was sniffing, but I really wasn't hitting it that confidently, I didn't feel, and I told my caddy, I said, uh see those walls over there? Yeah. I said, if I hit one over that wall right there, it's gonna be taking a bad hop. What do you mean? I said, I'm not hitting a ball above that wall the rest of the day. And it was one of those low walls you can see right into the back of the houses. You know what I'm talking about. And those walls, you they're knee high. And the rest of the day I hit low bullet. So I got on 18 and I was gonna hit a low bullet fade. And I was freaking out nervous, and I hit it, and I never saw it. I was like, uh oh. My caddy said I hit a high draw that went over the wall out of bounds and came back, and I hit eight iron to the green.

Mike Gonzalez 33:17

Oh my god to the parking.

Paul Azinger 33:20

If I hit the drive I wanted, it'd have been a one-iron off that tight grass. I hit a pop hook that I never laid eyes on. Oh my god. And we got up there, and I swear to God, I hit eight iron. I've never told either one of them that either. If I told Curtis that, can you imagine how hot hot he'd get if he if he knew that?

Mike Gonzalez 33:38

Sometimes you gotta get a break.

Paul Azinger 33:41

Well, that was a break. Think about that. The last T, I was gonna hit a low cut, and I never saw the ball, and it was a pop draw that went. I hit eight iron 25 feet and made it for Eagle.

Mike Gonzalez 33:54

Well, it sounds like those low little bullets, that's the perfect shot for number one at Prestwick if you've ever been there.

Paul Azinger 34:01

Oh, Prestwick, that'd be perfect. Isn't that like a five iron and a sand wedge or something? Exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 34:06

Number one train, train on the right, but the wall's a little higher than knee high, but still, I've always thought about just keeping something low and bumping it up against that wall.

Paul Azinger 34:15

Well, you know, when you first get on tour and you play golf with you know, another guy, JC Sneed. I played a lot of golf with JC, and he was a grump. And he but he was golf smart, you know. He was just so wise when it came to equipment and how to set stuff up, and he taught me a lot. Um I I I don't know. I just I forgot even what I was gonna say.

Mike Gonzalez 34:37

But uh that'll make our blooper reel.

Paul Azinger 34:41

Good.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

That's all right.

Mike Gonzalez 34:45

Well, Vegas uh uh was the highest purse on tour when it was created back in 1983, and fuzzy, fuzzy won that event. Uh that was a pretty big, pretty big money back then, wasn't it?

Paul Azinger 34:56

Yeah, and and then uh just if you want to add this to your blooper reel, I remember what I was thinking now, but Sneed really asked me about how to hit a go-to shot. And when I got to Vegas and those walls were a foot off the ground or whatever, and it's out of bounds, and I just said this is my go-to shot, I'm gonna go to it the rest of the day. Yeah. And shot 64. And uh, but it was that old school of thinking, wasn't it? You know, that that you got, son, if you're on the 18th day at Colonial with a one-shot lead, what are you gonna hit? I never thought about it. Well, you better have a go-to shot. I I believe now their go-to shots are high.

Bruce Devlin 35:30

Yeah, they are most of them, I think.

Paul Azinger 35:32

They're go-to shots to launch it in the air with a cut.

Bruce Devlin 35:35

Yep.

Paul Azinger 35:36

I think that's a better go-to shot, to be honest with you, if you have it.

Mike Gonzalez 35:40

Yeah, you can c control it on the ground a little better, I guess, right? Yep. Well, uh uh that was Tigers' first tournament win, too, back in uh 1996. I think that's where he had his first win. Let's move on uh to uh your third win of the year, which was the Cannon Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open at TPC at River Highlands. Uh you'd mentioned that earlier, and we'll talk about what a what a great uh event that is for the local community. But that was by one over Dan Forsman and Wayne Levy.

Paul Azinger 36:11

It was. Um I was in the last group that year with Langer again in uh 87, and I remember you know what a big deal it was I felt like to be able to beat that guy because he was so good. Uh the big I think what got Langer that day on the third hole there at Hartford is he airmailed the green and hit a lady on top of the head. And uh right on the forehead, it made a lump. I swear it was so big it cast a shadow on her head, and it it shook him up the rest of the day. Um and I made a nice putt to win. I made about a seven-footer on the last hole to beat those guys. So, yeah, I had a lot of respect for Wayne Levy as a player, and I always thought he was like one of the grittiest guys when he got in contention, he was just so hard to beat. So I was real proud that I could give him some trouble there down the stretch.

Mike Gonzalez 37:00

Year in, year out, that seems to be a player favorite that uh that tournament, what the community does to pull together to support that event.

Paul Azinger 37:08

Oh, no doubt. And you know, Hartford's kind of it was run down when we were playing that tournament, and the area itself wasn't that easy for accommodations, but boy, did they ever roll out the red carpet, and we had the big lobster bakes and all that stuff. It was fantastic.

Mike Gonzalez 37:23

And Bruce, you uh you had a close call there. You finished second to Billy Casper in uh 1973 at that tournament.

Bruce Devlin 37:29

Yeah, Billy Casper again.

Paul Azinger 37:33

Uh he was you were the victim of one of his 56 wins?

Bruce Devlin 37:38

Yeah, I was the victim. Yeah, so I sure was. Next year you headed back home to Bay Hill to grab the trophy, too, huh?

Paul Azinger 37:48

Well, I was PGA Player of the Year. I lost in 87. You see, I won the three, and then I lost the British, but I won the PGA Player of the Year, and it was a big deal for me, obviously. And um, I remember reading a golf magazine, and our local golf writer, Jim Achenbach, was writing for one of the golf magazines. It might have been called golf. And uh the big headline in this article is Aisinger a fluke. And uh it just hit me like a ton of bricks, how there just it was no satisfying, or you know, there's always a burden of proof to me. Um when I got on tour, my friends were like, This guy sucks, he can't play. And I kept my card and because I wanted to prove him wrong, I could play. And then well he won, but he can't win again, and and I won again, and I it just was always the chip on your shoulder mentality of thinking, I think, that always kind of kept me going. And when it was when I was a fluke after being that good, when I was in my brain thinking, well, that's it. Uh I don't know. And I had still had the Burt Yancey line in the back of my head, you gotta make history. If you're gonna make history, you gotta win a major. So that was still in there. But yeah, in '88 I almost won the PGA that year. Um, but I did win Arnold's tournament, and it was huge for me because I had been the counselor and I knew Arnold, and Arnold loved it. And I had a big I had a six-shot lead on Kite, another guy that I just respected so much. For me, so often it was who I would get to beat. As much as the when you win the event, that's great, but like really I outdoeled Tom Kite on a Sunday. Who the what the heck? I just kept couldn't I couldn't believe that I outdoeled Hal Sutton and Curtis, you know, the year before. And then I got to go against Kite, and that really is how I started to look at things.

Mike Gonzalez 39:34

Yeah, well you won by five, so it must have been a f was it a fairly comfortable win coming in?

Paul Azinger 39:39

Yeah, I bogeied 18. Nah, I drove it in the right rough. I had a six shot lead, drove it in the rough, chipped out, hit nine iron on, and it was pretty cushy.

Mike Gonzalez 39:49

Yeah, and and and uh kite won it the next year, so he got over it, I'm sure, pretty quickly.

Paul Azinger 39:54

Oh yeah, he was fine.

Mike Gonzalez 39:55

And uh you followed Payne's victory. Uh he had won it the year before when he set the tournament record at 20 under.

Paul Azinger 40:02

Yeah, that was ridiculous because we always thought Bahill was impossible. You know, it would just seem to be one of the most difficult courses, the longest course. Uh, it's not that way anymore. They they they eat it up.

Mike Gonzalez 40:14

Yeah, this was also a big win for Fuzzy Zeller back in 1985. You might recall he was just coming off the back surgery, wasn't sure if he'd ever play again at this level, and he won there, and boy, did that that do a lot for his psyche.

Paul Azinger 40:28

Yeah. Fuzzy, there's another guy that he didn't miss a sweet spot very often.

Mike Gonzalez 40:34

Thank you for listening to another episode of 4 The Good of the Game. That's when we're gonna be able to do that. Please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, tell your friends. Till we do it up again. The good of the game.

Intro Music 40:59

It went smack down the fairway.