Bradenton’s Paul Azinger recalls 1993 PGA Championship win ahead of the 2024 tournament
More than 30 years ago, Bradenton resident Paul Azinger won his only major.
The year was 1993 and Azinger was playing lights-out golf heading into the PGA Championship at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio.
Unlike this week’s tournament, the PGA Championship was the last major of the season when it was held in August 1993.
“I was the hottest player by far,” Azinger said. “I had just won Jack’s tournament,” referring to golf great Jack Nicklaus. “I had just won in Boston. I won the Tour Championship the year before. And I knew Inverness like the back of my hand.”
Before he arrived at the tournament, Azinger said he told his friends that if he didn’t win, it was because he was scared.
“I had such a good range session,” said Azinger, now 64. “I rarely popped off like that. I was just in one of those confident places. I just shot 62 at World Woods and bogeyed the last hole. So all this was happening in like a 10-week period.
“It was one of those runs. And I went there with full high expectations and it happened. And that’s rare. Normally you go there with so much expectation you miss the cut. It came to pass for me and I was in this deep level of concentration.”
Despite four rounds in the 60s, Azinger had to outduel Greg Norman in a playoff to triumph.
In the playoff, Azinger missed a putt for the win, but earned his lone major championship after Norman also missed a putt in the sudden-death playoff.
“I was devastated when that didn’t go in, because I thought it was in,” Azinger said. “And then Norman missed one about six feet, five feet. Brutal. So I was happy and I was relieved. And then shortly after that, cancer in the shoulder and my career was pretty much shortened right there.”
Before the tournament started that year, Azinger said he spoke to Byron Nelson, who was the head pro at Inverness from 1940 to 1944 and a five-time major winner, for any tips.
“I said, ‘Is there any secret? I’m playing pretty well,’ ” Azinger said. ‘Well Paul, I imagine the greens are so small here at the Inverness Club that if you aim for the center of every one of them, you’d have a good birdie putt.’ And I did, and he was right.”
Azinger, who is now retired, won 11 times during a seven-year stretch between 1987 and 1993, and completed a comeback from cancer with a win at the 2000 Sony Open in Hawaii.
In 2008, he captained the United States to a Ryder Cup victory at Valhalla Golf Club, the Kentucky site of this week’s PGA Championship.
This story was originally published May 16, 2024 at 12:36 PM.
