Vincent Publishing - Index

Vincent Publishing - 2008 Travelers Championship Magazine - Index

Hoping to light a spark in the American team, the PGA of America selected the fiery
Paul Azinger to captain the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
BY RICHARD MUDRY
PHOTO: (RIGHT) U.S. RYDER CUP
TEAM CAPTAIN PAUL AZINGER
WITH THE COVETED RYDER CUP
TROPHY.
50 This is the new era.
PPaul Azinger has always been a
straight shooter. Ask him a question
about golf, sports, politics or world
affairs and he’ll give you a refreshing,
candid answer from his heart.
His critics say you may not like the answer you
get from the former two-time Travelers
Championship winner, but in this day and age of
political correctness, Azinger will tell you how he feels,
not what you want to hear.
So why would the PGA of America select the
Floridian as the U.S. Ryder Cup Captain for the
September matches against Europe in Louisville,
Kentucky?
Plain and simple: Azinger’s competitive nature – he
hates to lose at anything – is what makes the former
PGA Championship winner and former Player of the
Year a perfect foil for his former rival Nick Faldo, the
European Captain.
Azinger is a guy with passion, someone who has
found the Ryder Cup to be his nirvana during his
playing days.
Now he is 48, somewhat wiser and somewhat smarter,
than the lanky, raw-boned, naïve rookie 19 years ago
who made the first of four Ryder Cup teams.
But that doesn’t mean his feelings are any less now
than they were then.
And it doesn’t mean that sometime in the next three
months, the Bradenton, Florida resident won’t let his
tongue slip and cause a brouhaha.
He’s trying, though, to be more “captainesque.”
“I want to be wise enough not to say things to cause
an international incident,” said Azinger, smiling at the
task at hand.
“I’ve really learned by some things (in the past) that
have slipped out. I’ve learned I need to use common
sense and diplomacy. I don’t think I’m throwing
issues out where they don’t belong. My opinion
never got me in trouble.”
Huh?
Wasn’t it you, Paul, that called out Faldo shortly
before the Masters, saying other players of his
generation – not those likely to be on his 2008 team
– had not been fooled by the Englishman’s change
of character? Wasn’t it you who said, and I’m
paraphrasing, a leopard doesn’t change spots?