Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 16, 1993 TAG: 9308160072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TOLEDO, OHIO LENGTH: Long
Seven years after Norman lost the PGA at Inverness on Bob Tway's bunker shot on the 72nd hole, the Australian left the same course as runner-up once again in nearly as dramatic fashion.
Azinger, the seventh first-time major winner in the past eight PGA Championships, shot 68 to Norman's 69 to tie him at 12-under-par 272 through 72 holes.
Two holes later he had the major championship that had eluded him. And Norman had yet another shocking disappointment.
Nick Faldo, who left the course with the lead while Norman and Azinger completed their rounds, shot 68 to finish alone in third at 273. Vijay Singh, who also shared the lead during the round, shot 70 to take fourth at 274.
Tom Watson made a run at his dream of completing a career Grand Slam, but his case will remain devoid of the PGA trophy for at least another year after his 72 left him five strokes off the lead alone in fifth.
Norman and Azinger exchanged a hard high-five when they met at the scorer's trailer after Norman barely missed a birdie putt on the 72nd hole that would have given him the championship instead of another playoff.
Each narrowly lost a chance to win on the first hole of the playoff, Norman's 15-foot birdie putt lipping the cup and spinning away.
"I got painted, as we call it in our profession," Norman said. "They paint the tip of the cup right to the rim. It gets very hard and crusty by the end of the day. And a ball will spin out instead of spinning in. We call it `being painted.' I thought that putt was in and it wasn't."
Azinger's putt ran right by less than half an inch, so they matched pars then went back to the 10th tee. Both landed on a fairway hill overlooking a creek and the green. Norman hit his second shot on the green, 20 feet behind and to the left of the pin. Azinger then turned up the pressure by landing six feet to the right of the pin.
"I was so nervous," Azinger said. "My heart was beating so hard I could feel my eyeballs flashing."
Norman, figuring he'd need a birdie despite the distance, shockingly left his putt four feet short after putting aggressively all afternoon.
"I misread the speed of the first putt," Norman said. "I thought it would be a lot quicker than what it was. I guess that's my excuse and I'm going to stick with it."
Azinger gave Norman a momentary reprieve by curling his putt around the lip on the right of the cup. He tapped in, and that left Norman needing to make his putt to force another playoff hole.
Norman studied the putt, not showing any sign of nerves. Azinger stood off the green behind Norman's back, bowing his head and looking away from the hole. At the last moment, Azinger turned his head and saw Norman's ball curl around the lip of the cup.
Championship for Azinger, more misery for Norman.
Azinger, who lost a playoff to Norman in the 1992 Doral-Ryder Open, is a 33-year-old who had long been known as the best player never to win a major. No longer. And in addition to the title and trophy, he won a tidy $300,000 to boost him to the top of the PGA money list with $1.3 million this year.
Norman, who won his second British Open title in July, adds another lost playoff in a major to his career. He failed in the 1984 U.S. Open against Fuzzy Zoeller, the 1987 Masters against Larry Mize and the 1989 British Open against Mark Calcavecchia. This one against Azinger gives Norman an unwanted set of playoff losses in golf's most prestigious events.
Norman also finished second in the PGA on the Tway shot in 1986 and in the Masters the same year - a total of six runner-up finishes in the Grand Slam events.
Norman held a one-stroke lead going to the final round and made it two strokes on the third when he sank a 30-foot putt over a bump and down a slight slope.
Bob Estes, a 27-year-old who was PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1989, held the lead after No. 8 at 11-under. But he began to fade with a bogey on the 10th and slipped from contention with another bogey on No. 15.
Faldo, meanwhile, took the lead alone briefly at 11-under with a birdie on the 13th. Singh would join him moments later with a birdie on the same hole, and then came Azinger, completing a string of three consecutive birdies to go 11-under on the 14th.
Yet, Norman wouldn't go away. After lipping a three-foot birdie putt on the 10th and taking a disappointing par, he birdied the 11th and the 13th to join Faldo and Azinger at 11-under. At the same moment, Singh bogeyed the 16th.
Faldo ended a streak of six consecutive pars to go into the clubhouse with the lead.
Norman's luck picked up when his second shot on the par-5 13th bounced in the rough and spun down a slope sideways to give him a 15-foot putt for eagle. He didn't make it, but the birdie he settled for tied him with Faldo and Azinger.
Norman nearly hit into a bunker on the 15th, yet luck was with him again as the ball caromed off the dense rough guarding the trap and spun down 15 feet from the cup. He left that putt an inch short, but the par kept him tied for the lead.
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by CNB