Who is Paul Azinger?
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If you have been watching golf coverage on the BBC you’ll be used to hearing the voice of the former US Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger. In this article we answer the question who is Paul Azinger?
Who is Paul Azinger?
If you have been watching golf coverage on the BBC, including the US Masters, you’ll be used to hearing the voice of the former US Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger. He was good enough in that role in 2008 to guide his American team to victory over Nick Faldo’s Europe. But who is Paul Azinger?
In Paul Azinger’s case, the numbers speak for themselves. The Florida man won 12 times on the PGA Tour including one major - the 1993 US PGA Championship at the Inverness Club in Ohio. By the time he won his major, he had consistently been one of the best players in the world – he spent almost 300 weeks ranked within the world’s top 10 between 1988 and 1994.
Azinger’s affiliation with the British public started at the very moment his professional playing career took off. In 1987, he qualified to play in the Open Championship. On one of the toughest courses on the rota, Muirfield, Azinger finished second, just one shot behind Nick Faldo.
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This was a key moment in Azinger’s career and he went on to become a regular PGA Tour winner. His crowning triumph was at the 1993 USPGA Championship where he defeated Greg Norman in a play-off.
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Shortly after winning the USPGA Championship, Azinger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Of course, this took him away from the game for an extended period. Free from the disease and back on Tour, Azinger won the last of his Tour titles in Hawaii in 2000 at the Sony Open.
With such a stellar career it was no surprise when Azinger was given the role of US Ryder Cup Captain – he played on four US Teams himself. In 2008, his side emerged victorious at Valhalla in Kentucky and since then, his name is often muted when potential future Ryder Cup captains are discussed.
Paul Azinger has become an integral member of the BBC’s golf team. He worked as a golf commentator between 2005 and 2015 for both ESPN and ABC and has since joined Fox Sports as their head golf analyst.
In July 2023, Neil became just the 9th editor in Golf Monthly's 112-year history. Originally working with the best coaches in the UK to produce instruction content, he went on to become a feature writer interviewing many of the biggest names in the game including Tiger Woods, Seve Ballesteros, Rory McIlroy and Arnold Palmer.
A 5-handicap golfer, Neil is a club member who takes a keen interest in the health of the game at grassroots level. You’ll often now find him writing about club-related issues such as WHS, membership retention and how best to bridge the gap between the range and the course.