Early years

Azinger was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts. His father, Ralph Azinger, was a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and businessman. He started in golf at age five. After Ralph retired from the Air Force, he opened a marina, and Paul spent his summer pumping gas and painting boats.

He moved to Sarasota, Florida where he attended and graduated from Sarasota High School. After high school, he attended Brevard Community College into the late 1970s. While he was there, he found more time to practice his swing, playing on the team as a walk-on, and landed a summer job at the Bay Hill Golf Academy in Orlando, which allowed him more practice time. Practice earned him more opportunity, in the form of a scholarship to Florida State University and turned professional in 1981.

During his early years, he collected meager earnings. He and his wife, Toni, bought a used motor home, a 1983 Vogue, and drove from tournament to tournament. He got his big break in 1987, when he first played in the British Open, even though he dd not win.

Professional career

PGA Tour

Azinger won eleven tournaments on the PGA Tour in seven seasons from 1987 to 1993, climaxing in his one major title, the 1993 PGA Championship at Inverness, which he won in a sudden-death playoff against Greg Norman.

Azinger finished one shot behind Nick Faldo at the 1987 Open Championship at Muirfield after making bogey at both the 71st and 72nd holes. Azinger was bidding to become only the fourth golfer since 1945 to win the British Open at the first attempt and said that he was "heartbroken" to leave Muirfield without the Claret Jug trophy.

In December 1993, Azinger was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in his right shoulder. His treatment included six months of chemotherapy and five weeks of radiation in California. He wrote a book called Zinger about his battle with the disease and was the recipient of GWAA Ben Hogan Award in 1995, given to the individual who has continued to be active in golf despite physical handicap or serious illness. In 2000, he won his first tournament in seven seasons at the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Azinger was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for the 2008 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. He led the team to its first victory over the European squad since 1999. The team's victory was largely credited to his innovative strategy. This strategy is outlined in his book, Cracking the Code: The Winning Ryder Cup Strategy: Make it Work for You, which was released in May 2010. The book was co-authored with Ron Braund, a corporate team builder and psychologist, who consulted Azinger throughout the Ryder Cup.

Champions Tour

Azinger made his Champions Tour debut at The ACE Group Classic in February 2010. He played four events that year and none since.

Television work

From 2005 to 2015, Azinger worked as lead analyst for ESPN and ABC Sports' golf coverage. He initially shared analyst duties with his former Ryder Cup and British Open rival Nick Faldo. Azinger and Faldo, along with host Mike Tirico, formed a broadcast team that was met with positive critical acclaim. Faldo left for rival CBS after the 2006 season. Since then, Azinger has worked alone with Tirico. However, when Faldo and Azinger were opposing captains at the 2008 Ryder Cup, Azinger's colleague Andy North filled in for him. Faldo and Azinger have also reunited as analysts on two occasions. The first reunion was at the 2007 Open Championship (for ABC) and the second was at the 2009 Presidents Cup (for the Golf Channel).

After ESPN/ABC lost its rights to both the U.S. Open and Open Championship to Fox and NBC, Azinger joined Fox Sports as its head golf analyst in 2016, replacing Greg Norman.

Other interests

Azinger is an avid poker player and competed in the main event at both the 2006 World Series of Poker and the 2008 World Series of Poker. He is an avid foosball player, and often seeks places to play foosball while traveling.

Azinger threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Tampa Bay Rays' second ever playoff game on October 3, 2008. He recently launched a new application for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch called Golfplan.

Personal

Azinger is a Christian. He and his wife Toni met at FSU and have been married since 1982. They have two daughters, Sarah Jean Collins and Josie Lyn, and currently live in Bradenton, Florida.

Azinger gave the eulogy at the memorial service for his friend Payne Stewart, who was killed in a plane crash in 1999. His two managers and close friends, Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, also died in the crash.

Professional wins (17)

PGA Tour wins (12)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Jan 25, 1987	Phoenix Open	−16 (67-69-65-67=268)	1 stroke	Hal Sutton
2	May 3, 1987	Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational	−17 (68-72-67-64=271)	1 stroke	Hal Sutton
3	Jun 28, 1987	Canon Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open	−15 (69-65-63-72=269)	1 stroke	Dan Forsman, Wayne Levi
4	Mar 20, 1988	Hertz Bay Hill Classic	−13 (66-66-73-66=271)	5 strokes	Tom Kite
5	Jul 9, 1989	Canon Greater Hartford Open	−17 (65-70-67-65=267)	1 stroke	Wayne Levi
6	Jan 7, 1990	MONY Tournament of Champions	−16 (66-68-69-69=272)	1 stroke	Ian Baker-Finch
7	Feb 3, 1991	AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am	−14 (67-67-73-67=274)	4 strokes	Brian Claar, Corey Pavin
8	Nov 1, 1992	The Tour Championship	−8 (70-66-69-71=276)	3 strokes	Lee Janzen, Corey Pavin
9	Jun 6, 1993	Memorial Tournament	−14 (68-69-68-69=274)	1 stroke	Corey Pavin
10	Jul 25, 1993	New England Classic	−16 (67-69-64-68=268)	4 strokes	Jay Delsing, Bruce Fleisher
11	Aug 15, 1993	PGA Championship	−12 (69-66-69-68=272)	Playoff	Greg Norman
12	Jan 16, 2000	Sony Open in Hawaii	−19 (63-65-68-65=261)	7 strokes	Stuart Appleby

PGA Tour playoff record (1-2)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1989	Bob Hope Chrysler Classic	Steve Jones, Sandy Lyle	Jones won with birdie on first extra hole
2	1990	Doral-Ryder Open	Mark Calcavecchia, Greg Norman, Tim Simpson	Norman won with eagle on first extra hole
3	1993	PGA Championship	Greg Norman	Won with par on second extra hole

European Tour wins (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	Sep 23, 1990	BMW International Open	−11 (63-73-73-68=277)	Playoff	David Feherty
2	Sep 8, 1992	BMW International Open	−22 (66-67-66-67=266)	Playoff	Glen Day, Anders Forsbrand Mark James, Bernhard Langer

Other wins (3)

• 1988 Fred Meyer Challenge (with Bob Tway)
• 1991 Fred Meyer Challenge (with Ben Crenshaw)
• 1994 Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (with Fred Couples and Greg Norman)

Major championships

Wins (1)

Year	Championship	54 holes	Winning score	Margin	Runner-up
1993	PGA Championship	1 shot deficit	−12 (69-66-69-68=272)	Playoff	Greg Norman

Results timeline

Tournament	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Masters Tournament	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T17	CUT	T14
U.S. Open	CUT	DNP	CUT	34	CUT	T6	T9
The Open Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	T2	T47	T8
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	CUT	CUT	CUT	2	CUT

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Masters Tournament	CUT	52	T31	CUT	DNP	T17	T18	T28	5	CUT
U.S. Open	T24	CUT	T33	T3	DNP	CUT	T67	T28	T14	T12
The Open Championship	T48	DNP	T59	T59	DNP	CUT	CUT	CUT	CUT	DNP
PGA Championship	T31	DNP	T33	1	CUT	T31	T31	T29	T13	T41

Tournament	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Masters Tournament	T28	T15	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
U.S. Open	T12	T5	CUT	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
The Open Championship	T7	DNP	DNP	WD	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP	DNP
PGA Championship	T24	T22	CUT	CUT	T55	CUT	CUT	DNP	T63	CUT

DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10

Summary

Tournament	Wins	2nd	3rd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
Masters Tournament	0	0	0	1	1	6	15	10
U.S. Open	0	0	1	2	4	8	18	12
The Open Championship	0	1	0	1	3	3	12	7
PGA Championship	1	1	0	2	2	5	23	13
Totals	1	2	1	6	10	22	68	42

• Most consecutive cuts made - 9 (1999 U.S. Open - 2001 PGA)
• Longest streak of top-10s - 2 (1989 U.S. Open - 1989 Open Championship)

U.S. national team appearances

• Ryder Cup:
  • Player: 1989 (tie), 1991 (winners), 1993 (winners), 2002
  • Captain: 2008 (winners)
• World Cup: 1989
• Presidents Cup: 2000 (winners)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]