In one swoop, Paul Azinger
answered the question of whether he can win again after a bout with cancer, helped
ease the pain of the death of friend Payne Stewart, and erased 14 years of frustration
in Hawaii.
Azinger won the Sony Open
today with an exclamation point, pulling away from the field with a bogey-free
5-under 65 for a seven-stroke victory over Australian Stuart Appleby.
"I feel terrific," Azinger
said. "I had some anxiety when I came here. I didn't know what to expect. But
I was determined not to get ahead of myself."
In becoming a wire-to-wire
winner in the PGA Tour's first full-field event of the year, Azinger opened with
rounds of 63, 65 and 68 en route to a 19-under 261 total on the Waialae course.
Azinger, who turned 40
on Jan. 6, won for the first time since the 1993 PGA Championship. He was diagnosed
with lymphoma in his right shoulder in December 1993 and missed most of the next
season.
"I had no doubt I was never
going to win again, I was playing so bad," he said, recalling his recovery period.
"Winning was not an option. I just didn't see it coming back.
"It wasn't until the middle
of 1999 I started to see some consistency. By the end of the year, I felt it
was a matter of time. It's been six years since I won. Four of those years, I
saw no hope."
The 12-time tour winner
also ended a frustrating run in Hawaii. When the tournament was known as the
Hawaiian Open, he was a three-time runner-up and had five other top-10 finishes.
"I really don't know what
to say, especially what happened the last few months," Azinger said of the death
of Stewart and business associates Robert Fraley and Van Ardan.
Appleby, who closed within
three strokes of Azinger after nine holes, eagled the 72nd hole for a 67.
"Every time I took a run
at him, he took a run at me," Appleby said. "Everytime I got close, he would
sink a birdie.
"Looking back on the week,
you can say he was a very deserved winner who played well all week and we all
would agree we're happy for him."
John Huston (67) and Sweden's
Jesper Parnevik (69) tied for third at 10-under 270. South Africa's Ernie Els
was alone at 271, and Tom Lehman, Sean Murphy and Scott Dunlap followed at 272.
Els, 6-under at the start
of the round, birdied the first two holes to move up, but had a quadruple-bogey
on the 423-yard third hole. He recovered to shoot a 67, but it was too late.
Two international players
who gained recognition during the 1998 Presidents Cup, Japan's Shigeki Maruyama
and Paraguay's Carlos Franco, topped a five-player group at 275.
Gary Nicklaus, who earned
his tour card in November and celebrated his 31st birthday Saturday, finished
at 10-over 290. Nicklaus, the son of Jack Nicklaus, had a 12 on the 510-yard
ninth hole en route to a final-round 79.
