Notebook: Azinger reflects on '93 sand shot

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) -- They are two of the greatest sand shots in golf history. Paul Azinger has a hard time deciding which was better.

In 1993 at the Memorial, where he will be playing this week, Azinger came to the final hole on Sunday tied for the lead with his playing partner and friend, Payne Stewart, and Corey Pavin, who was already in the clubhouse. Both Azinger and Stewart hit their approach shots into the gaping bunker just off the left edge of the green.

Stewart muscled his buried lie to 8 feet above the hole. Azinger figured he had to get at least as close as Stewart

But Azinger - in a shot that has been replayed innumerable times on TV and the Web - holed his shot for birdie and was handed the $252,000 first-place check by tournament founder Jack Nicklaus

"I was just hoping to get close so I wouldn't miss a playoff," Azinger said Wednesday before playing a Memorial practice round.

It would stand as the shot of his life - until the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry.

With the Cup still hanging in the balance late in Sunday's singles matches, Azinger faced a sand shot at the 18th hole to keep the Americans' flickering hopes alive and to avoid a defeat against Niclas Fasth

"The whole European team was ... ready to pop the cork," he said of the impending celebration before a partisan crowd. "I said to my caddie, 'I have to make this, don't I?' and he didn't even say anything. The last thing I said before I hit the shot was, 'Well, of course I do.' And then I made it."

It was Azinger's last shot in a Ryder Cup. It became overshadowed, even forgotten, when the Americans ended up losing 15 1/2-12 1/2. With so much on the line, though, Azinger had hit the perfect shot.

This September, Azinger will captain the U.S. side when it takes on Europe in the latest joust for the Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club outside Louisville, Ky.