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Paul Azinger: Best Short Games Ever, Best Golf Holes

By Kathlene Bissell

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - FEBRUARY 21: NBC Sports golf analysts Paul Azinger (L) and Dan Hicks (R) pose for a picture during the first round of World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec on February 21, 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - FEBRUARY 21: NBC Sports golf analysts Paul Azinger (L) and Dan Hicks (R) pose for a picture during the first round of World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Club de Golf Chapultepec on February 21, 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /
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Move over Johnny Miller.  Another outspoken announcer is getting ready to step it up a notch or two as Paul Azinger, NBC’s new lead golf analyst, did in a media round table at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Paul Azinger unloaded about the best short games in golf, two of which will be on display for the rest of the golf season, and the toughest holes, which will be televised between now and mid-June.

“Tiger’s got the greatest short game in the history of golf,” Azinger insisted. “Seve (Ballesteros), Mickelson, all right, I would say a reasonably close second.  They’re not a distant second. A close second.”

Mickelson, according to Azinger, gets a high rating because he can hit that shot backwards over his head.

“I tried to do it in my back yard, in a tropical storm one time.  It was blowing 70 or 60 or whatever, and I went whack, full sand wedge, and it still landed in front of me,” Azinger explained. “Mickelson’s awesome.”

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When it comes to Mickelson, it’s not just short game praise that Azinger heaps on Lefty.

“I think he’s one of the top 10 players in history.”

That got everybody’s curiosity up. If Tiger is first and Mickelson and Seve are second, who else would be on his short list?

After those three, he picks Ben Crenshaw and Lee Trevino, neither of whom play very much golf these days, at lease not televised golf.

“Crenshaw was magic.  I watched Crenshaw hit a shot, and you could read Titleist on the ball as it was going,” Azinger insisted. “For him it was all about letting his hands drag or drop, not creating speed.”

So his top five short game players are Woods, Ballesteros and Mickelson (tied), Crenshaw ad Trevino.

Then he went on to discuss what he thinks are the toughest holes in golf on the PGA Tour.

“No. 12 at Augusta.  That tiny little shot.  That can scare the tar out of you,” he said. “Going for 13, going for 15.  Those can be intimidating shots.”

AUGUSTA, GA – APRIL 08: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his first shot from the 12th hole during the final round of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 8, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
AUGUSTA, GA – APRIL 08: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his first shot from the 12th hole during the final round of the 2018 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club on April 8, 2018 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

But Augusta National does not have all the treachery.  Azinger reserved some for TPC Sawgrass, home of The Players.

“Seventeen at Sawgrass is unbelievable, but only if the wind’s blowing,” he said, then he took back the part about the wind. “Even if it’s a wedge or a 9-iron, you’re freaking out.”

He added that the guy who is getting ready to win is typically comfortable enough on the golf course not to be intimidated by the shot. But it doesn’t always happen.

“Len Mattiace, he flushed that shot, that little edge of the ground, and it flies the green, and next thing you know, it’s over,” he recalled about the Mattiace disaster at the island green. “One swing of the bat, it’s over, just like that.”

Like many players, Paul Azinger is fond of the 8th hole at Pebble Beach.

“That is one of the greatest shots in all of golf, the second shot into number eight,” he said.

PEBBLE BEACH, CA – SEPTEMBER 23: A sailboat sits in Still Water Cove in front of the famed 8th hole during the 2nd round of the Champions Tour Pure Insurance Championship on September 23, 2017 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images)
PEBBLE BEACH, CA – SEPTEMBER 23: A sailboat sits in Still Water Cove in front of the famed 8th hole during the 2nd round of the Champions Tour Pure Insurance Championship on September 23, 2017 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images) /

The 8th hole has a tee situated high on a bluff that backs up to the Pacific Ocean.  Half way down the fairway, the ground disappears into a rock and ocean filled cavern.  You have to cross it for your second shot, to a small green which is well below and slopes back toward the always moving water and jagged rocks.

“When you’re up on the fairway and looking down to the green, it’s like wow!” he exclaimed.  “Inevitably the first few times you play, you air mail the green or you come up short because it looks so far downhill that you think you’ll get there, and you don’t.”

Paul Azinger pointed out that anybody who hits the ball over the green makes an effort not to do it twice. It’s a shot that can roll off the green and into the rocks and ocean below.

“You got to be short on eight, especially during a U.S. Open,” he concluded. “It is really, isn’t it, the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. Especially on a windy day when those waves are crashing, and you can hear that smashing against its rocks. It’s incredible.”

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So, Augusta National 12th, 13th and 15th.   TPC Sawgrass 17th and Pebble Beach 8th.  Put those on your bucket list.  The last two, at least, are attainable.

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