Crossroads

Paul Azinger arrived at Walt Disney World wondering if he was continuing a career or starting a very long vacation. Azinger entered the week sitting at No. 122 on the money list ($672,675), barely clinging to a spot on Tour for 2007. At the same time, the 1993 PGA Championship winner has been coming to grips with the surprising demise of his once-promising TV career. His employer, ABC, put on one of its last golf telecasts, and while his partner, Nick Faldo, has become the king of TV golf, taking over next year as lead analyst for both CBS and the Golf Channel, Azinger remains unsigned. With his options dwindling, holding on to his Tour card has taken on greater urgency. But as Joe Durant shot a 25-under 263 for his fourth career win, Azinger went 72--71 to miss the cut by four. Lucky for Azinger, no one passed him, so he remains 122nd and will have a chance to control his own destiny at this week's Chrysler Championship. No matter what happens, he'll have at least partial status next year (for finishing in the top 150), and he may soon find a way to fill up any free time. Along with Cory Pavin and Fred Couples, Azinger is considered one of the leading candidates to captain the 2008 Ryder Cup team. His appointment would provide a tasty undercurrent to the event; Faldo will lead the Euros.

Senior Uprising

While Fred Funk was winning the AT&T Championship by shooting a 12-under 201 for his first Champions tour title in only his third try, the rest of the field looked as if it were getting ready for Halloween, with golfers rising from the dead all over San Antonio's Oak Hill Country Club. Chip Beck, 50, who hasn't won anything since the 1992 Freeport-McMoran Classic, finished second, at 202. Ben Crenshaw, 54, equaled his best senior finish ever, tying for fourth alongside long-silent Raymond Floyd, 64, who had a chance to become the oldest winner on any major U.S. pro tour. Scary.

ALSO ...

MacKinzie Kline, the 14-year-old with a congenital heart condition who was allowed to use a cart in this year's U.S. Women's Amateur (TEEING OFF, Aug. 14), underwent a successful procedure to fix a hole in her heart and is now playing--without a cart--for the girls' team at La Costa Canyon High in Carlsbad, Calif. ? A bogey on the 72nd hole dropped Troy Matteson into a tie for second at the Funai, costing him $92,000 and possibly a place in the Masters. The top 40 on the final money list go to Augusta. Matteson, who would have jumped to 36th with a par, is 42nd. He's scheduled to play in the Chrysler Championship.

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

Survey Says ...

Cord grips (above), which have cord woven into the rubber, are much more popular with men than women. Here's the percentage of cord and noncord use on the PGA and LPGA tours in 2006.

Darrell Survey has tracked equipment usage at golf tournaments since 1938.