It’s safe to say that Paul Azinger knows a thing or two about golf, having left behind a playing career that included a win at the 1993 PGA Championship to achieve great success in golf broadcasting, more recently especially as a senior analyst for NBC.
Azinger left that job in November, but not before his vast experience gave him the foresight that Scottie Scheffler was destined for great things as an unknown, right away even when his peers doubted that he had what it took to reach the top.
In 2018, Azinger first took a position at the channel at a time when Scheffler was embarking on his professional career. Yet even then, he saw something of a future world No. 1 ranking as others questioned his shot, as he explained to Rocco Mediate on Sirius XM PGA Tour radio show The Rocco Hour. Azinger said: “I remember when [Dan] Hicks first signed with NBC, Hicks asked me.
We saw Scheffler from afar, I didn’t know who many of them were at the time, I got there and he said, ‘Look at this guy swinging on a rope.’ People wonder if it’s good or not, you know, with his footwork, and I don’t see anything wrong with that, I don’t even really notice it. Instead of worrying about Scheffler’s swing, Azinger focused on the results.
He continued: “I saw the ball go, and he looked pretty good, then I went to look at his record, and I saw where he was dominating on the board, and I said to Dan: ‘Oh, I think that’ll be fine “He said: ‘Why do you say that?’ I said: “Because he dominates at every level, Dan, and he will compete against people his age “In the beginning, you play against people older than you, they have more experienced, but now he’s playing. for everyone his age he has beaten over the years, and he is doing it again. ” That’s an understatement.
After a pair of wins on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019, Scheffler picked up his first PGA Tour win at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open. More than two years later, he now has 13 professional victories, including two Masters titles. While Scheffler’s record before this year was impressive, it is his form in 2024 that has seen him threaten to become the dominant player of the era, with 4 wins The most recent win came in just 11 starts, including the Players Championship and his final victory at the Augusta National Major.
As for swing, Azinger said that was a concern for Hicks, Scheffler still has unorthodox footwork to this day. Even the stats show that this hasn’t done him any harm, on the contrary, he currently leads SG: Tee to Green this season with 2,835 strokes per round, with his closest rival His Hideki Matsuyama is far behind in second place with 1,535.
NBC has yet to name a full-time replacement for Azinger. Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee have stepped in temporarily as the broadcaster continues to hold “rotating auditions” before choosing someone for the job.