While all the Tadd Madness was going on and Zach Johnson was heading to victory in the Sony Open in Hawai'i, a familiar face at Waialae Country Club signed his scorecard in relative anonymity and said goodbye to a golf course he calls one of his favorites on the PGA Tour.

It's a far cry from what he initially thought when he played here for the first time in the 1985 Hawaiian Open. "What a long way to come to miss a cut," Azinger told himself then.

Now, he can't wait to come here.

"I love it here. I feel like it's coming home, like I never left. I love the course, the people. I think it's the last time I'm coming here, so it's kind of disappointing the way I played this week," Azinger said. "I sucked. How's that for a quote."

Then he smiled.

Azinger finished yesterday with a 71 for a 283 total and tie for 69th. But he was glad he stuck around for the weekend to say a long goodbye.

"I didn't finish like I wanted to. I drove it terrible. I putted terrible," Azinger said. "But it's OK. I've played here a lot of years, twenty-something. I've made a lot of money here."

Boy, did he ever — 22 appearances overall in the Hawaiian/Sony Open with one victory, 10 top-10s, including three runner-up finishes, and $1,403,186 in earnings.

He certainly came a long way in more ways than one since missing that cut 25 years ago and Waialae, in turn, has been very, very good to him. He also loves the fishing, going out three times this week for bonefish. "O'io," he said, well aware of the Hawaiian name. "Always," he answered, when asked if he ever releases his catch. His favorite fishing spot? Don't bother asking; he won't say.

"Zinger," as he's affectionately called, missed playing Waialae only three times during that span, twice because of back pains and, the other, most notably, in 1994 when he played only four times later in the year after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments for lymphoma.

Fans at the tournament that year signed a huge get-well card and Greg Nichols, then Waialae's head pro, sent it to Azinger. "I still have that card at home," Azinger says.

After so many near victories in the United Airlines Hawaiian Open, Azinger finally won at Waialae in the 2000, Sony's second year as title sponsor of the PGA Tour's first full-field event of the season.

"That was a huge win for me," Azinger said. Not only because it was his first victory since coming back from his battle with cancer, he said.

"There were a lot of things happening, a lot of things on my mind at the time. It was my first tournament since Payne (Stewart) died," said Azinger, who dedicated the wire-to-wire win to Stewart, for whom he gave the eulogy, and two other friends who died in that plane crash.

As it turns out, it's also the last of Azinger's 12 tour victories, including the 1992 Tour Championship and the 1993 PGA Championship, the latter after a playoff with Greg Norman.

This year's Sony sighting of the victorious U.S. Ryder team captain is a rare one, too. Azinger, who's exempt on a major medical extension, plans on playing only around six tournaments. His next tournament appearance, two weeks from now, will be in Phoenix, where he won his first PGA event.

"Maybe more, maybe less, but definitely not less," said Azinger, who's going to work several tournaments with the Golf Channel and the British Open with ABC.

He turns 50 next January and is looking forward to playing on the Champions Tour and doesn't mind if the seniors schedule a tournament here.

"I'm also going to try and write a book about the Ryder Cup. I'm now just starting to think about that and I'm in the process of figuring out who's going to write it," he said, laughing. "I know I can't write it. I can't spell."

And asked if people ever confuse him for actor Jim Carrey, Azinger replied, "All I think is that Jim Carrey wishes."