Zinger coy, but we'll say it: Give him second Ryder term in '10

When they plan to announce Azinger as the second-term bossman would be a nice start.

As the American team won the Cup for the first time since 1999, Azinger was ambivalent at best about leading another American charge, even after players like Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard chanted "Zinger in '10" an hour after the matches had ended.

The wave had crested and there was nowhere to go but down. While Azinger said Thursday that he has been overwhelmed by the positive feedback he has received, the captaincy hasn't generated any endorsement opportunities. He fired his agent and signed with IMG. The fate of a book deal remains uncertain. There's no telling how much that factored into his apparent change of mind.

"I feel like I want to tell the story of how we won the Ryder Cup," he said.

Two weeks ago, Azinger told ESPN.com that he was interested in the position if the PGA was agreeable, too: "I've expressed to them, if it were offered to me, I would sure think about it. It's kind of up to them, it's not up to me. Even if they offered it to me, I'm not sure what my answer would be. I have to play it close to the vest.

"I don't want to look like I'm lobbying for it, but I don't want to completely rule it out. I know that's not a good answer."

It was better than the cryptic game of dodgeball he played Thursday. Azinger was given three or four different opportunities to declare he wasn't interested in the position but continually refused to broach the issue. Eventually, the queries morphed into, "Can you say you aren't interested in the position?"

Nice try, Azinger said, but no dice. He offered hilarious non-denial denials. I swear, he even winked at me at one point.

Corey Pavin, a 15-time winner on the PGA Tour, was generally considered the frontrunner for the position -- that is, until Azinger re-entered the discussion. Looking ahead, the PGA hasn't even announced when the captain will be announced, much less leaked information regarding who it will be.

"At this particular stage, we're not ruling anything out," PGA communications chief Julius Mason said of Azinger's status.

Mason, who spent the past two years attached to Azinger's hip -- rolling his eyes more than a few times when the vocal captain crawled out too far on a crackling tree limb -- laughed when he was told that Azinger was being coy for once.

Mason said the fact that it has taken a few extra weeks to identify the U.S. boss this time around -- the past two captains were named shortly after the PGA Tour season ended -- should not be interpreted as a complication of any sort.

"I think everyone kind of enjoyed waving the American flag for a while," Mason said.

While he didn't hit a shot, a lot of that reverie was attributed to Azinger's steadying hand. Before Azinger accepted the post the last time around, he convinced the PGA of America to gerrymander the qualifying process to reward strong play during the year of the Cup competition and to double the number of captain's picks to four. It ensured the team had the hottest available players on the roster. He even cut back the grass to give his team an improved chance of making birdies from the rough.

Azinger, who turns 49 next month, broke up the American roster into three pods of four players apiece for both practice and live play, building a camaraderie some believed was lacking from past teams. The U.S. had lost five of the past six competitions before winning three months ago in Louisville.

Azinger's plan, two years in the crafting, was widely hailed as a breakthrough. So, what decision is left for anybody to make? Speaking for probably 99 percent of American sports fans here, if the dude wants the gig, then plug in his guitar, turns the dials up to 11, and let's rock.

"It's just been an unbelievable whirlwind for me," he said. "Two years of hard work paid off. I'm glad that all the hard work, that turned out to be a positive I'm not getting ridiculed for overdoing it, which if we had lost I think probably would have happened.

"Everything's been positive, and it's been amazing. I'm real happy we pulled this off."

So let's see if he can do it in stereo.