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 Corey Pavin will lead the U.S. at golf’s version of the Super Bowl next month (PHOTO: Challenge Roddie). On December 11, 2008, Corey Pavin was introduced as the next captain of the United States Ryder Cup team. “My dream has come true,” he said that day. That dream quickly turned to reality over the next 20 months. The 50-year-old Oxnard native attended press conferences, fielded hundreds of questions, and discussed strategy with a range of revered figures in and out of golf. All that leads to this — the 38th Ryder Cup between the U.S. and Europe kicks off Friday, October 1 at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. At its core, golf is an individual game, yet this three-day biennial competition of 28 matches among two 12-player squads is commonly regarded as the sport’s version of the Super Bowl. With all due respect to the four major championships, the analogy makes sense considering the team format and the immense international ramifications. Many competitors — including Pavin — have said they’ve never felt as nervous as they were when competing in the Ryder Cup. There’s just something about playing for your country instead of yourself that ups the ante that much more. The matches have produced some of the most indelible moments in golf history, from the rawest displays of emotion to the most incredible moments of shotmaking. A member of three U.S. Ryder Cup squads, Pavin routinely displayed the same intangibles in the matches that made him one of the PGA Tour’s most successful competitors over the last 25 years. The former UCLA All-American and 1995 U.S. Open champion has long been regarded as one of the most tenacious, determined and feisty golfers ever, and it stands to reason those traits will be on display — albeit from the sidelines — as he leads the Americans into battle on European soil, where they haven’t won since 1993. Fasten your seatbelts. This should be pretty exciting. Have you enjoyed the process leading up to the matches? Is it about what you expected? It’s pretty much what I expected. Having played in three and being assistant captain in 2006, I had a pretty good idea of what was in store for me. There’s a lot to do as captain, and my wife Lisa has been Captainess. She’s been doing a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff, from clothing, golf bags, umbrellas, what kind of hats, what kind of food we’re going to serve, gifts — there’s so much to do. It’s really helped me to go out and compete — on both the Champions and PGA tours — and talk with the players, to just kind of hang out with them. The most fun for me has been the bantering with players that might be on the team. Even though the United States is the defending champion, the team hasn’t won on European soil since 1993. Do you feel a lot of pressure coming into the matches? I don’t. It’s up to the players to play. The pressure for me, whatever there is, is to create an environment for them. That’s my job as captain, to have everything in place so when we all get there, their preparation can be seamless. All I can do is let them go play— just say, ‘Go, boys. Make some putts and chip in some and win your matches.’ It will be a little bit tricky to watch since I’m used to playing, but I understand what my role is. Have you sought advice from past captains? Or, do you prefer to blaze your own trail as captain? Yes to both. I think every captain has to be his own self. I guess I bring certain things to the captaincy that others haven’t, and other captains bring things that I can’t. I think it’s important to be true to myself, and I’ve talked with I think every captain — I don’t know how far back — to get ideas and to hear what they’ve done, what they thought worked and didn’t work. Is there any past captain in particular you’ve sought advice from? [2006 U.S. captain] Tom Lehman is one of my assistants, so I’ll be talking plenty with him. Everybody has something a little different to say. The common thread seems to be just give them the best atmosphere you can to play. Everybody has their different style of captaining. I played for three captains — Dave Stockton was very meticulous and had everything planned out, Tom Watson was basically just like, ‘Go play your best,’ and Lanny Wadkins was very into it and pretty detail-oriented. He was kind of a combination of Watson and Stockton. What do you bring to the table that’s different than past captains? I have my own unique things to bring as a person. Obviously, I love the Ryder Cup, and I enjoy competing and mixing it up and getting right in the middle of all of the match-play situations. I enjoy playing in front of the Europeans on their home soil. It’s fun to win over there. It’s been a long time since we won over there, and I happened to be on that last winning team, as was one of my assistant captains, Davis Love III. We each have the experience of winning on foreign soil, and I hope I can instill that on the players. It’s a different situation when you play in Europe, and it’s more fun to win over there. Trust me. You’ve been characterized as one of the most competitive and spirited players in the recent history of the PGA Tour. Do you think that attitude will carry over to your captaincy? I hope so. I mean, I want my guys to be out there playing as hard as they can and wanting it very badly. Relaxed and focused — that’s what I want for Team U.S.A. It’s a hard balance to find, and it took me almost a full Ryder Cup to figure that out. I played two matches in 1991 and I finally kind of relaxed and was able to play my own game. Everybody on the team is going to want to win very badly, and everybody has different ways about competing. Some guys get all fired up and run around, other guys are very quiet and non-expressive. Whatever works for each individual is what needs to happen out there. Since turning 50, you’ve split your time between the PGA and Champions tours. You almost won the PGA Tour Travelers Championship this July. At any point, did you ever consider being a playing captain? No. I don’t think it mattered how I played this year. Being captain is a lot of responsibility and it takes up a lot of time. To be a playing captain in this day and age is nearly impossible. It’d be fun, I suppose, to say you’ve done something like that, but I think it’s pretty near impossible. ALSO SEE: How Pavin has fared at the Ryder Cup Paul Goydos brings wisdom as assistant captain Jamie Mulligan thinks Goydos has been one of a kind Southern California's connection to the Ryder Cup |
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