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 Watch the interview with Pavin at Journey at Pechanga Watch Pavin share three secrets to help improve your putting. At 5-foot-9 and 155 pounds, Pavin, 48, is anything but a bomb-and-gouger: In 1984, his first full year as a PGA Tour member, he averaged 258.8 yards per drive to rank in the middle of the pack; this year, his average of about 262 yards puts him at the bottom. Among the more than 200 players ranked ahead of him is Fred Funk, who donned a pink skirt when Annika Sorenstam drove her tee shot farther than him at the 2005 Skins Game. Instead, the 1995 U.S. Open victor leans on course-management skills to post solid scores, rolls the ball as well anyone with his 1984 Bulls Eye putter and prides himself on curving the ball left and right from tee to green. Pavin might be small in stature, but he’s big on tenacity. “He doesn’t care how he beats you, he just wants to beat you,” says Jay Delsing, Pavin’s former teammate at UCLA and his best friend. “He’s got a strong mind and a very powerful sense about how to get things done. Once he gets his mind set on something, forget it.” Regarded by his peers as a “bulldog” type of player, Pavin is still growling on the PGA Tour, even though the senior circuit isn’t far on the horizon. This season, he has notched six top-15 finishes, including a tie for third at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am punctuated by a final-round 66. His game has also heated up this summer, as he busted into the top 10 at June’s Travelers Championship with a closing 64 and matched that score in his next round at the outset of the Buick Open.
What’s also made 2008 memorable for Pavin is his new partnership with Journey at Pechanga, a scenic layout in Temecula that opens this month (see accompanying story). By representing the casino course as its touring professional, the Oxnard native has rekindled his Southern California connection. “I wanted to get involved with a first-class organization, and this is it,” Pavin says of Pechanga. “Representing a Southern California golf course is almost a dream come true. It’s nice to get back to my roots.” The road to glory Growing up in the Central Coast, Pavin spent time with his brothers at Camarillo’s Las Posas Country Club, where his development as a junior player took off once he started taking lessons from assistant professional Bruce Hamilton at age 16. “He was a 6 or 7 [handicap] when we started, and after working for between three and six months, he was about a 2 or 1,” says Hamilton, who remained Pavin’s instructor well into his professional tenure. “He had a pretty good work ethic.” The results truly started to show in the summer of 1977 after Pavin graduated high school: wins at the Junior World and Los Angeles City championships put him on the national radar and netted a scholarship to UCLA, which not only helped him compete for a top program but also put him close to the Bruins men’s basketball squad — his favorite sports team. Despite Pavin’s quick ascent, it was his sophomore year at UCLA that made him realize golf was a realistic career goal. “I won six times as a sophomore. It gave me a lot of confidence in trying to be a professional golfer,” he recalls. The two-time All-American turned pro in 1982 and didn’t make the cut at PGA Tour Qualifying School, prompting him to begin his professional journey overseas. Pavin’s first victory is still one of the biggest of his career — the 1983 Lufthansa German Open, where he held off Seve Ballesteros for the crown. The momentum from that victory spilled over to the United States, as Pavin qualified for the PGA Tour and won at least once each year from 1984 through 1988. It wasn’t long before he gained the Best Player Never To Have Won A Major moniker. Prior to 1995, Pavin had come close, with eight top 10s, including a third-place finish at the 1992 Masters and a second-place result at the 1994 PGA Championship. His 1995 campaign began auspiciously with a successful title defense at the Nissan Open, his fourth PGA Tour triumph at a Southern California course. A week before the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, Pavin lost a playoff to Lee Janzen at the Kemper Open. “After he beat me, before I could even say congratulations, the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘You know, the guy that finishes second the week before the Open wins it.’ I said, ‘Whatever, you’re just saying that to make me feel better,’” Pavin recalls. “It was a pretty good call on his part.” Pavin’s triumph at the national championship was sealed with one of the most memorable clutch shots ever — a 4-wood from 228 yards on the par-4 18th that settled about five feet away and brought him a comfortable two-stroke edge over Greg Norman. Pavin’s celebration after that shot won’t soon be forgotten, but something often overlooked is the constant uphill climb he endured at Shinnecock. “I wasn’t under par at any point of the tournament,” says Pavin, who initially seemed headed for trouble with two bogeys in the first four holes of his opening round but salvaged his start by holing out for eagle on the par-5 fifth. “Between the fifth hole on Thursday and the 15th hole on Sunday, I had never gotten back to even par.” Decline and rejuvenation While that victory was the pinnacle of his career, a descent occurred over the next 10 years. A solid 1996 campaign that featured his second victory at Colonial was backed up with a 1997 campaign that netted only $99,304. Adding to the tumult was a waning relationship with his wife, Shannon, that resulted in a divorce in 2000. “Corey’s a pretty happy guy. When his first marriage went south, he was not a happy guy,” Delsing says. Though Pavin continued to have difficulty on the course in the early part of this decade, he found renewed happiness when he met his new wife, Lisa, whom he married in 2003. A year later, in the middle of his 40s, he broke into the top 100 of the money list for the first time since 1999. “Stability is always good, and I have great support from Lisa. Whether she’s traveling with me or not, she’s behind me 100 percent,” Pavin says. “It may sound cliché, but it’s very important to have your family and your wife behind you and supporting everything you do.” What also fostered improvement was the help of swing guru Butch Harmon, a relationship that led Pavin to Greg LaBelle, a Harmon associate, in 2006. A couple months after LaBelle and Pavin began working together, the 46-year-old Tour veteran put his new instructor’s teachings to work in record-breaking fashion. His 8-under-par 26 over the first nine holes of the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee remains the lowest nine-hole total ever tallied on the PGA Tour. Pavin also matched the lowest 36-hole mark in PGA Tour history (125) at the event, which he won to end his 10-year victory drought. “It’s always satisfying to compete, no matter what age you are and no matter what kinds of slumps you’ve been in,” Pavin says. “Probably about five of those years in that 10-year period, I hit it very poorly, and my swing kind of deserted me. It was almost impossible to compete.” While LaBelle hasn’t transformed Pavin into a 300-yard hitter, he has made changes that have tuned his game to today’s equipment advances. “He’s worked really hard at getting his driver up in the air and working the ball right to left in competition,” says LaBelle. “He’s actually better at it now than he’s ever been. Adds LaBelle: “I think he’s one of the most amazing golfers on the planet. I’m not sure there are too many people better in terms of thinking their way around the course. He knows exactly how to use his game to get the best score.”  What lies ahead With his 2009 PGA Tour playing status almost in the bag, Pavin is able to focus on a part of his life that’s more monumental than any swing change: He and Lisa welcomed a baby girl, Alexis, on the day after Christmas last year. “It’s been a wonderful year. I wasn’t playing as consistently at the beginning of the year as I would have liked, but a lot of that was having a baby and wanting to be home a little bit more,” Pavin says. “After we got settled in, I played a little more consistently on a higher level, and that’s what I’m after.” No matter how much Pavin’s tournament results fluctuate, Delsing said his nobility doesn’t waver. When the St. Louis native lost his father on May 4, 2006 — the same day as the first round of the Wachovia Championship — Pavin didn’t hesitate to come to his friend’s side. “Before I could even talk to him about it, he withdrew,” Delsing says. “I told him my dad would have never even wanted you to do this. That just shows what kind of man he is.” Another memorable moment in their friendship was when Pavin caddied for Delsing at Qualifying School in 2003. With Delsing on the bubble for much of the pressure-packed final round, Pavin kept him calm by retelling stories of his experiences at the Ryder Cup, and the banter did enough to generate some birdies and ultimately launch Delsing back to the circuit. Pavin has worn other hats in the golf industry as well, including writer (in 1996 he worked with Guy Yocom on “Corey Pavin’s Shotmaking”) and on-course television commentator. With his 50th birthday not far off, Pavin would like to play competitively as long as possible, meaning that a stint on the Champions Tour is probable. Another role he wouldn’t mind having is Ryder Cup captain. “I love the Ryder Cup. It’s my favorite event that I’ve ever been involved in,” says Pavin, who compiled an 8-5-0 record in the competition and helped keep the Cup on American soil in each of his three appearances. “Hopefully I’m on a very short list that the PGA of America has [for captains]. If they did happen to pick me, I’d be very honored to do it.” He’s also involved with Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping troops and their families in need. “I went to Iraq on a USO trip over Thanksgiving in 2006. It was just an eye-opening trip for me to go over there and see what a lot of men and women go through,” Pavin says. “They’re putting their lives on the line for us. I just wanted to do something to help out.” Pavin’s involvement with such a cause is one of many aspects of a man who has proven to be a fiery competitor and a good person. “He’s a great golfer, but he’s a better friend,” Delsing says. SG |
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