Pavin Quits the U.S. Open After 7 Holes

On the eve of the first round of the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Corey Pavin made a prediction. At the time, however, he could never have realized how painfully prophetic the statement was.

Pavin, who has slumped since winning a pair of PGA Tour events in the first two months of 1987, said he thought the key to his chances in the tournament depended on how well he did on the front nine Thursday morning.

“Everything seems to be there physically,” Pavin said via telephone Wednesday. “But when you haven’t played well for a while, you need to get some tournament shots under your belt.

“The first nine holes could tell a lot about what happens the rest of the week.”

As it turned out, not only was the front nine the key, it was his downfall. After playing the first seven holes 7-over par, Pavin withdrew from the tournament Thursday, telling U.S. Golf Assn. officials that he suffered from lower back pain.

No one but Pavin knows whether the bogey-itis caused the back pain or the back pain caused the bogey-itis. Either way, he never made it to the back nine, or even to the ninth hole. He immediately left the course and checked out of his hotel.

After starting par-bogey-par, Pavin triple-bogeyed the fourth hole, bogeyed the sixth and double-bogeyed the seventh. He then walked the short distance from the seventh green to the clubhouse and withdrew.

Pavin, a graduate of Camarillo High and UCLA, won the Bob Hope Desert Classic in January and the Hawaiian Open in February to lead the tour with more than $170,000 in winnings. He’s finished no higher than 25th since, however, missing the cut in five of his last 11 tournaments. In 16 starts this year, Pavin, 27, is seventh on the money list with $333,749.

Wednesday night, Pavin said he thought his game was making progress.

“It seems to be coming around,” he said. “Taking a little time off should help.”

Pavin slipped the last two tour stops, hoping to rediscover his touch in time for the Open. His teaching pro of 12 years, Bruce Hamilton of Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo, made a trip to San Francisco this week in an attempt to get to the core of Corey’s problems.

“We worked on fundamentals for about three hours,” Hamilton said, “On his swing plane and things like that.”

And just like that--about three days earlier than they’d hoped--Pavin was hopping aboard a plane to swing down to Los Angeles, where he and Hamilton will try to put Pavin back on track.

“Players are streaky, they all are,” Hamilton said. “Corey shot 63 in an exhibition in Chicago a week and a half ago and tied a course record, and he’d missed the cut a few days earlier.

“I think he may have gotten a little burned out. Sometimes all the attention you get takes you out of your regular routine. You don’t do the things that got you there in the first place.”

Pavin has said his play this year is disconcertingly similar to the results of 1986.

“I missed a lot of cuts, which isn’t really like me, and I was just too inconsistent,” he said. “I’d rather play like I did last year, when I finished sixth on the money list and was in the top 10 in 13 of the 27 events I played in.”

Since Hawaii, Pavin has placed 35th at Doral, 50th at the Tournament Players Championship, 27th at the Masters, 26th at Heritage, 25th at Colonial and 26th at Atlanta. He missed the cut at the Los Angeles, Bay Hill, Greensboro, Las Vegas and Memorial events.

“I’m not at all happy with the way I’ve been playing this year,” Pavin said. “I don’t like to think of myself as a streak player--I’d rather be consistent.”

Hamilton said Pavin’s withdrawal Thursday was a setback, but that he hopes progress can be made when the two get together next week to continue work on Pavin’s swing, if not his psyche.

“No question, it’s disappointing,” Hamilton said. “I really don’t know what went wrong--he has had trouble with muscle pulls before. I’ll find out when I hear from him.”

Steve Pate of Simi Valley shot 71 on the par-70 Olympic course. Duffy Waldorf of Tarzana fired a 4-over 74. Tom Lehman of Simi Valley shot 77.