It’s Not a Minor Matter : Corey Pavin Has Won Everything Except a Major Title, but the Key Word to Add is <i> Yet</i>

It’s Friday afternoon at Indian Ridge and Corey Pavin is standing atop a mound on a rolling fairway that looks like an unmade bed.

He is staring into the distance, his back to the green, his mind . . . his mind, well, who knows where it is right now?

Maybe he’s thinking about how he might miss the cut at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Maybe he’s thinking where he might find his golf game again. Maybe he’s thinking about defending his title at the Nissan L.A. Open at Riviera next week.

One thing about Corey Pavin, he’s always thinking.

As one-time UCLA teammate Steve Pate said: “The best thing about Corey is what’s in his head.”

Tom Kite said Pavin’s greatest asset is his will.

“He’s got a tremendous desire, that’s the No. 1 thing,” Kite said. “He’s just a tremendous competitor.”

While no one has yet pinpointed the exact location of a person’s will, most likely it’s in the head, which seems to be Pavin’s acknowledged strength.

In fact, if you believe all the accounts, Pavin has so much stuff in his head it’s a wonder he doesn’t topple over on the first tee.

He thinks about how to cut the ball to get it on the green. He thinks about how much to take off that iron shot. He thinks about how soon he will win a major title.

A lot of people already are doing it for him.

“That’s a media creation,” Kite said. “That’s the same thing they said about me for so long. Every time it came up, I’d quietly say to myself the word yet . Hasn’t won a major yet .”

Kite won the U.S. Open in 1992, so he doesn’t have to complete sentences under his breath anymore. Pavin hasn’t won a major, but he has won just about everything else.

Since he turned pro in 1984, Pavin has won 11 times, banked nearly $6 million in prize money, played on two winning Ryder Cup teams and done a whole lot better than even he thought he would do.

“When I first started, I wouldn’t have expected to do what I’ve done so far,” Pavin said. “All I wanted to do was keep my card.

“But as my game reaches certain levels, I try to attain the next one.”

So this year’s goal is what?

“Winning a major,” he said.

For Pavin, it has been a long journey to get close to validating his reputation as one of the game’s best players and toughest competitors.

Pavin was an instant star at UCLA and an All-American as a sophomore when he won six tournaments, more than any other college player that year, a group that included Fred Couples, John Cook and Bob Tway.

The junior world champion at 17, Pavin won 11 tournaments at UCLA for Coach Eddie Merrins.

“I’d say the reason he succeeds is because he’s long on head and heart,” said Merrins, now the pro at Bel-Air Country Club. “He gets the most out of what he’s got.”

Born in Oxnard, Pavin became interested in golf because his two older brothers played it. He grew up hitting balls on the range at Las Posas Country Club in Camarillo, preparing for the time when that shot might mean something big.

“Everybody has those dreams of winning the U.S. Open, a Masters or British Open or PGA,” he said. “You’re hitting a six-iron on the range and thinking this is the shot onto the final green and all you have to do is get it on and two putt and you win.”

He’s still thinking about it, mainly because the media keeps on characterizing Pavin as the best player never to have won a major.

Pavin hardly is the first to bear such a burden, if it’s that, but he is the latest. In recent years, it was carried by Curtis Strange, Nick Price and Kite.

For Kite, the major-less tag was something more than a minor irritation.

“I guess somebody’s got to have that deal,” he said. “I just didn’t think it was very positive.”

Pavin’s position on the major issue remains positive.

“It doesn’t matter what other people say about me not winning a major yet,” he said. “What means something to me is that it’s one of my goals. That’s what I want to achieve, so what’s written, what’s said doesn’t bother me.

“The bottom line is what my goals are, and winning a major is my priority right now. And as soon as I win one, I won’t have to listen to those questions anymore.”

Pate was an acquaintance of Pavin’s as a junior golfer, but became closer to him at UCLA. He has seen Pavin come close to winning a major, most recently at last year’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills, when Pavin finished second to Price.

Because he knows Pavin’s game so well, Pate expects him to stuff a major title in his bag very soon.

“I’m semi-surprised he hasn’t won one already,” Pate said.

“His tenacity, his confidence, it’s a good combination. He’s accurate, he can do anything with the ball except hit it real hard.

“His ball-striking is very underrated, I think. Players know how good he hits it, but I don’t think people who watch golf tournaments realize it just isn’t long.”

And right now, it’s just taking too many strokes to put it in the hole. Pavin’s game is rolling downhill fast, a runaway putt on a slick green.

He tied for 12th at LaCosta, tied for 36th at Hawaii, tied for 65th at Pebble Beach, and on Saturday he made the cut at the Hope by one shot.

Did somebody say mentally tough?

“I wish I was right now,” Pavin said. “I haven’t really played all that well. I’m trying to figure some things out. Hopefully it’s just a little down phase I’m going through.

“I’ve hit the ball quite nicely, but my chipping and putting have been off. I just haven’t been scoring well. For the way I’ve been hitting the ball, I should be shooting 68 every time.

“Mechanically, there’s not a whole lot wrong. I think most of what’s wrong right now is right between my ears. That’s the bad part. One of my strengths isn’t my strength now.”

It can change quickly, though. Pavin said it happens in golf. A putt that looked as if it was heading for the vicinity of the Salton Sea instead will roll in. An iron will deliver the ball behind the flagstick and it will spin backward into the hole.

“I’m just waiting,” Pavin said. “I’ve been waiting for too long, but I’m just trying to stay patient.”

Which is the best thing he can do. You don’t get where Pavin is because you can’t play golf.

In time, maybe he will win a major. Most everyone expects Pavin to do so. He just hasn’t done it.

Yet.