L.A. OPEN : Pavin the Way for PGA After Consecutive Titles? : Golf: Defending champion wins again, making him a logical favorite for August tournament at Riviera.

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 27, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Welcome to Riviera. Here’s your tour guide, Corey Pavin.

Those drives you hit, are they headed for zip codes not your own? Do your irons have bamboo shafts? Does the fairway seem so narrow you might have to walk sideways to get through?

If so, then do what Pavin does. Merely play a tournament at Riviera. Pavin won the Nissan L.A. Open there Sunday for the second consecutive year, negotiating Riviera for a closing 67 for 16-under 268 and a three-shot victory worth $216,000.

Besides the money, what’s it mean to be a back-to-back winner?

“It’s better than winning one in a row,” Pavin said.

Count on it. As it stands now, Pavin is working on a two-tournament winning streak at Riviera, which quickly and unexpectedly rescued Pavin’s game from a deep bunker.

In Pavin’s four other starts, his finishes were ties for 12th, 36th, 65th and 70th. Then he gets to Riviera.

And now he’s probably going to be a favorite for the PGA Championship, which isn’t until August, but which will be played at Riviera, where passing Pavin is not possible in recent times.

“That’s fine with me,” Pavin said. “I hope they’re correct, especially at the end.”

It really wasn’t close Sunday after Pavin tore the lead away from Kenny Perry with a dead-on 12-foot birdie putt at No. 6.

He made the turn with a two-shot lead and had a three-shot lead after 13, where Perry air-mailed his second shot out of bounds and took a double-bogey.

Fred Couples hit two balls out of bounds on No. 1, but he wasn’t in contention like Perry, who knew his chances had ended once that five-iron sailed far left of the green.

“That’ll stick in my head for a long time,” Perry said.

Perry, who led Pavin by one stroke after 54 holes, finished with a 71 and a second-place tie with Jay Don Blake, who finished with a 69 and a healthy respect for Pavin.

“I think you’ve got to hit the ball well around here,” he said. “It does come down to putting. Corey made a bunch of them.”

And so he did, which was something of a surprise mainly because he was having so much trouble on the greens, right up to the point he first sunk his spikes into the grass at Riviera.

Pavin was quick to point out the reason for such an abrupt change in his golf fortunes.

“I found my putter,” he said. “I had it in my bag, it just wasn’t working properly.”

For four days, Pavin pretended Riviera’s greens were the carpet in his living room. If he were any more comfortable, he would have shampooed them on his way out.

He came to Riviera early Monday and went directly to the putting green to try to work out his problems. He found what he was looking for. It was Riviera.

“I was certainly glad to get back here,” he said. “It’s been a trying time for me. But I tried to be patient and it paid off. The way I felt on the greens, it was very calming to me.”

Perry said Pavin played like somebody on a mission, which Pavin did. Pavin said he didn’t want to merely return to defend his title, he wanted to win again.

“You know, Corey played tough,” Perry said. “He’s a gutty little competitor.”

Pavin said he would like to slightly alter this description.

“You can leave out the gutty and little,” Pavin said.

He is the fifth back-to-back winner of the L.A. Open, but the first since Ben Hogan to win the tournament in consecutive years at Riviera, which Hogan did in 1947-48. Paul Harney won in 1964-65 at Rancho Park, Arnold Palmer won in 1966-67 at Rancho and Mac Smith won in 1928 at Wilshire Country Club and in 1929 at Riviera.

It was the 12th victory of Pavin’s 12-year career and moved him past $6 million in earnings. He is the 10th player to reach that mark.

In about six months, Pavin can come back to Riviera and try it again at the PGA. He finished second to Nick Price in last year’s PGA, but that was at Southern Hills in Tulsa, not at Riviera, where Pavin has this built-in home-field advantage.

Pavin might not own Riviera, but at least he rents it by the week from time to time.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE TOP 8

Corey Pavin: 67-66-68-67--268

Jay Don Blake: 69-67-66-69--271

Kenny Perry: 70-62-68-71--271

Scott Simpson: 70-66-68-68--272

Craig Stadler: 67-68-67-70--272

Jodie Mudd: 66-71-69-67--273

Jay Haas: 69-70-68-67--274

Lanny Wadkins: 67-72-66-69--274

OTHERS