GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Riviera Is Becoming Corey’s Course

Riviera is Hogan’s Alley, but Corey Pavin has a chance to change it to something else . . . like maybe Pavin’s Place.

The PGA Championship, the fourth and last major tournament of the year, hits town in a week, and out there among the eucalyptus trees and the barrancas and the kikuyu grass and the rebuilt greens, Pavin probably is going to be the favorite.

The reason is that Riviera is a friendly track for Pavin. He won the Nissan Open there this year for the second time and is coming off his first major title, the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

Pavin can be the fourth player in PGA history to win the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship in the same year. The others: Gene Sarazen (1922), Ben Hogan (1948) and Jack Nicklaus (1980).

By the way, Hogan’s U.S. Open title that year was at Riviera, when the place became Hogan’s Alley.

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Field day: The PGA has received commitments from 59 of the top 60 players in the Sony world rankings to play at Riviera.

Mark James of England, ranked 57th, is the exception. He wants to stay in Europe to collect Ryder Cup points. The Hohe Brucke Open is being played in Austria the same week.

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Hot shots: Seldom has a major event produced such wild, wonderful, wacky shotmaking as what transpired at St. Andrews in the British Open.

There were so many as memorable as your first bite of haggis, you couldn’t stuff them all into the Road Bunker.

Here are the top 10 high (low) points:

(1) Costantino Rocca’s 66-foot putt through the Valley of Sin in front of No. 18 that tied John Daly on the 72nd hole and forced a playoff.

(2) Michael Campbell’s sand shot from the Road Bunker (where else?) that clipped the side of the bunker, popped over the edge, rolled to the right and stopped a foot from the hole . . . even though he was aiming left and praying it would stop 20 or 30 feet away.

(3) John Daly’s 35-foot uphill putt on the second playoff hole that proved Daly has a soft touch . . . and that chocolate chip muffins are a golfer’s best friend.

(4) Ian Baker-Finch’s drive on No. 1 on the first day that he snap-hooked out of bounds across not one, but two fairways, mis-hit by about 110 yards.

(5) Greg Norman’s billiard-like shot at the Road Hole (of course) when he bounced the ball off a stone wall and got it to ricochet back onto the green, where he saved par.

(6) Bill Glasson’s tee shot on the Road Hole (again?) when he drove out of bounds off the side of the Old Course hotel.

(7) Rocca’s putt off the road at the Road Hole (yes, again) when the ball somehow popped into the air and stopped on the green close enough for him to save par.

(8) Daly’s drive onto the 18th green that bounced off the steps of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse, after which he two-putted for birdie.

(9) Jack Nicklaus’ travails Thursday in Hell Bunker on No. 14, where he wound up scoring a 10 on the hole, his worst in the British Open in more than three decades.

(10) Rocca’s miserable chunked chip shot on No. 18 Sunday, right before his 66-foot miracle shot (see No. 1).

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Just don’t sugar-coat it: In Great Britain, he’s the Wild Thing, but John Daly has proved to be a source of great interest and amusement to the newspaper reporters and readers there.

For instance, here is what Alan Fraser of the Scottish Daily Mail said about Daly:

“John Daly would not mind you thinking him a non-drinking alcoholic, a chocoholic gorging himself stupid, a slob, a flouter of authority, a gambler, a chronic migraine sufferer and a big-hitting freak who gives golf architects nervous breakdowns.

“John Daly is all that. He is also the most compulsively watchable player in [the] game.”

So, he likes him?

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Quote of the week: From Daly, half-jokingly declining when asked before he won the British Open if he would join the Royal and Ancient upon a possible victory: “I hate them rules and crap.”

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Leeward: For calendar-watchers, Lee Trevino’s last Senior PGA Tour victory was on July 31, 1994, in the Northville Long Island Classic.

Trevino has won at least three events each year since joining the seniors in 1990.

Golf Notes

Valley Presbyterian Hospital and Valley Internal Medicine is sponsoring a celebrity tournament Aug. 28 at North Ranch Country Club. The event benefits the Organization for the Needs of the Elderly (O.N.E.). Details: (818) 990-9490. . . . John Michael Montgomery will play host to the Academy of Country Music Bill Boyd tournament on Oct. 16 at De Bell golf course in Burbank. Proceeds from the event will benefit the T. J. Martell Foundation for cancer, AIDS and leukemia research for children, the American Foundation for AIDs Research and the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. Details: (213) 462-2351. . . . Bruce Jenner, Bill Walton, Bob Seagren, Julius Erving, James Worthy and Steve Garvey are among the sports celebrities scheduled to play in the Byron Scott Challenge for Children celebrity tournament on Sept. 10 at Marbella Golf and Country Club in San Juan Capistrano. Details: (714) 661-7117. . . . A public Town Hall meeting to discuss operation of the 19 Los Angeles County golf courses will be held at 1 p.m. on Aug. 9 at Knollwood golf course in Granada Hills. . . . In four events on the Senior PGA Tour, Hale Irwin has won $222,525, which places him behind Bruce Summerhays (20 events, $385,384) in the rookie-of-the-year race. Another celebrated rookie, farmer-golfer Robert Landers, has earned $32,938 in 18 events and is 88th on the money list.