It’s Pavin to the Defense

You could bale it. You could comb it with a plow. You could lose a car in it. You could feed entire herds of hungry cattle with it.

It’s that darned rough where you probably could lose the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills Country Club if your golf ball spends too much time in it.

And how do you win the U.S. Open?

Well, it’s going to be a rough job, and not only because of those tall, grassy areas of uncut hay located just off the fairways and greens, the ones that look like weeds on steroids.

Lee Janzen said the rough is bad enough, though.

“It’s brutal,” he said.

The U.S. Open is tough enough, but there’s also the history thing, which is what should have Corey Pavin’s mustache turning golf ball-white right about now.

The fact is that for the last three defending champions, the U.S. Open has been an unplayable lie. Consider:

1993: After winning the Open at Pebble Beach, Tom Kite misses the cut at Baltusrol.

1994: After winning the Open at Baltusrol, Janzen misses the cut at Oakmont.

1995: After winning the Open at Oakmont, Ernie Els misses the cut at Shinnecock Hills.

1996: After winning the Open at Shinnecock Hills, Pavin (fill in the blank) at Oakland Hills.

Now, Corey, about that Kite-Janzen-Els trifecta: What are you going to do about it?

“Obviously they didn’t figure it out, so why should I have to?” said Pavin, who begins his defense Thursday.

“It’s a difficult question to answer because I never won a major before, so I don’t know what it’s going to be like.”

Chances are it’s going to be really hard. Here at Oakmont, the course is known as “the Monster,” mainly because Ben Hogan named it that when he closed with a 67 to win the 1951 U.S. Open on the hilly, tree-lined, twisting track and proudly proclaimed, “I brought the monster to its knees.”

Pavin’s challenge is not a small one. No one has repeated as U.S. Open champion since Curtis Strange won in 1988-89. Of course, Strange hasn’t won a tournament since.

At any rate, Pavin said his game is in good shape, considering he won last month at Colonial. He also is in fine thinking shape too, according to his brain coach, Dr. Richard Coop of the education psychology department at the University of North Carolina.

Coop rates Pavin’s mental toughness on par with a former client of his--Michael Jordan.

“You’d have to say he was pretty strong,” said Coop, who when Jordan was a freshman at Chapel Hill, introduced him to golf.

No introductions to recent U.S. Open golf history are necessary for Pavin. He knows what’s up right after the words “Lee Janzen . . . “ are spoken.

“You don’t have to finish the question,” Pavin said.

Coop said it’s not even necessary to start it. Pavin is different from the others who failed to make the cut the year they were defending their Open titles.

“He stays completely in the moment, in the shot, in each hole, each round, each tournament,” Coop said. “I know it’s a cliche, but if you do that, it doesn’t matter if it’s the U.S. Open, it’s just the next shot you’re playing.”

At least Pavin isn’t playing it alone.

Coop is not the only part of the Pavin team here this week. Chuck Cook, Pavin’s swing coach from Austin, Texas, is around and so is Rocky Hambric, Pavin’s agent from Dallas.

Pavin is wearing a new shirt logo for a telecommunications company, in a deal that Hambric brokered as a result of Shinnecock.

The residual effect as it relates to the business side of winning a U.S. Open is ongoing, Hambric said. Pavin’s equipment deal with Cleveland is up for renewal at the end of the year. Pavin already has a new, expanded role with Titleist for playing two-piece golf balls.

Pavin has a golf instruction book recently out and his fee for playing overseas has doubled since Shinnecock. Pavin has committed to two so far--the Sun City Million Dollar Challenge in early December and an event in Korea in early October.

It’s a lucrative field--overseas appearance fees for top players are $200,000-$300,000 a week. Hambric said Pavin is so busy with his corporate endorsements, he has to limit any other one-day corporate outings to one or two the rest of the year--at about $50,000 per.

“And we’ve negotiated with probably a dozen companies we haven’t done deals with,” Hambric said.

As for the client-golfer himself, Pavin is being fine-tuned slightly, especially on his putting. He has been noticed as becoming too mechanical with his putts, so Pavin is trying for a more natural stroke and to avoid spending too much time studying the line.

In addition, Cook and Coop have changed Pavin’s rehearsal strokes and turned his left foot slightly for more stability.

Will it work? Hey, Pavin won last year at Shinnecock with his team fine-tuning him all the way. Just don’t say he looks relaxed.

“Relaxed? I don’t know about being relaxed,” Pavin said. “Being defending champion is nice, but it doesn’t get you anything when you step up to the first tee except a different introduction. It doesn’t put you two or three under par to start the tournament.”

Chances are two or three under would win this thing. Andy North won the last U.S. Open played here in 1985 with a one-under-par 279.

There are only two par fives, and neither one may be reachable in two. The par fours are generally long, the fairways usually get smaller the farther the drive, there is more sand around the greens than in the Sahara and the greens have so many humps, there must be camels buried underneath.

Then you have to consider the rough. It has been too wet to cut, so the rough is fairly tall in many places. Coop said this may work to Pavin’s advantage.

“I’d rather have it rough, rough, rough, than wispy rough,” he said. “If it was wispy, the advantage would go to the big guys who could hit it out of there. If nobody can, it’s to Corey’s advantage.”

U.S. Open history says he may need one.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. Open at a Glance

* Dates--Thursday Through Sunday.

* Site--Oakland Hills Country Club (South course), Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

* Length--6,974 yards.

* Par--35-35--70.

* Format--72 holes (18 daily) stroke play.

* Playoff, if necessary--18 holes, Monday.

* Field--156 (151 pros, 5 amateurs).

* Purse--$2.4 million.

* Winner’s share--$425,000.

* Defending champion--Corey Pavin.

* Former champions at Oakland Hills--Cyril Walker (1924), Ralph Guldahl (1937), Ben Hogan (1951), Gene Littler (1961), Andy North (1985).

* TV--NBC (Thursday-Friday, Noon-2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.; Monday, if necessary, 11 a.m.-conclusion) and ESPN (Thursday-Friday, 8-11 a.m. and 2-4:30 p.m.; Monday, if necessary, 9-11 a.m.).