Tuning Out Mechanics, Pavin Fixing to End Slump

In one kind of golf slump, you hit the ball well but just can’t score. In the other, you look as if you’re emptying trash cans when you swing and the hole is the size of a bathtub drain.

Corey Pavin’s slump is the first kind. It’s not as if he isn’t even close, he insists, because he is.

“I haven’t gotten off to the greatest start, but my game is starting to come around and I’m starting to feel confident,” he says.

That’s comforting to the 36-year-old 1995 U.S. Open champion, who is known as much for his resolve as his game. If you have been looking for someone able to coax a golf ball into a hole through sheer willpower, Pavin’s your guy.

Only it hasn’t worked that way this year. He tied for eighth at La Costa but then finished tied for 67th at the Bob Hope Classic, missed the cut at Torrey Pines and tied for 38th two weeks ago at Hawaii.

That sent Pavin back to work on his game and to the putting green, where he is using a Bullseye putter again and trying not to think too much about mechanics.

Since he won the Colonial in May, Pavin has had two top-10 finishes in 16 tournaments. He recently pulled out the videotape of his U.S. Open victory at Shinnecock Hills and realized he hasn’t been rocking into his shots with his feet.

He also parted ways with one of his teachers--pro Chuck Cook of Austin, Texas--changed equipment from Cleveland to PRGR and is waiting for better results.

But he isn’t blaming his old clubs.

“It would be a nice excuse,” he said. “I’m not going to bail out that way. It’s just me, which is nice, really, because I know I can fix it.”

GREEN PIECE

Pavin said that probably the right thing to do with the bumpy greens at Riviera is to start over.

“Obviously, it would cost the club a lot of money to pull them up and seed ‘em, but maybe that’s what they should do,” he said.

“You can see the roots aren’t real deep. I know it not only costs a lot of money, but the members can’t play if the greens are seeded. These are the things the club has to look at. In the long run, they would be better off.”

AGE-OLD STORY

Mark O’Meara, on life at 40: It’s only a number.

“I’m 40 years old, but I don’t feel like I’m 40,” he said. “The golf ball doesn’t know I’m 40. My clubs don’t know I’m 40.”

One thing to know about 40 is that it’s what you don’t want to be writing down after you’ve played the front nine.

SHOW ME THE . . .

Since the Nissan Open is the last tournament before the tour heads to Florida, it’s nearly time to say goodbye.

But before we go . . .

There has been a lot written about the West Coast part of the PGA Tour, how many of the stars--Greg Norman, to name one--either skip it entirely or play only a few events.

This is known as “The Coast is toast” approach.

Phil Mickelson has a better idea. A West Coast guy from San Diego, Mickelson said the best thing Left Coast tournaments can do is to appeal to the players’ fiscal responsibility.

“I guess if they maybe have a purse whereby players fall so behind by not playing the West Coast, then it will force the top players who normally skip the West Coast to come out and play.

“But the way it is right now . . . a lot of players have been able to start in Florida because the size of the purses [there] has been so great they can hop up to the top of the money list.

“If you have a $2-million purse, a guy can’t fall $360,000 behind in one event and expect to make it up in Florida. I think that’s what’s going to need to happen.”

There are no $2-million West Coast events, but there aren’t any in Florida either, except for the $3.5-million Players Championship.

On the West Coast, the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am increased its purse $400,000 to $1.9 million this year and the Buick Invitational raised its purse $300,000 to $1.5 million.

The Nissan Open, Phoenix Open and the Bob Hope Classic increased their purses $200,000.

GOLF WIZARD TOO

Pavin, who left UCLA and turned pro in 1982, had dinner this week with one of his idols, former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

As it turns out, Wooden also has long been a fan of Pavin.

“I’ve watched Corey through the years,” said Wooden, 86. “I have great respect for Corey and what a competitor he is.”

Wooden enjoys watching golf, especially on television.

“There is more sportsmanship in professional golf than in any other sport,” said Wooden, who is good friends with Bel-Air pro Eddie Merrins, who was Pavin’s coach at UCLA. “For that reason, it has great appeal for me.”

Wooden noted that Pavin is listed at 5 feet 9.

“I like to see someone of his size being able to excel,” Wooden said.

So Pavin would have to play point guard?

“I imagine he would be a good one,” Wooden said. “Tyus Edney wasn’t very big, but he turned out to be good, didn’t he?”

LPGA: TYPE-CASTING

Karen Weiss of St. Paul used to work at a Target store in Roseville, Minn., which happened to be the first store in the chain.

Her mother used to work there too.

Weiss turned pro in 1993, but when she was looking for a sponsor this year, her mother had an idea. Now, Weiss is sponsored by Target, which probably means they’re employing her again.

The 30-year-old from St. Paul is 56th on the money list after five events.

SENIORS: THEY’RE HIP

George Archer had his arthritic hip replaced in April, so guess who was asking Archer about it. Jack Nicklaus, who told Archer that his chronically arthritic right hip is disrupting his sleep because of the pain.

“It’s as much a lifestyle problem as it is with golf,” said Archer, who hinted to Nicklaus that he should consider surgery.

“If he has it done before he’s 58, he’ll be back playing Super Seniors by 60 at the worst.”

Nicklaus, 57, has played two of the first six events on the Senior PGA Tour and has won $30,294.

YES FOR NOE

The last man to beat Tiger Woods as an amateur?

That would be 19-year-old Terry Noe of Fullerton, a freshman at Long Beach State who qualified for the Nissan Open on Monday morning.

On Tuesday, Noe got his first look at Riviera, playing a practice round. He hooked up with Tommy Armour III for a couple of holes, but went most of the way himself.

“I had to play fast,” Noe said. “I had a geography test.”

How did it turn out?

“Pretty good,” Noe said. “Multiple choice.”

The only amateur in the Nissan Open field, Noe shot a first-round 71, six shots off the lead. He felt as good about that as he did when he managed to put his ball on the fairway from the elevated first tee.

The view from way up there to what looks like a ribbon of a fairway is pretty interesting, said Noe, using another phrase.

“It was like hell,” he said.

Noe defeated Woods in the first round of match play at last August’s Western Amateur. Woods, who went on to win his third consecutive U.S. Amateur, did not lose again.

“It gave me a lot of confidence,” Noe said. “I was proud of myself for beating Tiger.”

LORD OF FLY

Senior golfers might want to think twice before inconveniencing Hale Irwin again.

Irwin had to charter a plane, at his own expense, from Sarasota, Fla., where he played last weekend in the American Express Invitational, to get to San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico, in time for Monday’s Senior Slam.

Why? The date for the two-day Mexican event had been moved up two weeks to avoid a conflict with the Doral-Ryder Open in Miami because Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd wanted to play at Doral.

Nicklaus, Floyd and Dave Stockton took last weekend off, but Irwin had to play at Sarasota because he was the defending champion.

Irwin had the last laugh, though. He won in Mexico and took home $250,000, presumably flying commercial.

HE KNEW TIGER WHEN

When Woods played his first professional event, it was as a 16-year-old amateur in the 1992 Nissan Los Angeles Open.

He shot 72-75, which put him 17 shots behind leader Davis Love III, and six off the cut.

Woods’ playing partners in those two rounds were Robert Friend and Dicky Thompson, who also missed the cut.

Friend, a Pennsylvania pro who plays on the Nike Tour, said it wasn’t hard to figure out then that Woods was something special.

“He was definitely impressive,” Friend said. “More so for his poise, maybe, than anything else. Being 16 years old playing in front of 5,000 people, and he never once got upset about anything.

“I guess since I was there in the beginning, I’ve been watching his progress, but even I’m sort of surprised about it. I mean, the kid had been beating the dog out of every amateur in the country the last six years.

“But what he’s done, how far he hits it, how often he’s winning, that’s Nicklaus-type stuff. It’s unbelievable. To think it’s the same kid as I played with in 1992.”