His Game Is Not Long for This World

As they say in golf, you drive for show and putt for dough.

Former UCLA golfer Corey Pavin’s putting and short game enabled him to win on the PGA Tour on Sunday for the first time in 10 years.

Pavin, 46, who ranks 162nd and last on the tour in driving distance, came into the U.S. Bank Championship at Milwaukee averaging 264.4 yards off the tee, and averaged 263.6 during the tournament.

CBS commentator David Feherty may have best summed up Pavin’s two-stroke victory.

“I can’t emphasize enough how extraordinary this is, that he is able to win,” he said on the air. “In order to win in the modern game, he has to do everything he does perfectly. He’s a technician. He’s got a club-head speed of about 11 mph.”

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Trivia time: What is Pavin’s connection to the late Jim Healy?

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Honest John: Just how honest is John Wooden? Here’s an example from a new book, “How to Be Like Coach Wooden,” written by Orlando Magic executive Pat Williams with David Wimbish:

Lorenzo Romar, now the men’s basketball coach at Washington, says when he was at Pepperdine in the early 1990s, he took his staff to visit Wooden at his condominium in Encino. “He called me the next day,” Romar recalls, “and said, ‘One of your coaches had 75 cents slip out of his pocket into my sofa. I want to get it back to him.’ ”

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Another example: Also from Williams’ book comes this from Ken Weiner, a senior associate athletic director at UCLA:

“During the 1970s, an administrator for the athletic department issued a stern reminder that telephones were for official use only. When Coach went through his own telephone bill, he found three personal calls. He dutifully wrote out a check for $1.50.”

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Too many to count: Wooden was recently asked how many books have been written about him. He said he doesn’t know.

Bill Walton, who wrote the foreword for Williams’ book, doesn’t know either but says, “I’ve read them all and written the introductions for most of them.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1996, Michael Johnson won the 200 meters at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in a world-record 19.32 seconds. He became the first male to complete a 200-400 Olympic double.

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Trivia answer: Pavin used to be married to Healy’s niece, Shannon, the daughter of Healy’s brother, Dennis. They were divorced about five years ago and Pavin has since remarried.

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And finally: Ten years ago, when Pavin’s son Ryan was 10, he and his father won a father-son tournament in Orlando, Fla. Channel 4 news reporter Patrick Healy, the son of Jim, around the same time witnessed Ryan Pavin’s putting prowess.

“At a miniature golf course near the Del Mar racetrack, Corey and I took on Ryan and his brother Austin, who was then about 3,” Healy said. “Ryan not only beat me, he also beat his dad.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.