Golf doesn’t get old for Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin

Resplendent in Bruins blue, Corey Pavin had yet another day in the limelight Tuesday.

Golfers call the Champions Tour their mulligan of life, and the 50-year-old Pavin is one of its current poster boys. But there is much more going on in Pavin’s professional life than merely a chance to play again against men who are similarly limber — which is not at all — and who don’t hit their drives an area code beyond yours.

“It’s fun to walk the fairways with guys with whom you can talk about the last 30 years,” Pavin said.

Pavin, the 1995 U.S. Open champion and winner of 15 PGA Tour events, is entered in a strong Champions Tour field this weekend in the Toshiba Classic at the Newport Beach Country Club. Also entered are Fred Couples, Paul Azinger and Tom Watson. Pavin, Couples and Azinger, all recently having crossed the age-50 barrier, are the new young guns on the old-guys tour. Watson, who nearly won last year’s British Open, is neither young, at 60, nor easily beatable.

“I didn’t expect it to be easy out here,” said Pavin, who has played two events. “But I have to admit, I am amazed at how low the scores have been.

“There’s a different rhythm to this tour. You have to play well on Friday, and again Saturday, because you have only one round left. It’s pedal to the metal all the way.”

Pavin’s transition to the twilight tour will not be total this year. He will play seven PGA Tour events, and with good reason. He is the Ryder Cup captain, a lofty honor that he embraces with both pride and sense of responsibility. The more he can view his potential team selections from up close, the better it will be.

Eight members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team are determined by a points system, and four are chosen by Pavin. The event will be played in Wales Oct. 1-3, and Pavin’s final selection day is Sept. 7.

All this has served to put Pavin, a relatively quiet guy who had slipped into the background on the PGA Tour while the 25-year-olds with 185-yard seven-irons took over, back in front of the cameras.

Tuesday morning, he was 17 stories high, atop the Marriott Hotel adjacent to the Newport Beach Country Club course. The tournament stages an annual Shot From The Top event to a green below, to raise money for Hoag Hospital. Amateurs try to match the pros and pay dearly when they don’t. Hit the tennis courts to the right or the Porta-Potties to the rear and you pay $500.

Pavin, who began his day as the speaker at a tournament breakfast and acquitted himself well with quick sarcasm and self-effacing humor, took his three shots and landed one 6 feet 8 inches from the pin.

Fuzzy Zoeller got one to within six feet of Pavin’s and kidded the crowd when it oohed and aahed. “Hey, I’m a professional, you know.”

Craig Stadler, the lovable Walrus, could get it only to within 19 feet and reacted with mock disgust, tossing his pitching wedge and golf glove over the side. Some 17 stories below, somebody had a great new item for EBay.

Through it all, Pavin was the object of media attention.

He joked about how some potential Ryder Cup players approach him.

“They’ll tell me I look great, that I lost some weight, that I must be working out,” Pavin said. “Once in a while, somebody will ask if I want to have dinner and say they’re buying.”

He talked about the difficulty of weaning oneself from the main tour, especially the majors.

“I’d sure like to win before the Masters,” he said, meaning that’s his only chance of getting into the field again.

He said he has played well at Pebble Beach, site of this year’s U.S. Open, and, as a former winner whose exemption ran out 10 years after his ’95 victory, he’s asked for an invitation into the field this year. A reporter said the presence of the Ryder Cup captain at the U.S. Open seemed logical.

Pavin smiled and said, “I’ve written a letter. Now, it’s up to the USGA [United States Golf Assn.].”

He got serious on the topic of Tiger Woods and the Ryder Cup. Woods’ point total puts him on the team now (fifth place), but is unlikely to hold up if he doesn’t play.

“He’s got to play,” Pavin said. “You can’t go into something like that without playing tournaments.”

How much and how well remain uncertain. A U.S. Ryder Cup team without Woods seems impossible. Pavin said he has not yet reached out to Woods.

“He has other things to deal with right now,” Pavin said.

The mood lightened when he talked about his alma mater, UCLA. He said he had a nice visit recently with basketball Coach Ben Howland, and expressed amazement when told that the ultimate Bruin, John Wooden, was once a great golfer and had a hole in one and a double eagle in the same round in 1947.

“I had one double eagle in my entire career,” Pavin said, “and that was on the only par-five hole I could reach in two.”

He said that among the younger players he is watching is Rickie Fowler, who recently played a tournament round in orange pants.

“There won’t be any of that on the Ryder Cup,” Pavin said, laughing. “He’ll wear what I say he wears. You’ll see him in bright blue and yellow.”

And so it went, an old Bruin, showing his true colors as he becomes a new media star.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com