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July 30, 2009

Corey Pavin

GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN

JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Corey Pavin into the interview room after a 6-under par 66, after a 64 last year here, Corey, in the first round. So another great start. If we can just get some comments on the day.
COREY PAVIN: Well, it was a slow start to the day. I was 1-over after five, I guess, and kind of just hung in there, bounced back, made birdie on 6. So that helped my attitude, I guess.
You know, I went out and I birdied 11, 12, 13, 14. Right?
JOHN BUSH: I do not have it in front of me.
COREY PAVIN: Oh, okay. I think I did. So I just kind of got it going there a little bit and made a nice birdie on 17 to get it to 6 and had a nice up-and-down on 18, so it was a good day.
I made some nice putts, just a couple putts I'd rather have back, but I made some good ones, too. So maybe I'll equal that.
JOHN BUSH: Playing for the third straight week and playing pretty well the last couple weeks, just comment on the state of your game coming into this week.
COREY PAVIN: Yeah. Even though I missed the cut at the at&t at Tiger's tournament, I was playing much better than my scores indicated there. I came up to Milwaukee and played well there, tough first round, but I played very nicely the last three days.
I played well last week, lots of birdies, and I think I made three eagles last week, which is about my career count, actually.
So you know, my game's coming around. I'm playing better. I've been driving the ball a little bit better, which helps. So things are looking on the upswing now, pun intended.

Q. When we talked to Tom Pernice he was saying guys have been able to play golf on a course like this. Can you talk about how you like playing a traditional course like this where you have to make shots and play golf actually?
COREY PAVIN: Well, on this golf course it's important to drive the ball straight. You know, I think the only negative for me on this golf course is that the par-5s are all about 540, 550 yards, which are hard for me to reach, but a lot of other guys can. But other than that, it's very important to hit the ball in the fairway. The greens are pretty receptive, which helps me, because I don't spin the ball very much, and I just love these types of greens.
I grew up in southern California on bent poa mix, and that's exactly what these are. I really like these greens and I've always enjoyed putting on them.

Q. 1-over after five, what enabled you to turn it around? Anything particular happen or just the knowledge of knowing there are a lot of birdie holes out there that if you keep your attitude right, you're still going to make your share?
COREY PAVIN: Well, the Pro-Am guys I played with yesterday really helped me out today. (Laughs).
Anyway, you know, that's something you just have to be patient on this golf course. You know, you can make bogeys out here. It's no doubt. But there's a lot of birdie opportunities out here.
There's, you know, the 12, 13, 14 stretch and all the par-5s out here you can get, and you just have to be patient.
Sometimes you get on a course like this and you think I have to birdie every hole and you get kind of ahead of yourself. You know, I try not to do that.
You know, I wasn't very pleased being 1-over after five, but I just said, all right, there's a lot of holes left and let's just keep at it. And I've been making a lot of birdies the last few weeks, so let's just be patient and keep at it. And they started to fall in the hole, and I hit some good iron shots, and all of a sudden I was 6-under.

Q. When you see all those low scores in the morning round, does that have any effect on you or you just know you're going to have to go low on this golf course every time you go out?
COREY PAVIN: Well, it's kind of what I just said. You know there's a lot of birdies out there, but you still have to wait for them. You can't really go out and expect to make them because you're going to be disappointed somewhere along the line and it's going to affect you in a negative way.
So I just go out and try to play the best I can and one shot at a time and do the best I can with every shot, and hopefully when I finish and add them up, it's a good score.
I think every time we come here every year, if we have decent weather, we know there's going to be some good scores. So in a way you're kind of in that mode to shoot a low score, and that helps you shoot better scores, but you still have to be very patient.

Q. We would be remiss if we didn't ask a Ryder Cup question, I think, at this point. How far along are you on your preparations and what comes up in the next say month or so as you go forward?
COREY PAVIN: Well, Lisa, my wife, and I are working on the clothing, working on the golf bag, umbrellas, hats, all that stuff have to be done, outer wear.
We're going to be going -- in October we're going over to Wales with PGA America and a few dignitaries, and we're going to check out the hotel and make some final decisions on some things and take some measurements of rooms, and you know, how we're going to decorate our team, things like that. All those things have to be done and thought about, and I'm trying to get all that stuff done this year for the most part so that next year I can really concentrate on the guys on the team. And besides that, we have gifts to pick out, which I'm relying heavily on Lisa for.
So all those things have to be done, and when I'm out there playing tournaments, I don't really think about it very much, but once I'm done with that, you know, just thoughts come in my head here and there and ideas and concepts and things I might want to do with the guys when we're there and just write them all down and go through them eventually and see what I want to do.

Q. Lining up tours and sites, are you enjoying it? Is that something that you're finding that you've embraced and enjoy doing?
COREY PAVIN: I enjoy it to some extent. It's not something I do normally, but I know being captain, that's a very important role that I have. And I'm embracing it in that sense, certainly, that this is my job, and it affects my team. And anything that affects my team, I want it to affect positively. And I want to make sure that my guys are in the best mental state and have the easiest road they can possibly have once they get to Wales so that they can concentrate on their game and be ready to play, and that's my job, besides maybe making a few pairings here and there.
JOHN BUSH: All right. We'll go through those birdies that we have now, Corey. No. 6.
COREY PAVIN: 6, yeah, I hit driver, 8-iron about, I don't know, it was a tap-in. It almost went in. Maybe it was a foot or something.
8, I hit a 4-iron about -- let's see. This is where Shot Link's really good. Like a gap. Say 20 feet, and you guys can check on me. Made that.
11, another par-3, 4-iron, probably about 15 feet, made it. And 12, I hit driver, sand wedge, we'll call it 12 feet, made it.
Par-5, driver, laid up with a 5-iron, hit sand wedge 25 feet and made it.
Next hole, I hit driver, sand wedge, tap-in maybe a foot and a half or something like that. And then 17, I hit a 6-iron about 15 feet and made it.
JOHN BUSH: Corey, great start today. Keep it going the rest of the week.
COREY PAVIN: Okay. Thank you all.

End of FastScripts

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