KEMPER OPEN

May 27, 1999

Corey Pavin

COREY PAVIN: A couple of thoughts about my round. Well, it was a good day. I putted, chipped the ball really well today. Played smart golf today. But I did make my share of putts which was nice. The greens were excellent this morning, very smooth, I am sure they will probably get a little bit bumpier this afternoon, definitely later in the day. Definitely got the best of the greens today. But it played tough. The wind was blowing. Swirling it was kind of hard to figure out a few places. I hit a couple of good shots that ended up not where I thought they were going to end up, but I was able to make some good saves. Birdied 18 to finish the day off, so I was pleased with that.

COREY PAVIN: Yeah, I am certainly going in that direction. I won't say I am there yet. But I am starting to feel -- this is the best I felt on the course, the last few weeks, since probably, 1996 Colonial. So I definitely am encouraged by what I am doing right now. I feel good about the progress I have made the last couple of months here. It is mostly just with my scoring. I am just scoring better at the moment. I have actually been playing pretty well for quite a well, everything physically has been there. I just haven't got it done on the golf course. So it is just nice to see it finally showing up on the scoreboard.

COREY PAVIN: But you are going to anyway.

COREY PAVIN: What happened was that I started to hit the ball poorly, my swing went south on me. That was really the beginning of 1996. Colonial was kind of -- they used the word last week, what was the word? I will think of it in a minute -- it was an aberration, that was the word at Colonial in 1996, because I really wasn't playing very well before then and I didn't play well afterward. Just one tournament in the middle of the year I played really well, so that kind of fooled me when I won Colonial because I thought everything is all right. But then I went right back into not playing very well. So I can't figure that one out, what happened that week. But in essence, my swing just went bad. I put a lot of pressure on my short game. My chipping, my putting, pretty soon that cracked and then I was in full fledge slump. Obviously lost confidence in what I was doing. Then I just had to start over. I just had to start with my swing and get that back in shape; started working with Gary Smith. It was a lot of hard work because I had fallen into a lot of bad habits with my swing. I started to get out of those bad habits. Finally did, and started swinging better, but then on the golf course, didn't feel so great, because it was different than what I was doing before. So had to just keep at it and keep at it. Eventually things started to come around and I saw a lot of progress before probably you guys saw it, but I could tell things were getting better. And it was just a matter of time.

COREY PAVIN: I got to the point I was beating my brains out, but I didn't think it was for nothing. I never thought I was, you know, hitting my head against the wall for no reason. I was hitting my head against the wall for a reason. So it was certainly frustrating. No doubt about it. There was times when, you know, I was just so frustrated that I really had to talk to myself, Shannon, my wife, said a lot of things to help me, encourage me and, Dick Coop, who I work with and Gary Smith -- just had to keep at it and keep at it and plugging away and I knew finally it would turnaround. Right now it looks like it is turning around right now. Hopefully it will keep going in the right direction, keep working hard still, because I know I have got a ways to go still.

COREY PAVIN: I hope it will help me. I think -- the one thing that I didn't recognize was the fact that I was falling into a slump. I just didn't see it. I just kept thinking -- it was a little bit denial. I just thought, well, it will come back, you know, it is just this little spell I am going through. But it just never did. By the time I figured that out, it was too late. So hopefully, in the future, if something like that happens again, I will catch it early.

COREY PAVIN: I was probably swinging more upright and getting more open at the top of my backswing and then I had to start dropping my swing, you know, dropping it down trying to find a slot to swing on and there was just way too much hand action, uprightness on my backswing to control it. It was just too difficult.

COREY PAVIN: (laughs).

COREY PAVIN: No comment. You know, my swing has never been, you know, the perfect model or anything like that, but what I have always been very good at is being able to repeat it and mechanically, it has been pretty sound when I have been playing good golf, positions I get in are pretty good, just may look a little different than some other swings, but my swing now is probably, you know, since 1990, 1991 in there, it has been pretty mechanically sound than before that. I probably changed my swing more in the '84 and '85 period of time after I came on the Tour. So I felt that maybe in 1984 or so, I deserve some swing comments and a different type of swing, but I think I have steadied that and solidified my swing over the years.

COREY PAVIN: I changed clubs after 1996. I was in my full slump at that point actually.

COREY PAVIN: I had changed teachers in early 1995.

COREY PAVIN: Actually in February, 1995.

COREY PAVIN: Yeah, I was well on my way when I changed clubs in my slump, so the clubs had nothing to do with it. I am using the same clubs now. It can't be the clubs.

COREY PAVIN: It is nice to finish a round with a birdie. Certainly, 18 is a pretty tricky hole. It is a tough hole. All the holes coming in actually were playing very, very difficult today on the back 9. There were some hang gone coming in down the stretch because those holes are so difficult. It was just really nice to get an extra one there on 18. I made a real nice putt there. 25-footer, so -- something like that, you know, it helps your frame of mind I am sure. Certainly better to finish with a birdie than a par. I have done it with a bogey as well. It is nice to end the day on an up note, upswing, and as I was saying earlier I scored well today. I didn't hit the ball off the map anywhere. The only bogey I made today was really -- wasn't very hard up-and-down, I just didn't hit a very good chip, but made some really good up-and-downs today, made some good putts and obviously made some birdie putts as well.

COREY PAVIN: I want to compete. I want to win tournaments still. I would like to think I have got a whole bunch of good years ahead of me, a whole bunch. I don't know, I don't have anything else to do. What am I going to do? (laughs) I want to play golf. That is what I want to do. It is my dream to be on the Tour here and keep playing. I want to win more tournaments. I want to compete in major championships. You know, I haven't lost that desire by any means. If anything, having the slump has ignited me more to come out of it and just to show myself that I can come out of this and play well and go on. I don't have to prove anything to anybody else as far as I am concerned, but I want to prove to myself that I can come out and win golf tournaments and I want to win another major, certainly. But I will take any tournament at the moment.

COREY PAVIN: I don't know, I would love to make the Ryder Cup Team obviously. That is my goal every time Ryder Cup comes around. I know I have put myself into a huge hole and I love to make the team on points. That is my ultimate goal. Obviously I have to make a lot of points here in the next few months, but I would like to make the team that way. If I play really well and I just miss or something, or whatever, you know, if Ben considers me, I will just be glad that he considers me. So I don't want to say any more than that. I'd like to think that if I got in the position where I played really well and missed the team by a couple of spots, that he'd certainly consider me highly. But we will see what happens. I have to get there first. Got a long way to go before that happens.

COREY PAVIN: No. 2, I hit driver, 3-wood, 6-iron about 50 feet, topped it in. 5, I hit 3-wood, wedge, about ten feet, made for birdie. 8, I hit driver, 4-iron about two feet. 10, I hit 3-wood, wedge, about twelve feet, made it for birdie. 12, hit driver, 4-iron just short of the green. And I hit a bad chip, about 20 feet short of the hole, 2-putted for bogey there. 18, driver, 6-iron about 25 feet, made it.

COREY PAVIN: I considered a lot of things on that, on 16. That was a very difficult -- that was, by far, my best up-and-down today. That was one of those anything-can-happen type of shots. I was on a downhill lie. I had to run it up the hill, then it went down the hill, broke left a whole bunch. One of those nightmare places to be in. I thought about hitting a 6-iron, 8-iron, sand wedge, a wedge, putter. I mean, I went through the whole list of what I could do. I just felt I hit 8-iron with a downhill lie. I thought I could skip it up the hill, and it was really close to being right next to the hole. If it had just gone another foot further, otherwise it went down the hill and went about 10, 12 feet, I guess, but I made a great putt there for par. So I was very pleased with that up-and-down.

COREY PAVIN: That was definitely my best save of the day.

COREY PAVIN: I think it is a little bit different. I was saying -- probably if you looked at it on tape, it wouldn't look different at all. But it is just more what it feels like to me. It just has, I don't know, every week I play or every month you can ask me and I will say my swing feels a little bit differently, even if I am playing well. I just play by how my swing feels to me. So there has been times when I have played really well when my swing has felt the way it does now, you know. I am not sure if I really answered your question. But I think if you looked at it on tape it won't look much different than it did five years ago would be my guess.

COREY PAVIN: Early in 1984 and probably '84 was the most -- 84 and 85, I think, for me, really it was just hitting a lot of balls, just practicing a lot. That was -- that enabled me to repeat that type of swing because it wasn't as mechanically sound as my swing is now. So when your swing is a little different for -- at least, for me, I needed to practice a lot. I hit a lot of golf balls, tons of balls, and that created the feel for me on the golf course that I can just go swing and not worry about it. If I didn't practice much with the swing I had in 84 or 85 I probably wouldn't have played very well.

COREY PAVIN: I start with my setup and just go right from there. Gary and I just worked on basics, setup, posture, started there and never had to mess with my grip at all. But just started working right from the ball, right to the top of the my backswing and back down and finish. You just have to start from the beginning. If you do something wrong early it is going to affect the rest of your swing. So we just took a basically step one, step two, step three, how many systems there were, I have no idea, but just trying to make sure that each piece of the swing was in order, you know, was working properly before he went to the next one. Just put it all together.

COREY PAVIN: I think anybody who has a swing that you look at, you kind of hit your head a little bit; usually those guys have to practice a lot. If they don't, they have just great, great hand-eye coordination. I happened to be blessed with my good hand-eye coordination. I am sure Jim Furyk hits a couple of balls -- you think of him when you think of different types of swings. I know Hubert Green when he was playing really well he practiced a lot, his swing is a little different. There are guys with great swings that practice a lot too. If you do have a swing that has a few, you know, different looking type things in it, it certainly behooves you to practice a lot.

COREY PAVIN: That was such a long time ago. I probably -- I'd say that I practice about the same now as I did then. I'd say if you asked me that question two or three months ago, I'd say a lot more. I think I have gotten to the point now where my swing is much easier to fix -- just little things now that are going off on it, so it is much easier to repair those now. So I don't need to hit as many balls.

COREY PAVIN: A lot. I mean, for me a lot. You got to remember when I play my best golf I don't practice very much. I will go out and hit a bucket of balls after a round. That is a lot for me. But when things aren't going well I will hit, you know, I have certainly hit four, I don't know if I have hit 5, but you know, I have hit 150 to 200 balls, 175 at times. Not every day, but 150 balls is a lot of golf balls to hit. It is for me anyway. But I would do that on occasion, just work, work, work, works, work, trying to figure -- trying to get together from there to the golf course.

COREY PAVIN: There is too many to count. (laughs) There is a bunch. Any time I missed a cut it was frustrating because for the most part I felt I was swinging pretty well at it for the last year and a half now. To miss cuts when I feel like I am hitting the ball fairly well was very frustrating for me because that meant my putting and chipping wasn't anywhere near where I wanted it. So a lot of times -- you can probably look back and just see any times I missed more than one cut in a row would be it.

COREY PAVIN: I don't know. Maybe three or four, probably or something. I don't know. I don't like to think about those things. I can't remember missing huge strings in a row, but maybe, you know, could have been five, but I doubt it.

COREY PAVIN: I was pretty close at Hilton Head. I think I was 9-under with a few holes to play, 10-under, so was close there. Dallas I played well. I was never really in the hunt because Loren and Steve were kind of ahead of everybody, but I played well there as well. But last week was -- I think last week was the first week I was actually leading a tournament at some point, I think since 1996.

COREY PAVIN: I don't know if that is true -- Sprint, after the first round last year I was -- I played really well I don't know if I was leading or not. Anyway, yeah. What was your question?

COREY PAVIN: I don't know, there is many.

COREY PAVIN: Thank you.