THE MODERATOR: Ladies and
gentlemen, Corey Pavin is in the Media Center.
He's the 1995 U.S. Open Champion.
He posted a final round score of 2 under today, 8 under for the
championship, top ten finish.
Great charge today. You showed a lot of heart today. Talk about your final round here.
COREY PAVIN: Well, that was the good part about it was the
charge. I was a little shaky early
on. I just missed a couple of short
putts that cost me, but I hung in there.
I was real pleased with the way I finished, birdieing 14, 15, 16, put
some pressure on Roger, who came through with a beautiful shot on 17. You can't say much about it besides it was
just a great shot at just the right time.
I'm very impressed with the way he
played over the weekend, especially from 15 yesterday on through 18 today. It was pretty impressive.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Corey.
Q.
Corey, you mentioned your shakiness.
You won a U.S. Open. Does it take
that kind of steadiness that Roger showed today ‑‑ and actually for the
whole tournament but especially today ‑‑ to win a Senior Open?
COREY PAVIN: Well, it helps. What I meant by shaky is I didn't quite hit
my shots as cleanly as I'd like to. When
you don't hit them just right, it's pretty tough out there.
He just played beautifully. It helps when you hit a lot of greens another
at the U.S. Open, a lot of fairways.
Even when he missed a shot, he missed it in a good spot. On 16 and on 18, he pulled his drives. He bogeyed 16. But on 18 he had good shots on both those
times. Where you miss your shots is very
important, and he played a very smart, solid round of golf today, and he
deserves to win.
Q.
When you saw that Bernhard had doubled 2, did that change your thinking
at all? He had gone from a four‑shot
lead to all of a sudden a lot of guys, including you, were in the mix.
COREY PAVIN: It didn't really change my thinking. Early in the round, I just wanted to play my
game and do what I needed to do or just stick with my own deal.
So I saw it, of course, because I
watch the leaderboard all the time, but it didn't change the way I played.
It's too bad. Bernhard played beautifully yesterday, and
I'm sure he's disappointed today. But
that's the nature of U.S. Opens. It's
tough.
Today was a very difficult day to
play golf. It was by far the hardest day
we had all week. The wind was
blowing. Most of its blowing, it moved
from a little bit different direction.
The greens were a little bit drier.
It played a lot higher today. I'm
sure the scoring average was a lot higher today. That's the way it's supposed to play. That's what's supposed to happen on the last
day of a USGA event.
Q.
Corey, when a guy like Bernhard or Tom or even yourself wins two majors,
two Senior majors, you figure these guys with credentials have won for a long,
long time, when a guy who only won once on a European Tour over a lot of years
pulls something like this off, two majors in eight weeks, can you put something
like that in perspective?
COREY PAVIN: Well, Roger's always been a very good
player. I guess, when you read about it,
you always hear journeyman or something like that. But he's always been a very solid player.
Sometimes people bloom a little bit
later. Tom Lehman is a pretty good
example of that. He bloomed late in his
career. I guess Roger's blooming a
little bit even later than that.
But he's a great guy, and he's a
very solid player. I watched him all day
today, and he looked very steady. He
didn't look nervous. I'm sure he was,
but he kept control of his nerves very well.
And maybe having won the Senior PGA
helped, but I watched the senior PGA, and he looked pretty calm there too. He's just got a good disposition for playing
in big events like this. He's very
impressive.
Q.
What do you take away from this championship, Corey, personally?
COREY PAVIN: I take away that I played well. I played hard. There were some spells that I didn't play
great, but I hung in there. I did a lot
of good things this week, a lot of things that I'm very pleased about.
I'm really looking forward to the
Senior Open at Turnberry, and hopefully I can get one place better than I did
this week.
THE MODERATOR: Corey, thanks very much.
COREY PAVIN: Thank you.