Champions Tour Insider: Pavin's close calls
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
The U.S. Senior Open by the numbers:
• Fred Couples and Corey Pavin are looking for No. 1.
• Bernhard Langer is in the hunt for No. 2.
• Tom Watson and Loren Roberts are searching for No. 4.
This week's U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee Country Club has been billed as the homecoming for Seattle native Fred Couples, but there is no shortage of storylines to go around.
Couples, a Champions Tour rookie, is the honorary chairman of the event but when the balls start flying Thursday morning there's no doubt where his focus will be -- on winning his first senior major title in his first U.S. Senior Open.
Langer finally broke through to win his long-awaited first Champions Tour major last week at the Senior British at Carnoustie, holding off Pavin in the process. There was little doubt that Langer, two-time Champions Tour Player of the Year, would eventually win his major. The only question was when.
When it happened, Langer acknowledged the special nature of his victory.
"It certainly is," Langer said. "It's always fun to win a tournament, and I was Player of the Year two years running, won the Money List and all sorts of stuff, but I had not won a major yet.
"So this is certainly again something I have not done in my career before as a senior, and it's something I've wanted. For the last two years I've wanted to win a major, and hopefully there's more to come."
Pavin's near-misses as a Champions Tour rookie are mounting up. It's not a reflection on his play, which has been outstanding. It's more about Pavin's timing. He simply keeps running into somebody who is playing just a bit better. At the Senior British Open, that somebody was Langer.
"It's disappointing," Pavin said. "I played well but (Langer) did what he needed to do to win, and that's what it's about. I just came up one shot short, that's all."
"I just came up one shot short, that's all."
-- Corey Pavin, on finishing second at Carnoustie
There is nobody in golf who is better at knowing his limitations and playing his own game under any and all conditions. Add to that his tenacious nature and it makes Pavin a solid contender again this week.
"I've been playing well for a couple of months now," Pavin said. "I just haven't quite got over that hump the last couple of months. But I'll keep at it and hopefully I'll get a win."
Pavin has admirably separated his playing schedule from his duties as Ryder Cup captain. It's not something previous captains have always been able to do quite as effectively.
"Well, it's going to start getting interesting, more interesting for me, after the PGA Championship when eight players make it on points and then I'll have some thinking to do for a few weeks for my four picks," he said. "That will actually be the most fun part for me when that starts happening."
The PGA Championship at Whistling Straits is two weeks away.
Watson and Roberts are on the verge of accomplishing a rare feat, something only one other golfer ever has achieved.
With a victory at the U.S. Senior Open, they will join Jack Nicklaus as winners of a fourth different major title on the Champions Tour. Nicklaus won the JELD-WEN Tradition (1990, 1991, 1995, 1996), a pair of U.S. Senior Opens (1991, 1993), the 1990 Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship and the 1991 Senior PGA Championship.
Watson has won three Senior British Opens (2003, 2005, 2007), the Senior PGA Championship (2001) and the JELD-WEN Tradition (2003). Roberts' major victories include the 2005 JELD-WEN Tradition (2005), Senior British Open (2006, 2009) and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship (2007).
Watson returns home after a disappointing Senior British where he didn't play his best golf.
"But there's always next week at the U.S. Senior Open," he said upon departing Carnoustie. "I'll try to figure it out."
In the two senior majors that he hasn't won, the U.S. Senior Open and the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship, Watson has accumulated six runner-up finishes, three in each.
Roberts' best finishes at the U.S. Senior Open are a T2 in 2005, a third in 2007 and T4 last year. He was fifth in the Senior PGA Championship in 2006, his first attempt.
Champions Tour Insider notebook:
• It's time for double points in the Charles Schwab Cup race. All five majors offer twice as many points for a top 10 finish and with the race heating up, it should be interesting at Sahalee. Langer moved into the top spot last week, ahead of season-long leader Couples. The player with the most points will receive a $1 million payout from Charles Schwab, with additional payouts for the golfers finishing second through fifth.
• The Champions Tour will return to the Seattle area again in August for the Boeing Classic at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in Snoqualmie. It's the sixth time that both a U.S. Senior Open and co-sponsored Champions Tour event have been held in the same city. It happened five times between 1991 and 2002 but not since.
• Hale Irwin has captured for five Open titles -- three on the regular PGA TOUR (1974, 1979, 1990) and twice on the Champions Tour (1998, 2000). Irwin holds the U.S. Senior Open scoring record of 267 at Saucon Valley in 2000.
• Loren Roberts' third-round 8-under-par 62 at the 2006 U.S. Senior Open at Prairie Dunes is the lowest round in U.S. Senior Open history.
Shop your favorite brand name golf equipment and accessories at SHOP.PGATOUR.COM
PGATOUR.com is part of Turner - SI Digital, part of the Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network 