Champions Tour Insider: Couples, Pavin to debut

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Fred Couples (left) and Corey Pavin will both debut on the Champions Tour this week.

Fred Couples has done his homework in preparation for the Champions Tour. Now all he needs is a strong back and a cooperative putter.

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Corey Pavin's back isn't a problem and certainly not his putter.

Couples and Pavin are two of the most celebrated golfers to join the Champions Tour in quite some time. They are major champions and have been crowd favorites throughout their careers. The similarities pretty much end there.

The golf games Couples and Pavin will bring to the Champions Tour this week at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship in Hawaii, and beyond, are much different.

Couples is Boom Boom. His languid swing is the most recognizable in golf. He is still capable of achieving great distances.

Pavin is at the other end of the distance spectrum but he possesses a magical short game. Few players on the Champions Tour will be able to match Pavin's prowess around the greens.

Both became eligible for the Champions Tour late last year. Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, celebrated his 50th birthday in October. Pavin, the 1995 U.S. Open champion, reached the mark in November.

"When I'm at home, most of the events I watch are Champions Tour events," Couples said. "So I know all about it. I know the players.

"For me, this year will be a little bit different because I am going to play probably 12 events on the PGA TOUR and 10 senior events and that's 22. I haven't played 22 events for 20 years. That's a goal. People want to know a goal. It's not winning, it's really to see if I can play that many tournaments.

"I look forward to it ... Next year, I'll be strictly a Champions Tour player."

Couples debuted last week at the Champions Tour Skins Game. He was greeted with open arms. Well, not really.

"I was a little bit disappointed in the way they were beating me up," Couples said. "I was ready to go get on a plane and go back to PGA TOUR."

The key for success in Couples' case will be his health, avoiding those chronic back problems. And then his putting.

"I have to start feeling a little better," Couples said. "Last year, or the year before, I had a chance to win an event (on the PGA TOUR) and I felt pretty good. Even if I go on the Champions Tour and play the way I'm feeling now, I don't think I'll do very well. You can't be mediocre."

Couples has made the cut in more than 60 percent of his 34 PGA TOUR starts over the last two seasons. He won just under $1.2 million in 16 appearances last year, including two third-place finishes (Northern Trust Open, Shell Houston Open) and four top-10s.

"The health thing is a big deal, and I can promise you that since June it's been pretty much downhill," said Couples, who was captain of the victorious U.S. Presidents Cup team in October. "It hasn't been much fun. But now I have been off six weeks. My back was killing me and I played the last two weeks, and I feel okay and that's a good sign because normally it will come and it will go."

Pavin is equally excited about the Champions Tour. Like Couples, Pavin is still competitive on the PGA TOUR and he makes the transition while still an active and successful player on the regular tour. That's always been an indicator for Champions Tour success.

Pavin made the cut last week at the Sony Open on the PGA TOUR. In 2009, he made the cut in 12 of 23 events, with his best finish a T15 in Mexico. The last of his 15 victories on the PGA TOUR came at the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

What Pavin gives up in distance, he makes up for in accuracy. He was 14th in driving accuracy last year on the PGA TOUR at 71 percent. On the Champions Tour the driving distance statistic won't be quite as dramatic. Besides, he knows his limitations and has made a career of excelling in other phases.

Pavin has never bought into the theory that short hitters can't play certain courses.

"You still have to perform and you have to hit fairways and you have to hit greens," he said. "If you miss them, you've got to get them up-and-down. Bottom line is scoring. If you can score, it doesn't matter how you play or what you do."

Pavin's putting average of 28.57 would have placed him fourth on the 2009 Champions Tour behind only Morris Hatalsky (28.33), Andy Bean (28.40) and Ben Crenshaw (28.44).

In the putting average statistic, Pavin's 1.714 figure would have tied him for sixth with Bernhard Langer, the Champions Tour's Player of the Year.

Champions Tour Notes:

• Couples and Pavin are among eight golfers playing this week on sponsor exemptions at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Hualalai Golf Course. The field features winners of Champions Tour major championships in the last five years and winners of Champions Tour co-sponsored events which awarded official money in the past two years.

• Since the event moved to Hualalai in 1997, eight of the tournament winners have finished among the top five money winners and three, including Langer, have gone on to win Champions Tour Player of the Year.