The Tallest Guy On Tour

In the 1970s, five foot five inch, 148 pound Freddie Patek was asked, “What’s it like to be the smallest guy in Major League Baseball?” to which he smartly answered, “It’s a hell of a lot better than being the smallest guy in Minor League Baseball.”

Such is the predicament of Cory Pavin.

Although slightly bigger than the diminutive Patek, at five foot nine and 155 pounds Cory is a lot closer to qualifying as a jockey than a bouncer. At 48 years old, the 1995 U.S. Open winner has competed in 25 tournaments in 2007 banking $498,252, which sounds like a lot until you realize that places him 138 on the money list.


He ranks 195 in driving distance with an average of 265.3 yards (you probably have someone in your foursome who hits it further). Playing from the Tournament tees it’s predictable that he would also rank 180 in greens in regulations (Tiger is hitting a wedge and Cory is hitting a four iron). Just as predictable are his putting stats; long irons and hybrids into the green is not the way to get it close, or make birdies (ranked 182), or eagles (ranked 122).

However, Cory has had his moments; with fifteen victories including one major and total earnings of $13,681,873, he’s made more money on the PGA Tour than the likes of Payne Stewart, Tom Kite, Jose Maria Olazabal and Tom Watson, yet many people likely regarded him less than any of those players. Perhaps it is because he is in that difficult phase of his career where he is too old to compete on the regular Tour and too young for the Champions Tour. Everyone goes through it, and like the old fire-horse, it is hard not to run (even though your legs are gone) when you hear the bell. And let’s face it, where else could he make $498,252 a year for playing a game?

It doesn’t matter that Tiger Woods almost made more money in 2007 than Cory made in his entire career. It doesn’t matter that Johnny Miller makes fun of his swing (he also made more money on Tour than Johnny Miller did). What does matter is that he loves what he does and no one should blame him for stretching out a career as long as possible? He understands that he can’t out drive Tiger Woods, but he couldn’t out drive Jack Nicklaus, either.

Perhaps he is a man out of time, more suited to the old days of bad swings and worse attire. Still his 280 U.S. Open score bettered the likes of Greg Norman that year and beat the festive-way out of Fred Herd who shot 84-85-75-84 for a hard earned 328 in 1898.

There is an old joke that says that the race doesn’t always go to the biggest and fastest, but don’t bet against it, and I imagine Cory Pavin has heard that kind of stuff his entire life. But somewhere in his journey he discovered that it doesn’t matter that life is not fair, sports are. If you can run faster you win and it doesn’t matter if you are five foot, five, or six foot five. And another thing, when you’re standing on the winner’s podium everyone looks a lot taller.

I suspect that Cory is counting the days when he’ll become a rookie one more time and join the Champions Tour, but maybe not. I bet he’s the kind of guy that loves to give the young guys a tip or two, or tell them how it feels to win the U.S. Open. And I wager that he would like to catch lightning in a bottle one more time on the regular Tour, and don’t bet against him doing just that. His last victory was the 2006 U.S. Bank Tournament in Milwaukee where he shot 20 under. Remember, he had that incredible start, then held on for dear life. I can still see that funny looking swing kicking up divots and hear David Feherty making jokes. By the way Cory made a lot more money on Tour than David Feherty did, as well.

And one other thing, a couple of years ago when we organized a tour of the J. Eric Jonsson Community School, a benefactors of the Byron Nelson Championship, Cory Pavin was one of only about five or six players that actually took time out of their schedule to tour the school.

Interestingly, the 7 and 8-year old children didn’t have any idea who Cory Pavin was, but that didn’t seem make any difference to them or Cory. All they knew was a nice man wanted to see the pictures they had painted and that was pretty cool. I remember watching him take the time to look at every picture and compliment every child. It wasn’t long after that I remember thinking that Cory Pavin looked a lot taller than I thought he was.