Corey Pavin sets course record, jumps into Lead

Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, March 27: Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin stormed into the lead at The Cap Cana Championship with a blistering course record 63, a 9-under par round that vaulted him to a single stroke lead over Nick Price.

Pavin’s nine birdie, no-bogey round and 36-hole total of 13-under-par 131 broke Bernhard Langer’s 2009 record of 64 at the Punta Espada Golf Club.

Cap Cana, Dominican Republic, March 27: Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin stormed into the lead at The Cap Cana Championship with a blistering course record 63, a 9-under par round that vaulted him to a single stroke lead over Nick Price.

Pavin’s nine birdie, no-bogey round and 36-hole total of 13-under-par 131 broke Bernhard Langer’s 2009 record of 64 at the Punta Espada Golf Club.

Fred Couples, chasing the outright Champions Tour record of three wins in his first four starts, is two shots back, tied with Larry Mize, both carding 66s.

Russ Cochran was fifth at 9-under-par 135 after a 67. Bernhard Langer returned a sparkling 65 that left him tied with Tom Pernice Jr. at 8-under-par 136. Olin Browne and David Peoples were tied for eighth at 6-under-par 137 and Tommy Armour III and Bob Tway rounded out the top-10 at 138.

Forty players were under par after 36 holes as wind was no factor for the second straight day.

“Without the wind, you can shoot a good score,” Pavin said of his lowest competitive score since a 61 in the first round of the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, also his last win.
“I made only two putts of any length at all.”

Pavin didn’t need to make any monsters because his iron play rarely left him far from the hole.
His nine birdies – including four to close out the round – were 15 feet or shorter.  Four times he was inside six feet and in his last three holes the former U.S. Open champion hit a 5-wood, 3-iron and 7-iron to 2½, 2, and 6 feet respectively.

“I made a couple 10-to-12 footers early in the round and that helped,” he said of birdies at Nos. 1, 5, 8 and 9. I can’t complain.”

Of the eight times Pavin led going into the final round on the PGA Tour, he won three times.

None of the leaders complained about benign conditions – sticky, hot temperatures in the mid-80s - however.

Price, for instance, found that using a belly putter for the third straight week was the missing piece of the puzzle in his game, yielding a ‘clean card’ of six birdies, all from inside 10 feet.

“The last two days and the three days (at Allianz Championship) are as comfortable as I’ve been with the putter in a long time,” said the three-time major championship winner. I’m starting to play like I can and there are no (putting) surprises coming along. It’s given me a lot more confidence.”

Couples’ round of 66 marked his 11th consecutive round in the 60s, tying Price (2009) and Lee Trevino (1992) as third most in tour history behind Hale Irwin’s 13 in 1999.

But, like Mize, he knew that playing catch-up wasn’t what he exactly wanted heading into Sunday’s final round.

“It was a great day,” he said.  “I started one day behind somebody and now I’m two behind somebody.  You’ve got to keep up the pace and I did, but on Sunday bogeys become bigger because it is too hard to catch up.”