Corey Pavin ended a decade of PGA Tour futility here Sunday with a two-shot victory in the four million-dollar US Bank Championship. Pavin holed out from the fairway for an eagle at the eighth hole en route to his first victory in 10 years.
"Things like that happen when you win tournaments," Pavin said. "I knew it was a good omen." Opening the tournament with a PGA Tour-record 26 on the front nine of the Brown Deer Golf Club, Pavin never looked back.
He led wire-to-wire and finished at 20-under-par 260. "I would hate to be the guy who shot a 26 to start a tournament and didn't win," Pavin joked.
A former US Open champion, Pavin followed his spectacular start with three steady rounds. He had just three bogeys - all on Saturday - as he won for the first time since the 1996 Colonial, collecting 720,000 dollars.
"The journey that I have taken over the last 10 years to get here, all the work I have put in, what I have gone through, makes it very meaningful to me to get back here," Pavin said.
Pavin's final round of three-under 67 left him right where he started - two strokes ahead of Wisconsin native and crowd favourite Jerry Kelly, who could not make any headway even as his playing partner finished with 10 straight pars.
"It was funny, because Jerry and I just didn't make any putts today," Pavin said. "I've been rolling them in from all over the place this week. I made nothing today."
Pavin, 46, made plenty of phenomenal shots Thursday, when he flirted with a magical 59 before settling for a course-record 61. But his shot of the tournament came Sunday at the par-four 436-yard eighth hole.