Corey Pavin keeps busy on Senior Tour and also as Ryder Cup captain | Senior Open notebook

SAMMAMISH — Corey Pavin is wearing two hats these days as Ryder Cup captain and competitive golfer.

He said there is a one-word answer to why he can handle both jobs — Lisa, his wife.

"She's done about all of the behind-the-scenes stuff," he said. "Lisa has helped so much and it's allowed me to concentrate on my golf."

Pavin is playing well on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He is coming off a second-place finish in the British Senior Open last week and his year includes a second-place finish on the PGA Tour, where he has played seven events and would rank No. 1 in putting (27.32 putts per round) and 194th in driving (257.5 yards) if

he had enough rounds to qualify for the official stat list.

"Shocking stat, that last one," deadpanned Pavin, who never has been a long hitter.

The fact that Sahalee demands accuracy rather than distance off the tee is a reason Pavin is expected to be a contender in his first U.S. Senior Open that begins today.

The Ryder Cup will be played Oct. 1-3 at Celtic Manor Resort in South Wales. The U.S. team will consist of the top eight players in Ryder Cup points and four captain's picks, which Pavin will announce Sept. 7.

Pavin said he isn't spending a lot of time worrying about possible captain's picks. He said he expects Tiger Woods, currently No. 8 on the points list, to remain in the top eight on points.

"I'm not a hypothetical guy," Pavin said. "I don't sit around and think, 'What about this? What about that?' So, I'm basically waiting for the PGA (Championship) to end. And when that ends and I have eight guys that are definitely on the team, then I'm going to get serious about who I think the four players that will complement those eight the best."

Replying to a question, Pavin said he says he never goes more than a couple days without someone mentioning the 238-yard 4-wood he hit to 6 feet on the 18th hole at Shinnecock Hills in 1995 when he won the U.S. Open.

"It's nice to be remembered for something positive like that," he said.

The former UCLA Bruin also is known as the PGA Tour record-holder for nine holes for the 8-under 26 he shot on the front nine of the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee in 2006.

Notes

• Defending champion Fred Funk, who set a record last year when he won the U.S. Senior Open at 20-under at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., said he thinks even-par will win at Sahalee.

"I don't see anybody going under par," Funk said, referring to a four-day total.

Fred Couples said he doesn't think any single-round score will be lower than 67.

The main obstacle to low scores is the firmness of the greens because approach shots aren't holding like they do in wet conditions.

"They were the hardest greens on Tuesday that I've ever played on," Couples said. "I didn't really make a ball mark (impact indention from approach shot on the green)."

Tom Watson said, "It's not a golf course where you can fire at the flags. It's more of a chess match where you get in position for your next shot."

• Watson on whether he thinks Tiger Woods (14 major victories) will catch Jack Nicklaus and his total of 18 victories in majors: "Yes. I do."

• Couples, who has been plagued by back problems throughout his career, said his back is "very tight" this week but didn't express much concern about it, saying, "This is how I feel most of the time." Couples said he started walking a lot on a treadmill three months when he began accompanying his fitness-minded girlfriend to her gym. Walking is supposed to be good for backs, but Couples said, "My back actually feels worse today than it did three months ago when I started walking a lot."

• Bernhard Langer, who won the Senior British Open Sunday in Scotland, expressed irritation that the U.S. Senior Open is following four days later.

"It's a terrible schedule, it really is," he said, adding that "the young guys" (PGA and European tours) don't have to do it."

Langer said he spent 20 hours Monday traveling to Seattle. He said, "I haven't been sleeping good the last two nights, and nobody else has either that came from over there. You're up at 2 or 3 in the morning. Tomorrow, I have a 1 o'clock tee time, which for my body is 9 p.m. So, I'm playing from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., more or less, which is not the idea time to play golf under any circumstances, and certainly not in a major on a golf course like this."

• One of the 29 amateur players in the field is Dale Tallon, new general manager of the NHL Florida Panthers. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1970 draft and the defenseman had a 10-year career with Vancouver, Chicago and Pittsburgh. He later spent 16 years as Chicago Blackhawks broadcaster before becoming a club pro then returning to hockey management. Tallon served as a senior adviser to the Blackhawks during this past Stanley Cup season.

• Tom Lehman is among the golfers in the field who also designs courses. Asked what he considers to be the best hole at Sahalee, Lehman said he likes No. 8, a difficult 443-yard uphill dogleg par 4. "That's an outstanding hole," he said.

• Don't forget that the "big event" at Sahalee this summer was supposed to be the PGA Championship. However, the PGA of America changed its mind in 2005 and moved the 2010 event to Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, site of the lucrative 2004 PGA Championship attended by almost 300,000 fans. Whistling Straits can accommodate bigger crowds than Sahalee, site of the 1998 PGA Championship won by Vijay Singh.

In announcing its decision, the PGA of America said it was concerned about likely reduced corporate support at Sahalee because the Winter Olympics were scheduled earlier in 2010 in nearby Vancouver. The PGA of America initially talked about bringing the PGA Championship back to Sahalee between 2012 and 2015 but those dates have been filled and there is no talk of the PGA Championship returning.

• Overlooked among the accomplishments of departing Seahawk CEO Tod Leiweke is a big contribution he made to Seattle-area golf. Leiweke, a former PGA Tour executive, was instrumental in bringing the Boeing Classic — a Champions Tour event that started in 2005 — to Seattle. This year's Boeing Classic will be Aug. 27-29 at the TPC at Snoqualmie Ridge.

• The two holes most resilient to par are sure to be the No. 18 and No. 6, which are par-5's for members but par 4s for this event as they were for the 1998 PGA Championship. No. 18 was the toughest hole and No. 6 was second. The two easiest holes for the pros in 1998 were the par 5s that remained par 5s — No. 2 and No. 11.

• The TV schedule: Today and Friday, ESPN2, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, NBC, 1-4 p.m.

• Fuzzy Zoeller, 58, Masters and U.S. Open champion, has no idea what to expect from himself this week. "I would have said pretty good if I had been playing the last six weeks," Zoeller said when assessing his chances. "I've been goofing around, going on fishing trips, hanging out with buddies and doing some corporate outings."

Zoeller said he has more fun now than when he was a force on the PGA Tour. "I like it more because I don't have to do it," he said. "I'm out here now because I enjoy it."

• D.A. Weibring hosted four "Wounded Warriors" from the American Lake Veterans Golf Course in an exhibition. The course in Pierce County is run by volunteers and provides recreation for disabled soldiers and other veterans. Nicklaus is donating his design services for a second nine at the course and fundraising for construction is under way.

Staff writer Scott Hanson contributed to this notebook.