Golf fans in the United States, get used to hearing his name more often because France’s Mathieu Pabon is here to stay.
For the second consecutive tournament, Pavon will be part of the final group for the final round of a PGA Tour event. Last week, he entered Saturday’s final round at the Farmers Insurance Open with a one-stroke lead over Stefan Jaeger. He went on to score historic victories.
“I can’t really explain it, but I think it was just a lot of things coming together,” said Pavon, who shot a 6-under 66 in the third round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Saturday.
“Ever since I won a tournament in Spain six months ago, I’ve been getting better and better. Then I got my PGA Tour card and now I have some confidence in myself and my game. You’re here in America. I think that’s the key. If you want to play good golf, you have to have confidence. What you can do after that is just have a positive attitude and make sure you hit your best shot every time you show up. All you have to do is try.”
Pavon had all the confidence in the world when he hit the best shot of the tournament on the 72nd hole last week. Even when the odds were against him, he showed up in the clutch.
He continued to improve this week, leading the entire field in total birdies made through 54 holes. He had eight birdies Saturday, including two on Pebble Beach’s most difficult holes, the par-4 ninth and par-4 10th.
“It was a pretty good round today. Overall, it was very solid from tee to green,” said Pavone.
“I only missed two shots and they landed in the wrong places and I ended up with two bogeys. I’m really happy with how I fought back every time. I got some good birdies and I had two bogeys. He finished the round with a great birdie on the 18th.
The Frenchman ranks second in overall strokes gained, behind Windham Clark.
On the leaderboard, Pavon trails Clark by two strokes at 15 under.
But no matter what happens on Sunday, or even on Monday when severe weather is expected, Pabon will be ready.
“We’re going to prepare for tomorrow,” Pavon said.
“I heard the weather was bad, so all I can think about is how much rain the golf course can withstand, because it’s still raining.” [damp]. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow and we’ll see if we play tomorrow, Monday, but we don’t know. ”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
