Tall In Texas

Corey Pavin hails from California, lives in Florida and could probably hide under a 10-gallon hat, but he must have the heart of a Texan. As the chart below shows, since 1990 Pavin has been king of the Texas three-step, the PGA Tour's annual visit to the Lone Star state. Nobody in this decade has been better in the Houston Open, the Byron Nelson and the Colonial than Pavin, who is similar in size and temperament (if not recent results) to the best golfing Texan of them all. "What Ben Hogan and I have in common is imagination on the course," says Pavin, who has pocketed 13% of his $8.2 million in career earnings on the Texas swing.

Creativity and grace under pressure have been Pavin's keys to the city of Fort Worth, Hogan's hometown. He has a win, two seconds and two ninths at Fort Worth's Colonial Country Club. He cemented his position as the best Tour player in Texas this decade with $229,050 earned from three top 10 finishes at the Nelson in nearby Irving.

Like Pavin, Fulton Allem proves that you needn't grow up in spurs and a Stetson to go as low in Texas as the barometer in tornado season. Allem, a South African, has won two of his three Tour titles in Houston and Fort Worth. Two more outlanders, Bruce Devlin of Australia and Roberto De Vicenzo of Argentina, are the only men to achieve a career Texas Triple. But hold your horses: A closer look at the Texas swing shows that many of its stars are local boys after all. Mark Brooks, Ben Crenshaw, Brace Lietzke and Jeff Maggert grew up and went to college in Texas, while South Africa's David Frost moved to Dallas in 1986. "Being Texan is a state of mind," said the late Dave Marr, who came from Houston and won the 1965 PGA Championship. "We all have the same gunslinger attitude, and many of us grew up admiring Ben Hogan. When he walked onto a course, it was like there was a new sheriff in town."

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]