Sports Watch
The University of Hawaii senior defends his Navy-Marine Invitational title starting tomorrow while still savoring his five-stroke victory in the Western Athletic Conference tournament last week in Cheyenne, Wyo.
He was smiling then and he'll be smiling at the Navy-Marine Course, win or lose.
"I like to smile when I'm playing," says Pavao. "If you smile, you don't get mad. And when you enjoy yourself, you actually play better."
"I can always tell it's Mike. He's always smiling, especially in front of a camera," said UH teammate Kane Coyle.
This week's tournament comes as a good tune-up for Pavao, who has been invited to play in the NCAA West Regionals at the Stanford University Golf Course next week. Yes, Stanford has its own golf course.
He'll be the only Rainbow golfer in the regional. The team just missed qualifying.
If Pavao survives the regional, he'll go to Chattanooga, Tenn., for the NCAA championship finals at the end of this month.
OF course, all attention at the NCAA regional will focus on Stanford's Tiger Woods, golf's most accomplished amateur player.
"He's awesome, good as advertised," said Pavao, who played with Woods twice. The last time was at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate Classic at the Kaneohe Klipper in February.
Not surprisingly, Woods won the tournament by four strokes with a final-round 69. But Pavao also shot a 69 that day to finish in sixth place. He'd like nothing better than to play with Woods again.
Pavao became the second UH golfer to win the WAC championship. The first was Brandan Kop, who took the individual title in 1980.
"It was just a matter of making a lot of putts - finally," Pavao said about his WAC victory. "Basically, the second round did it for me."
New Mexico's Doug LaBelle, who finished second, was within one shot when Pavao birdied the 10th and 11th holes to go three strokes ahead.
A closing eagle-3 on the par-5 18th at the Cheyenne Country Club gave Pavao more than enough cushion to win easily the next day.
"That made me tie the record," Pavao said about his eagle. He hit a 9-iron from 180 yards away to within 12 feet and then dropped the putt.
"It was downwind," Pavao said in explaining a 9-iron shot that can travel 180 yards. And, of course, the golf ball really flies at the 6,100-foot elevation.
"The wind was really blowing. And it was cold the first two days - in the 40s, not counting the wind chill. But the last day was nice, like Hawaii."
Coming from the Big Island, Pavao is used to playing in windy conditions. He felt that helped.
A Hilo native, Pavao won two state golf titles at Waiakea High School, first as a sophomore in 1990 and again as a senior two years later.
Unlike a lot of his golf contemporaries, Pavao stayed at home to go to college. Pavao went to the West Regional as a sophomore, but really turned his game around last year, winning the prestigious Manoa Cup besides the Navy-Marine title.
He plans on defending his Manoa Cup crown in July and, again, it should be fortuitous timing because the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, which is also match play, will be held the following week at Wailua, Kauai. Of course, there's still a matter of qualifying next month to get in the Publinx.
Pavao plans on returning as a graduate assistant next year to get his degree in sociology and help his brother, Duane, who's the Rainbow men's coach.
He'd like to give the pro circuit a shot after that. But, for now, there's a lot of amateur golf - and smiles - to go before then.