Ryder Cup captain stands ground with reporter Gray
HAVEN, Wis. - Jim Gray may not know if Corey Pavin bites his nails, but the Golf Channel reporter, who famously hosted LeBron James' "The Decision," can probably tell you what kind of mouthwash the U.S. Ryder Cup captain uses after going nose-to-nose with Pavin following a news conference Wednesday.
The pair went at it at the completion of a Ryder Cup-themed news conference featuring Pavin and his counterpart, European captain Colin Montgomerie. Much of the questioning of Pavin had to do with a report from Golf Channel analyst Gray the previous evening saying the U.S. captain would pick Tiger Woods for the Ryder Cup team.
"Of course I'm going to pick him," the Golf Channel reported Pavin saying, "He's the best golfer in the world."
Pavin didn't waste any time Wednesday trying to set the record straight.
"Let's straighten this out right now," he said after the first question was asked. "I had a conversation with Jim Gray (Tuesday) just outside the locker room near where we registered and he asked me a few questions and his interpretation of what I said is incorrect.
"There's nobody that's promised any picks right now. It would be disrespectful to everybody that's trying to make the team. I've got quite a few people I'm looking at. I would not disrespect any of the players that are potential players on the team, and obviously there was a misinterpretation of what I said, and that is an incorrect quote."
Gray apparently didn't like Pavin's denial, and afterward, according to Golf.com, confronted Pavin in the media center and called him a liar.
"You're going down," Gray said.
"You're full of it," Pavin responded.
As Gray started to walk away, Pavin reportedly shouted, "You're just going to walk off?" prompting Gray to return to face off with Pavin.
A gentleman's game indeed.
Hey, remember me? While Tiger and Phil packed them in on Tuesday and the Ryder Cup captains played to a full house a day later, it was quite a different story when defending PGA champion Y.E. Yang took to the stage in the media center Wednesday afternoon.
But Yang took it all in stride.
"It's been a year since my PGA win, so maybe I'm kind of out of the spotlight a little bit," he said. "For the past year I haven't been doing that great and maybe people think I may not win this one again.
"I kind of figure the reporters that aren't here today probably are busy somewhere else."
Field day: Once again, the PGA Championship features the strongest field in golf, with 97 of the top 100 ranked players in the world on site.
The three who are not here are Lee Westwood of England (No. 3, injury); Robert Allenby of Australia (No. 17, injury); and Toru Taniguchi of Japan (No. 77, personal reasons).