GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Corey Pavin is a walking anachronism.

On the PGA Tour, which has become a bomber's paradise, Pavin hits it just a little farther than the length of this sentence.

While the game has contracted a severe outbreak of technology the past 10 years, Pavin uses a putter that looks like a relic from the Stone Age.

Yet, the short-hitting, 48-year-old former major champion leads the Buick Open.

Pavin used his Titleist Bulls Eye putter like a scalpel yesterday and dissected Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club. He took 21 putts, refused to yield a bogey, made four birdies on each side and shot 8-under-par 64.

That gave Pavin a share of the first-round lead with Bo Van Pelt and Dudley Hart. Van Pelt and Hart also had bogey-free rounds.

Briny Baird and Daniel Chopra were one stroke back with 65s.

Pavin is second to last in driving distance this season with a 262.1-yard average. Bubba Watson, who shot 30 on his first nine holes and finished with a 67, leads the tour with a 312.2-yard average.

Yet Pavin, who checks in at 5 feet 9 and 155 pounds, never has fallen victim to getting into an arms race off the tee with the big hitters.

"I'm not sure it's all about length," Pavin said. "But length helps. It always has. It's nothing new."

Pavin made five birdies from at least 15 feet, including a putt from the fringe from 40 feet on the fifth hole, which counted as a chip. All while using some vintage 1984 putting technology that isn't unlike what you might find at a miniature golf course.

"It's very high technology, that Bulls Eye," Pavin said. "So try to keep it quiet, will ya?"

Hawai'i's Dean Wilson, a Castle High alum, was tied for 33rd with a 69, while Punahou alum Parker McLachlin is tied for 48th at 70.

EUROPEAN PGA

SPANIARD LEADS AT 65

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Spanish qualifier Pablo Larrazabal left his driver in the clubhouse and shot a 6-under 65 yesterday to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the French Open.

"That's my first tournament I play without a driver," Larrazabal said. "The fairways are really hard, so you don't need the driver. Maybe if the wind starts to blow really hard, then you need the driver."

One shot back were English teenager Oliver Fisher, who birdied three of his final seven holes in a bogey-free 66, and Ireland's Peter Lawrie, who made 10 birdies but finished with bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18 to fall back into a share of second.