SAN DIEGO — Matthieu Pavon took one step closer to qualifying for the Olympics in his home country and made a little history at the same time.
The 31-year-old from Toulouse who now resides in the wine region north of Bordeaux became the first Frenchman to win on the PGA Tour with his victory at the 2024 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines on Saturday. Pavon shot a 3-under 69 in the final round to finish at 13 under, one shot clear of Nicolai Hojgaard (70). Nate Lashley (67), Jake Knapp (69) and 54-hole leader Stephan Jaeger (72) all finished T-3 at 11 under.
“Yeah, I still can’t believe it. As I said, it feels like there is another round to play tomorrow because we’re only Saturday,” joked Pavon. “That is special. I can’t thank the PGA tour enough to give us the opportunity to come from Europe and compete here in America against the best players in the world. That’s always been the dream for me. I got finally a shot and I took it. I mean, it’s a dream come true and it’s a little bit hard to believe.”
Ranked No. 78 in the world, the victory will move Pavon inside the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking and put him in prime position to represent France at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
“Yeah, that’s big. Olympics is huge. Since I’m kid I’m watching it,” said Pavon. “I have a good friend of mine, Julien Quesne, was my mentor and is still my mentor to be fair, he did that Olympics in Rio and told me how cool was it. Yeah, it’s definitely one of my goals this year to qualify and represent my country in Paris. Looks like I’m on a pretty good shot right now.”
Farmers: Best shots from Torrey Pines
Success in professional sports is nothing new for Pavon’s family. His father, Michel Pavon, had a lengthy and successful career playing professional soccer in France for Toulouse, Montpellier and Bordeaux, where he was also a coach. His grandfather, Ignacio “Pepito” Pavon, also played professional soccer for French giants Olympique de Marseille.
Pavon won for the first time on the DP World Tour at the 2023 Spanish Open and has two previous wins on both the Alps and French tours. With his top-10 finish in the DP World Tour season-long standings in 2023, Pavon earned his PGA Tour card for 2024 and won in just his third start as a member. He finished T-7 at the Sony Open in Hawaii and T-37 at last week’s American Express.
“I come from a very sports family background. My mom is a golf teacher, my dad, football professional. Should I say probably soccer in America, but it’s football,” he said with a smile. “I think we had a VHS tape with all the highlights of his seasons. We probably watched that 100 times with my brothers. This is how inspiring is my family. Yeah, I mean, all they could really do with me is like teach great values, the taste of the effort and the grind and just trying to be as humble as you can and do your best every time you show up.”
Pavon was as smooth as a fine French red for most of the final round but began the day with a bogey, which allowed Jaeger to increase his lead to three shots thanks to a pair of early tap-in birdies on the second and third greens. As Jaeger began to mellow out midway through the front nine, Pavon caught fire with four birdies over his closing six holes before the turn.
His first blemish since the opening hole nearly came courtesy of a wayward tee shot on the par-3 16th into a greenside bunker, but Pavon escaped with a 23-foot par save. The leaky tee shot on 16 foreshadowed a brutal bogey after a missed 3-footer for par, which brought a whole host of players into contention.
Lashley was already in the clubhouse lead at 11 under and despite a rollercoaster round, Hojgaard stayed in the periphery and had a shot at the end after a perfect tee shot on the 72nd hole.
“I just saw Nicolai striping down the drive 300-plus yards in the middle and I was like, ‘OK, it’s going to be spicy now, I might have to do a birdie or something special'” Pavon said of the situation.
With Pavon in a fairway bunker, both Jaeger and Hojgaard found the green in two. The Frenchman then failed to find the fairway with his second and was left with a thick lie in the rough. From there he clutched up, stuffed his approach shot to 7 feet and made the birdie putt to seal the deal.
“I had to dig deep, I had to grind. It’s part of it,” Hojgaard said of his week. “Obviously love the grind when you’re out there and you can feel the nerves and you miss a couple things and you try to work on stuff.”
“I’ve got a bigger picture here. We’re on the right path, we’re doing some good things. There’s a lot of things we can do better, that’s a good thing,” he continued. “We’re going to regroup now, we’ve got a few more days now preparing for Pebble next week. I’m excited for the future. I’m sure I’m going to get it over the line at some point. It’s about being patient and just stay calm. And obviously you’ve got to enjoy this as well. You’ve got to take your losses with a smile sometimes because it makes you stronger. I definitely, I’ll definitely do my best to get a couple shots better.”
“I didn’t have my best stuff golf game wise. I battled, you know. That was the story of my weekend here,” added Jaeger. “But I didn’t have enough to really get going. I felt like if I putted decent, I’d have had a better chance of winning.”
Fan-favorite Tony Finau (69) finished T-6 at 10 under, with San Diego native Xander Schauffele (70) T-9, a shot back at 9 under. Defending champion Max Homa (69) finished T-13 at 8 under.
“Yeah, I was proud of the fight. I didn’t really have it with much of anything the first couple days, just wasted a bunch of shots. Then today played very solid, had it going for a little bit but then kind of got bit, but such is the South Course at Torrey Pines,” said Homa. “So pretty happy with my game going into next week. Glad I finished on a bit of a better note. Yeah, game feels very well rounded, just needs to clean up a little bit.”
The victory will qualify Pavon for the Masters, as well as next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Tour’s second signature event of the season. Pavon doesn’t know what the rest of his year will look like now, and he’ll meet with his team next week to plot out the schedule.
“Matthieu Pavon knows he’s going to go eat at Nobu tonight, that’s all I know,” he said with a laugh, “and playing in Pebble next week.”
Bon Appétit, Matthieu.
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