Mark Calcavecchia - "Getting Waxed at the 2002 Ryder Cup" SHORT TRACK

Lee Trevino 0:07

Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to just well, one other writer cup to talk about.

Mike Gonzalez 0:18

We won't spend a lot of time on it, but uh uh you had to fast forward 11 years. This was the one you mentioned that was postponed because of 9-11. Uh and that was uh at the Belfry. Curtis was the captain for us, Sam Torrance for the Europeans.

Mark Calcavecchia 0:30

Yep. Uh a couple things happened that week. Uh Tiger Woods missed three straight four-footers for the first time in his life, and he's my partner. Uh I convinced Curtis into uh sending me out with him and alternate shot. And he said, Calc, you you you make a bunch of birdies, you're better in best ball. I said, Curtis, I'm 4-0 in alternate shot in the Ryder Cup. 2-0 with Ken Green and 2-0 with Payne Stewart. I said, I I I I can play with Tiger, I'm not nervous playing with him. Tiger was fine with it. And of course, the other thing that happened is we had to use his ball, and his ball went probably 10 yards shorter than my ball. And I hit some iron shots, I thought I just stiffed, and they came up 30 feet short. But at any rate, getting back to 11, 12, and 13 and 14, uh, I chip it up there to four feet on eleven, he misses it. Uh he hits it on the green on 12, par three, I put it by four feet, he misses it. Uh he hits it on the green on 13, I put it by three feet, four feet, he misses that. And then on the next hole, he half shanks an eight iron and buries it in the corner of a bunker. And we lost four holes in a row and end up losing the match two and one. Uh so as mad as I was about that, I'm like, what are the odds that Tiger misses three straight four-footers when he goes an entire year and doesn't miss one? Anyway, and then uh I go out the next day with David Duvall, and uh we won our match, which felt great. Uh and also then Sunday I got Pat Drake Harrington and the f and the singles. And I promise you, they did not cut the greens since Friday morning. They were running at about an eight on the stint meter, which is a captain's choice. If you don't want the greens cut, uh they were so slow, and then when I went back and watched all the matches and the replay of that, we couldn't get one of the whole. And of course, they're better at slow greens anyway. Uh the Europeans at that time. They didn't play near the fastest greens we do, and uh uh they made a bunch of putts, including Padre, and when he made another bomb, he goes, eh, you must think I'm the greatest putter in the world. I'm like here, Pedrig.

Mike Gonzalez 2:39

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 2:41

Uh yeah, but anyway. Well, yeah, they they smoked us. Uh it was tired going into Sunday, and they just waxed us. I lost five and four to Pedrig. He made everything he looked at, like, none of us could get a putt of the hole. So that was that.

Mike Gonzalez 2:55

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Lee Trevino 3:16

Whack down the fairway. It went smack down the fairway. And it started to slice, just smitch offline. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddy says as long as you're still in the state, you're okay. It went straight down the middle, five away.