Mark Calcavecchia - Part 1 (The Early Years and PGA Tour Wins)

Mark Calcavecchia

Mike Gonzalez 0:16

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game. Bruce Devlin, uh, our guest today. I guess uh one clue I could give is uh uh we're gonna talk about one of his greatest victories. I tried to find a golf shirt from the venue he won at. Uh the closest I could come was Prestwick. So that's a slight hint. But uh why don't you tell our our our listeners about our guest today?

Bruce Devlin 0:41

First of all, I gotta tell you one thing. I think this man had one of the great golf swings of anybody that's ever played the game. Starting with that. And you mentioned You mentioned the fact that he uh you were close, he's close to Presswick, yes. He won the 1989 Open Championship. I guess back in those days it was called the British Open, but we're uh we're really happy to have Mark Calcavecchia here with us today. Mark, thanks for joining us. It's uh great to chat with you.

Mark Calcavecchia 1:14

My pleasure, Bruce. Mike, thanks for having me.

Mike Gonzalez 1:17

Yeah, we're looking forward to this. Mark, we've got a lot to talk about as as we've talked about before. We want to tell your story, and and we'll do that by starting at the beginning. But I should tell our listeners who may be looking at this on a YouTube snippet in the future. Uh, unfortunately, we don't have video for Bruce Dublin, so we're not able to see his lovely face, but we'll hear his wonderful voice throughout this uh podcast. And uh so, Mark, uh our understanding is uh uh grew up in Nebraska, uh major way to Florida, but would just tell us a little bit about growing up in Nebraska and then and then the move to Florida.

Mark Calcavecchia 1:52

Yeah, I was born in uh Laurel, Nebraska, uh a little very, very northeast corner of the state, uh, a little farm town of about 920 people. And uh uh back then uh my dad and a couple of his buddies liked to play golf. Of course, they were you know 50 shooters, but the nearest course was 15 miles away in uh either Wayne or uh Coleridge, I think. So, you know, back then driving 10 or 12 minutes to a golf course was crazy. So they just decided they were gonna buy a 43-acre cornfield just on the edge of town, and uh they made a golf course out of it. And uh as a little boy, uh, you know, you want to hang around with your dad. So you know, I was five, six years old. I'd go out to the course with him. My older brother is 11 years older than me, and he liked to play golf as well. So uh yeah, I just uh hung out with them and we had this little nine-hole course, literally no trees, no water, no bunkers, just a field with T's and greens, and that was it. And uh, you know, just something about the game uh as years went by. Uh I just uh I spent all day out there in the summers, uh, learned to play, you know, strictly on my own, figured it out, uh, used a baseball grip, uh, played in my swim trunks, no shirt, no shoes. Uh when I got tired of golfing, uh I'd hop and run down to the ride my bike down to the pool and go swimming for a while, and then I'd go back and play more golf. So that was pretty much my summer schedule. And uh anyway, we moved to Florida when I was 13 in 1973, mainly for my father's health reasons. He had uh multiple sclerosis. Uh so and he had brothers and sisters down there. So we had taken vacations down to down to South Florida, so I kind of knew what it was like uh even as a little boy. Uh but uh he went down early in the winter of 73, found a house right across the street from North Palm Beach Country Club, uh, joined the club, and then uh moved us down there in July of 73. Uh and that's kind of where I learned how to play out of bunkers and uh you know behind trees and other uh various hazards. But uh yeah, I had to learn to do quick.

Mike Gonzalez 4:01

Well, yeah, your childhood golf sounds a lot like mine. I I grew up in Southern Illinois, little uh little town, you know, similar size. And we had a nine-hole course, and as you said, we had no bunkers. Um we we had one pond, uh, we had a partial range, no pro, no irrigation system. It was just hard ground, dig it out.

Mark Calcavecchia 4:21

You know, exactly. The exact same thing.

Mike Gonzalez 4:24

And I spent all day out there, and when I got tired, same thing. I jumped, it was it was called a country club, but you could join it for $200 a year, right?

Bruce Devlin 4:34

There you go.

Mike Gonzalez 4:34

You jump in the pool, you cool off for an hour or so, maybe look at some of the pretty girls, and then off you off you go again.

Mark Calcavecchia 4:41

Exactly.

Mike Gonzalez 4:43

Yeah, well, it was a fun way to grow up, and and uh I'm sure at the beginning you were probably self-taught a bit, huh?

Mark Calcavecchia 4:52

Yeah, entirely. Uh I I like I said, I I just I used a baseball grip, you know, like I was playing baseball, and uh really didn't change that until I was 14, until I got down here, and uh the pro at North Palm Beach Country Club suggested I changed to an overlap grip. So that it was an easy change, you know, just moving your pinky over your forefinger, your your left hand. Uh and other than that, I was still you know entirely self-taught all the way through uh or self-learned all the way through uh never had a lesson until uh my first lesson actually was with Peter Costas in 1984 after I'd already spent a couple years on tour. So made it all the way through high school, college golf, uh a couple years on and off the tour in the early 80s, and then uh you know, back then with woods, everybody hit a big hook. And my hook, my hook could really hook. And I never knew how much it was gonna hook. But I swung at it hard and I just wanted to pound it, and uh went to work with Peter Costas in '84, and he got me a driver set up, you know, without much loft, uh stiff titanium shaft, and got me hitting a a fade off the T. And uh that was really when I started to uh improve rapidly.

Bruce Devlin 6:05

Would you say Costas is the one that that sort of fine-tuned everything that you'd learned as a young man or taught yourself as a young man?

Mark Calcavecchia 6:14

A hundred percent. Yep. Uh and it wasn't, I mean, it took me a little while. You know, when you make changes, uh, when you go from hitting a hook to a fade, but basically, uh, you know, he got me a driver setup uh that was almost impossible to hook uh because it didn't have enough loft on it, number one. So I had to kind of hang back and and you know swing across it and release left to get it in the air. Uh and then basically, you know, just don't get the club behind me on the way on my backswing. So as long as I keep the my hands inside the club head on the way back, and then just clear my left hip and leg and swing left, let it go. And I could still release and not hit it left. So that those were basically the changes we made. And uh it took a little while for me to kind of get used to it, probably till the uh middle eighty-five or early eighty-six, but I really started playing well and uh things just kind of took off from there.

Mike Gonzalez 7:09

So before before the lesson, were you were you able to what did you do? Read books, magazines, watch guys on television? How did you kind of learn the right way to do certain things?

Mark Calcavecchia 7:20

A little all the above. Uh I wasn't a big uh instruction reader, but uh I do remember watching uh watching the guys on tour uh back in the early day, uh when you know when it was on or when I could watch it. Uh I had a lot of good kids that I played with, uh, especially when I got down to Florida and the Palm Beach County Junior Golf Association. Uh you know, a lot of good players. And uh I also learned from them as well. Uh and I, you know, I just figured out how to curve the ball on my own. Uh, you know, my dad helped me with that. He says it it makes sense if you if you want the ball to go right to left, you've got to put a right to left spin on it. So how are you gonna do that? You know, so I swung inside to outside, and then vice versa, when you want to hit a cut or a slice. Uh so uh, you know, as I went through high school I got better and better and better and uh you know learned how to learn how to play shots. Uh and and I you know back then we didn't have uh rangefinders or you know, basically you looked at the 150 bush or pin sheets. You know, you looked at the 150 bush and took a gander at the green and made a made a swing. Guess where the pin was and and you came up with a with a club. And I've had friends say, uh older friends that watched me play when I was when I was young, said I just had a really good knack for uh hitting it pin high. Uh my distance control was always really good. And uh, you know, I think that's just kind of comes with feel and and just just playing and getting used to how far you're hitting it.

Mike Gonzalez 8:50

You make a good point about uh distance and and back in the day, yeah, maybe there was a stake, maybe there was a bush or something. But when did you really start getting serious about uh knowing what the number was?

Mark Calcavecchia 9:04

Well, uh I said we as I said, we moved here in 73, and my older brother took me down to see the Jackie Gleason Inverary Classic in uh Fort Lauderhill March of 74. Yep.

Bruce Devlin 9:16

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 9:17

Yep, in Lauder Hill, Florida. And uh you know, after spending the day out there, and I remember watching Victor Regalato and uh uh Spike Kelly and some of these other guys, and of course Jack, uh Lee Trevino, Miller Barber, uh I just my jaw was just w wide open all day long, and and I just decided right then and there this is this is what I gotta do uh for a living. Uh I gotta be a professional golfer. And it just from that point on, it never never left my mind that this is what I was gonna do. And uh sure enough, it worked out pretty good.

Bruce Devlin 9:54

Good choice, Mark. A good choice, my man.

Mike Gonzalez 9:58

I I think I've mentioned this to Bruce before, but speaking of uh Jackie Gleason and Lauder Hill and Lee Trevino, I was down there uh I don't know, let's just say it was around 1980 or so. And uh we were staying in Lauder Hill down for something else, and we decided to go over and just see who which players had shown up. It was early in the week, might have been Monday or Tuesday. The only guy in the range was Lee Trevino. And we sat there, just literally sat there, a group of us, there were about four or five friends. We just sat there and chit-chatted with him and watched him hit balls for about two hours. There were no ropes, right? And the thing I remember is he said he wasn't playing in the tournament. He's he was there, but he wasn't playing in the tournament. We asked him, Well, why is that? He said, Well, um, what was his caddy's name?

Mark Calcavecchia 10:44

Um Herman. Yeah, Herman. Hey Herman.

Mike Gonzalez 10:49

He blamed Herman. He said, Well, Herman was supposed to send my entry and he never did it.

Bruce Devlin 10:54

Oh no.

Mike Gonzalez 10:56

He comes all the way to the inverse and and uh is not even in the tournament. But anyway, I uh I uh I digress. You had some success in high school and high school golf, didn't you?

Mark Calcavecchia 11:07

I did. Uh yeah, I I uh uh I did win the the Florida State uh high school tournament and uh 1977, I think, when I was a junior. And uh, you know, won won quite a most all my matches. Uh I I think I lost a few through high school, but uh I was I was pretty tough to beat and uh uh you know got some uh scholarship offers kind of uh wherever I wanted to go, but I I did want to stay in the state of Florida, so I was either looking at uh Florida or Florida State. And how I ended up going to Florida was basically it was two and a half hours closer, and uh I liked the golf course a little bit better uh than I did in uh Tallahassee, so I decided on uh decided on going to Florida.

Bruce Devlin 11:51

You competed against a uh the son of a pretty good player, too, I understand.

Mark Calcavecchia 11:56

I I sh I sure did. Uh uh Jack Nicholas Jr. So Jackie uh is my exact same age and uh uh met him as soon as I started playing in the uh junior tournaments uh uh around Palm Beach County in the in the junior golf association. So, you know, we became friends and and played high school golf against each other, and uh uh of course Mr. Nicholas uh uh when we had when we played our high school matches against each other always came out and watched. And uh, you know, that was pretty cool from uh a little kid coming out of Nebraska to having Jack Nicholas watch you play golf all of a sudden uh against the sun. And I I'm 99% sure uh Jackie never beat me. So I you know I kind of felt like I needed to show off when uh Jack was watching. And uh he was always uh always very complimentary and had a lot of great things to say about my game. So uh, you know, that that was a big uh a big confidence boost uh as well.

Mike Gonzalez 12:55

I'm sure it was. Did he ever give you any tips?

Mark Calcavecchia 12:58

Uh no, not really. Uh you know, he might have said a few things uh here and there that I can't remember, but uh I remember we did uh uh Jackie did invite me over to Lost Tree to play with uh him and his dad. Uh I'm gonna guess uh maybe junior year in high school. Maybe I was a senior, I don't know. But that was 75 or 76, that was uh or 76 or 7. That was pretty cool. Uh I do remember that. And then of course getting to play with Jack out on tour uh was also always a thrill, obviously. Uh and playing with uh you know Bruce and Lee Trevino and Tom Wyskoff and Johnny, you know, the list goes on. Uh I've been lucky, Arnold Palmer, uh, to get to play with all those guys uh in the in the 80s, and that was uh that was always super special.

Mike Gonzalez 13:46

Yeah, that was a great era for golf. Um you went to Florida, you you teamed with a guy named Ken Green. I think most people recognize that name.

Mark Calcavecchia 13:55

We just played golf yesterday, matter of fact. How's it doing? He's hanging in there, he's he's doing pretty good. Uh he had another procedure on his leg uh at the end of last year and just started playing again last month. Uh and he's he's doing uh he's doing pretty good. He's he's hanging tough. So uh yeah, Ken was on the team at Florida. Uh some other guys have played the tour. Larry Ranker played the tour for probably at least 15 years, and now he's teaching in Orlando and also played against his brother Lee, who is my age. Larry's two years older than me, so Larry was on the team when I got to Florida, and uh uh Tom and Terry Anton both played on the PGA tour. Uh they were on the team. So we yeah, we had a we had a pretty solid team.

Mike Gonzalez 14:40

And quite a few other good players come out of that school before you and after you, right?

Mark Calcavecchia 14:44

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Andy Bean and Bob Murphy, Gary Coke, Frank Beard, uh the list goes on, and then after, of course, you've got Chris DeMarco and Dudley Hart and Camilo Jagas and uh been a ton of good players play at Florida, that's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 15:01

So take us through the decision process as your game developed, and at some point uh uh you started thinking, hey, maybe I can do this for a living.

Mark Calcavecchia 15:12

Yeah, uh you know, I kind of never really entered college with the idea of graduating, uh, you know, because I still had this thought in my head that I was gonna make it on the PGA tour, make it in professional golf. And uh in my third year in the fall, we had a six-round qualifier, and I I averaged 64 and a half for six rounds in the qualifier and won by 17 shots. And the coach didn't take me to the last two tournaments uh in the fall at LSU, and I think the other one was at Chris Jenkel. Uh, and I asked him why not, and he says, Well, I think you need to stay in in town and catch up on your grades. And then, of course, I said, Coach, I I don't go to class whether I'm in town or out of town. I'm your best player. If you want to win these tournaments, you better take me. And he said, I don't like your attitude, Calc.

Bruce Devlin 16:03

I'm like, well, fine.

Mark Calcavecchia 16:04

So he didn't take me and uh didn't take me, and sure enough, went home for Christmas break and talked to my mom and dad and called them up and said, uh, coach, I just entered the uh first series of the JC Goosey Mini Tour event. I'm not coming back. See ya.

Mike Gonzalez 16:20

Yeah. Bye-bye.

Mark Calcavecchia 16:22

Of course, he's like, You're making a mistake, you're making a mistake. I said, Well, maybe, but I've got to figure it out. Got to try it. Yeah, gotta give it a try. And of course, the first pro event I played in, uh, when you entered uh when you first turned pro and entered these tournaments, they put you first off. And it was 7 30 in the morning at Point Siena outside of Orlando, actually uh Tissimmee. It was 37 degrees and the wind was blowing about 25 miles an hour. It it probably still might have been the coldest I've ever been. And I'm like, I'm not so sure about this pro golf stuff all of a sudden. Uh but I ended up uh hanging in there and cashing a check, and uh, you know, I back then you kept track of every single nickel. I think I won 400 bucks or something, and you know, spent 167. I'm like, all right, I made $233 or whatever. So uh yeah, you kept track of every single dime back then, but uh I was off and running.

Mike Gonzalez 17:17

Well, you you you turned professional at uh uh at age 21 in 1981, went to tour school in 81 for the first time. You mentioned Larry Rinker, he was one of the guys that was there at that school. Payne Stewart was there, Dennis Watson was there. Some good players in that first school you attended.

Mark Calcavecchia 17:32

Yeah, there sure were. And that was the last year they had uh two tour schools, one in the summer and and uh one in the fall, and this was the summer one, and of course it was at Disney World uh with at the Palm course where the finals were, which I you know played 50 times. Yeah uh so uh you made it through the first couple of stages very easily and uh uh played a really good last round, uh shot 68, I think, to uh to make it by uh two or three or four shots. I can't remember how many, but uh you know, I uh all of a sudden I'm like, holy cow, I'm on the PGA tour. You know, it just it happened like that, and I was like uh but that kind of went on and on for about four or five years, where uh I think 82 is the first year of the all-exempt tour, and then I finished between 125 and 150, but I missed tour school, but I still had status. And then the next year I didn't finish between 125 and 150, but I made it through tour school. So I alternated and did that for about five years and until finally in 86 uh I got over the hump.

Mike Gonzalez 18:36

Yeah, you you went to that school in 83, and boy, uh what a list of players in that school. Willie Wood, uh Joey Sindelar, Mark Brooks, Jody Mudd, uh Paven was there, Lehman Faxen, Robert, Zinger, many more. Man, what a class.

Mark Calcavecchia 18:54

Yeah. Yeah, sure enough. We all we all played against each other for quite a few years on the tour, and now I'm still still playing with a lot of them on the champions tour.

Mike Gonzalez 19:03

That's good. So coming out of the box, uh just looking from you know 81 going pro to getting that first win on tour, it isn't easy, is it?

Mark Calcavecchia 19:16

No, it isn't. Uh it isn't. And like I said, I'd uh you know it'd save money. Uh I didn't have a sponsor other than what my dad gave me, and uh my parents never had a lot of money, but uh I'd I'd drive around. I I I everything I owned was in my Camaro, and I'd drive around and uh until we check five, six, seven hotels sometimes to try to save a couple bucks a night if I could find someplace cheaper than what I just went to. So uh, you know, it was a it was a struggle. Uh there were times I slept in my car, times I slept on the pavement by my wheel. Uh but you know, every young pro kind of goes through that. Uh I slept on a picnic bench uh one night. So uh yeah, you know, and then finally uh things really turned around and I started playing really well and uh felt comfortable. You know, that was kind of the main thing. I I just needed to find a way to relax and feel comfortable and feel like I belonged. Uh and finally uh with Peter Costas' help and uh the confidence that I was gaining in my game, uh you know, and you mentioned Ken Green, he won the 85 Buell Classic. And that actually had a big impact on me that that I always thought I was better than Ken anyway, but he finally, you know, he figured it out, had a great week and won. And I I just thought to myself, well, if if Ken can win, I know I can too. So uh that that really helped me mentally, and and we pushed each other a lot through the uh late 80s and 90s.

Bruce Devlin 20:42

Yeah. September of uh 86, right? First time that you went into the winner's circle. How did that change your life?

Mark Calcavecchia 20:52

The Southwest Classic in Abilene, Texas. And uh funny thing about that week was uh we go out and play a practice round on Tuesday, and I think I had uh twenty-one putts on the front nine, like four or three putts or something. It was just awful. And I said, I gotta go into the pro shop and find a putter, or I I gotta, you know, I only had the one putter, the old answer that I always used, and I said, I gotta look at something different. So they waited for me for 10 minutes on the 10th T, but I walked through the locker room and the titleess guy had some putters set up. And uh I decided I was gonna grab the ugliest putter I could find, and I did. Uh it was the big headed thing, you know, like when Nicholas won the Masters with that giant thing in the six?

Bruce Devlin 21:38

Yeah, we sure do.

Mark Calcavecchia 21:39

I titled had one called the Dead Center, and it was giant, it was it weighed like C two. It was light as a feather, and I said, Okay, I I I'm I'm gonna try this one. So and then I went out and shot like thirty in the back nine, made every putt I looked at, uh, and then all of a sudden I went from zero confidence to feeling like I was gonna make everything. And I still have that putter in my garage today. And I look at it and I'm like, how on earth did I ever win my first tournament with this putter? But uh yeah, I played great all week and uh ended up beating Tom Byron by a couple shots uh uh for the win.

Mike Gonzalez 22:16

Just to provide a little context, too, you had lost your tour card the year before, right?

Mark Calcavecchia 22:20

Right. And so uh I actually started 1986 with no status. Uh I actually blew out my left knee in Pensacola uh playing football on the beach with Ken Green, throwing the ball around. I went up to catch it and landed in a hole and twisted, you know, just tore my meniscus, uh, had to WD, couldn't even walk, drove all the way home from Pensacola and uh had knee surgery, and this was two weeks before the finals at Greenleaf in Haynes City. Uh so I tried to play. I I set up with my left foot you know wide open to take the stress off the inside of my knee, but obviously I didn't make it. No way. Anyway, I started 86 with no status, but Monday qualified into Durral and Honda and made the cuts and played pretty good. Uh qualified for the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, shut 65 the last round to finish 14th, which at that time would have got me into the Masters with no status, which doesn't happen very well.

Bruce Devlin 23:20

No, that was six the back in those days, the top 16, wasn't it?

Mark Calcavecchia 23:24

Correct, top 16. I turned to 14th at Shinnecock. So I was all excited about that. Uh then Ted May, who I've known forever, the the tournament director at the Greater Hartford Classic, gave me an exemption, and I had a top 10, which got me into the next tournament in Boston, another top 10, which got me into Milwaukee, another top 10, which got me into uh uh Southwest Classic in Abilene, and then I won.

Bruce Devlin 23:49

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 23:49

And then from that point on, I I was always fully exempt until I turned 50 years old. So I managed to stay fully exempt all the way through. Great career.

Mike Gonzalez 23:58

You mentioned that 65 at Shinnickok in the US Open, uh, which I suppose was that the year Corey won?

Mark Calcavecchia 24:06

It was, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:07

And uh, you know, we visited.

Mark Calcavecchia 24:09

I don't even know how I did that. I I remember, you know, I was nervous, obviously on 18, and I hit this two iron about six feet above the hole, uh to from and putting for a 64, and of course I missed it and blew it about seven feet by. And I just I don't even know how I made that one coming back, but uh I got it in there. And uh yeah, it was it was probably the best round of my life up to that point.

Mike Gonzalez 24:31

Oh my, I mean that tied the course record at the time, and then and coming back to this win then at uh at Southwest Golf Classic, Bruce, that's uh Charlie Cootie's place, isn't it?

Bruce Devlin 24:40

That's right, out in Abilene, Texas. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 24:43

Yeah. Uh but you uh you had a pretty strong finish. You birdied three of the last five holes, didn't you, to win that tournament?

Mark Calcavecchia 24:49

I did. I did. I uh I I know I birdied 14, which I I think is a par five, and then uh Tom and I were tied uh going to 16, and this is hairy little par three over water, and the pins down in the front. So there's water short, left, and right, and it's straight into the wind. Uh it was very windy that week. In fact, I almost got hit by a tumbleweed uh in the second round, or whatever round, the second or third round. It was the size of a Volkswagen blowing across the fairway. One of my plan partners said, Look out! Yeah, it was whipping across the fairway. In fact, I hit one behind me on the range. I teed up an eight iron and hit it as high as I could. It went up and landed uh behind me. So that's that's how windy it was. But anyway, on 16 I just uh aimed right. It was the wind was in right to left, and I just hit this punch six iron and the the wind kind of got it and started going up and drifting to the left, right at the hole, and ended up about two feet from the hole. So as nervous as I was, it was an amazing shot. And then I birdied 18, the last hole of par five to to win by a couple. So it was uh it was exciting to finish that way.

Mike Gonzalez 25:57

That's a life changer, isn't it? Getting that first win under your belt.

Mark Calcavecchia 26:01

Yeah, it is. It really is. It's uh uh you know, all of a sudden you call yourself a uh, you know, a PGA tour winner, and there's not a whole lot of guys that can say that. So uh it was uh it was life-changing, yeah, it really was.

Mike Gonzalez 26:15

Was the Camaro still in play then, or had you already taken it out of play?

Mark Calcavecchia 26:19

No, it was in play. Uh we rented a car. Uh so the next couple weeks, here's what's happened. Uh we had the rental car, me and my buddy Ucaddy for me, who worked for me all through the late 80s and early 90s. And we're on the way to Dallas, and I'm flying back to West Palm Beach, and he's flying back to Phoenix, I think. And we kept stopping every like 10 or 15 miles trying to find a few beers for the for the drive back to Dallas, and every time we stopped, it was a dry county. I said, Go to the next county. You know, anyway, so we never got any beers, almost missed our flights, and I'm carrying around this cardboard check for $72,000. You know, I was pretty proud of that.

Mike Gonzalez 26:58

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 26:59

I had to have that. In fact, that's still that's still in my garage, too. Uh and then the very next day, or Tuesday, got up at two in the morning and drove to Columbus, Georgia, uh for that tournament. I forget the name of the tournament, and I whip into the parking lot and there's this tall, skinny kid, and he says, Hey, uh, my name's Jim Mackay. Uh you need a caddy this week? And he he I think he knew I'd won last week, Jim McKay, aka Bonesy.

Bruce Devlin 27:29

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 27:30

Bonesy and uh Bones caddied for me that week, and I shot like 31 on the front nine. I was still making everything with that big putter. Anyway, then I lost a ball in the back nine, shot about forty-one, and then uh opened up with another good nine. The next day I was gonna make the cut, and then just made a couple doubles in the back nine, missed the cut. Uh and then I just decided I was gonna fly to Hawaii. Ken Green uh had a buddy who had a beautiful place out on Molokai. And uh why not? Yeah, just left my Camaro in Atlanta airport and and and Paloota Honolulu and then on to Molokai and spent uh week and a half there. And we just played golf and hung out by the pool every day, and that was it was uh you know, I I felt like a big shot, that's for sure.

Mike Gonzalez 28:14

Yeah, you know, back to that big check. I've always pictured one of you guys trying to walk into the front door of a bank and cash one of those things.

Mark Calcavecchia 28:21

Right? I should have tried it. I should have tried it, but yeah. Yeah, back back then he always got a big cardboard check. It was pretty cool.

Mike Gonzalez 28:30

Well, let me just double back for our guests real quick as we uh start recounting some of the early victories in Mark Kalkovecchia's career. Uh his record on the PGA tour, or rather professionally, I should say, 29 professional wins, including 13 on the PGA tour, one win on the Austrial Asian Tour, and four senior tour wins, I should say, so far, probably, right?

Mark Calcavecchia 28:55

Yeah, I I'm I'm still holding out hope I can win uh win again.

Mike Gonzalez 28:59

Yeah. Mark spent 109 weeks in the top 10 from 1988 to 1991. Uh, did you win on five continents?

Mark Calcavecchia 29:11

That's a good question.

Mike Gonzalez 29:13

Uh I'm thinking you might have missed South America, but uh uh No, no, no, he won there.

Mark Calcavecchia 29:19

Well Argentinian Open twice.

Mike Gonzalez 29:21

Yeah, yeah. Sorry, sorry. So uh I think he did missing. No, yeah.

Bruce Devlin 29:25

I don't think he's missing. I think he got them all.

Mike Gonzalez 29:28

Well, unless Africa, maybe.

Mark Calcavecchia 29:30

Uh we had an eight-player tournament back uh for two years we we played there. Uh there were only eight of us. It was the same time they were having the Sun City deal. So I don't know if you can really count an eight-player tournament, but I I did technically win a tournament in South Africa.

Mike Gonzalez 29:46

Yeah, well, you I mean the the point is uh uh you traveled the globe, uh uh took your game around, which I think was good for the game, and uh uh you know a mark of a real champion. The the other thing that I noted in your record, uh, and and maybe it's gonna relate to a question we'll ask you at some point uh that we ask all of our guests, but you had 24 second place finishes, is that right?

Mark Calcavecchia 30:12

I'm gonna say 27.

Mike Gonzalez 30:13

Okay, well let's do 27 then.

Mark Calcavecchia 30:16

Yeah, I don't know why the number is sticking out in my head. I know Norman had 29, and and I'm I know I'm I'm I think I'm second with 27. Uh or Jack might have had, I mean, I think Jack had 18 second place finishes in majors alone.

Bruce Devlin 30:30

Which is crazy, isn't it?

Mark Calcavecchia 30:31

And another like 19 or 20 third place finishes, right? That is crazy.

Mike Gonzalez 30:36

It is, yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 30:37

I saw something on Twitter the other day in the 70s. Jack played in uh every major, so he played 40 majors and had 35 top tens. Yeah, and that's just yeah, astounding. That's amazing. It's crazy, just amazing.

Mike Gonzalez 30:50

Crazy good.

Mark Calcavecchia 30:51

Yeah, yeah, all those seconds, I mean, I I'd say I I probably made great rallies to win or to finish second, you know, shooting 66 or 5 or something in the last round to come out of nowhere to tie for second or something. But I I know for a fact, and everybody's giving tournaments away, even Tiger and Jack, that uh there's probably a uh a 10 to 12 tournaments that uh I could come up with if I went back and looked at it where I felt like I should have won.

Bruce Devlin 31:16

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 31:17

Uh Doral being one of them, Hartford being one of them, uh Milwaukee being one of them. But yeah, it uh but you know, you you can't win every time it's impossible. So uh you know you're kind of bummed out at the time when you feel like you shouldn't have won and you didn't. But uh then again, like I said, uh you can make a great rally and finish second, and then you feel great. So uh you just you do what you you do the best you can do, basically.

Mike Gonzalez 31:42

You mentioned Twitter, uh, and I saw something from you recently, and and Bruce uh I talked to Bruce about it. He it he he said, yep, that's that's exactly right. And it it related to back in the day, they're talking about all these long hitters. Uh you could put it out there a good way too, couldn't you?

Mark Calcavecchia 32:00

Yeah, I I I was I never had a problem with distance. Uh, you know, never uh it never bothered me to, you know, when when guys would hit it twenty or thirty yards by me, uh, which was about uh as far as somebody could hit it by me in my prime. But uh because I always felt like I hit it far enough. Uh I never really started thinking about distance until I got old and my my back went south and uh when I was fifty-four, I lost twenty yards, uh like literally overnight. Uh you can see it right in my stats. I went from two eighty-nine to two sixty-nine.

Bruce Devlin 32:33

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 32:33

And uh now after this back surgery, I'm I'm probably uh even shorter than that. So uh but again that comes with age. Uh I understand that. And uh uh I've I've lightened up a lot on myself in terms of uh expectations and uh I'm really enjoying uh playing golf now and and and playing tournaments, uh, and I think as I've gotten older, uh you know, I wish I would have learned that uh in my career a little earlier and been a little less hard on myself. I mean I I took stuff uh uh way way too uh way too hard on myself uh most of the time, especially when I screwed up or played bad. Uh and I wish I wouldn't have.

Mike Gonzalez 33:10

Well, let me get to that question I alluded to because perhaps you just gave us the answer. But one of the one of the things we ask everybody is if you knew at age twenty, or let's say if you knew when you started on the tour what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Mark Calcavecchia 33:27

Oh well. Uh I'd have behaved a lot better. Uh I'll be the first to admit, uh, I've gotten fined, uh, I think Ken Green, speaking of him again, uh probably still leads the tour in fines. Maybe either hammered daily. I'm not sure, but uh, I wasn't too far behind. And uh back when Henry Hughes was with the tour, uh, I used to come up with some pretty good, pretty good letters. Uh and then when I couldn't come up with a great letter to get out of a fine, I had Phil Blackmar write it for uh for me. If you've ever read any of his letters that he's written, he he wrote one for Paul Azinger, and Azinger can can still he memorized it. It was so classic. So uh yeah, I wish I'd have been a lot less uh hard on myself and uh behaved a little bit better than I did. But uh, you know, sometimes it felt like when I if I got mad and and you know good and good and ticked off, uh a lot of times I was able to uh you know gave me energy. It you know, got me fired up and and made me really determined to make some birdies and get that stupid mistake that I just did to get it back. So uh but not always, you know. Sometimes I just would self-destruct and go right in the tank. And other times I could I could rally. But uh uh yeah, uh if I knew you know 40 years ago what I know now, and uh uh I think I'd have been a lot better even.

Mike Gonzalez 34:50

Bruce, uh, would you put Dave Hill as one of the leaders in the clubhouse on fines?

Bruce Devlin 34:54

Uh he's he's gotta be up there pretty high. I'm not sure that he's caught caught up to calc yet, but uh he he's uh he's one of the contenders for sure.

Mark Calcavecchia 35:07

One of my favorite pictures in Butch Harmon's studio in Las Vegas is a picture of Tommy Bolt on the 18th T at Cherry Hills in full wind up getting ready to just fire his driver up the lake. Have you seen that picture? I have.

Bruce Devlin 35:20

It's a beauty, isn't it?

Mark Calcavecchia 35:22

Yeah, it is a beauty. That's that's one of my favorites. Yeah, I guess Tommy could get a little uh little wound up himself. So uh yeah, he'd have been fun to see.

Mike Gonzalez 35:32

Kalki, you mentioned Phil Blackmar. I think Bruce, his name came up with Zinger when we talked to him, if I recall, when Zinger credited Blackmar as his co-author of their simplifying the golf swing concept, where they just described it as turn, turn, swish.

Bruce Devlin 35:50

Yeah, well, he he's uh he's quite he's been quite a character, Blackmar over the years.

Mark Calcavecchia 35:57

He's he's very funny. We we still talk every now and then and and text each other back and forth. Uh it's good to see him when he's out doing TV, you know, depending on where we're at. It's it's uh we try to go out and get some sushi when we can, because he he just he loves the sushi. So uh Phil's Phil's a great guy.

Mike Gonzalez 36:16

Let's move on from that first victory in 86 to the Honda Classic in 1987.

Mark Calcavecchia 36:22

First of two Hondas, and it was at Eagle Trace, which uh for me uh I think the course was built in 84 or 85, and I was able to go down there and I drove down there almost every single day from North Palm Beach, an hour and five minutes each way. Uh I'd get there, you know, leave at 5 30 in the morning, get there when the sun came up. I'd be first off the tee, I'd play 18 holes, two balls a hole, which is like playing 36 holes.

Bruce Devlin 36:49

Yeah.

Mark Calcavecchia 36:50

I'd rest, uh, maybe get something to eat, and then go hit hit another bucket or two of balls, uh, go hit some chips and bunker shots, and I was done by noon. And I did that you know, I'd say five days a week for at least a year. So as far as Eagle Trace goes, uh I I knew every every break and nook and cranny in that golf course and how to play certain holes. And I think it was a huge advantage for me uh in 87 because it was super windy. I I think Payne finished second uh a couple balls.

Bruce Devlin 37:22

Another good play was second too. Bernard Lange. You beat a couple of beauties.

Mark Calcavecchia 37:28

Yep, I sure did. And uh I think I I was only eight under was the winning score. So it was uh it was a tough week. Uh very windy, but uh I my short game was great that week, I remember and uh uh you know, hit the good shots when I needed to.

Mike Gonzalez 37:43

And you remember where you were the year before?

Mark Calcavecchia 37:46

Oh yeah, I was caddying for Ken Green. I caddied for him four times. Uh and uh most of them were up the uh I think the other three were up north somewhere because I I had my car and I either didn't get in the tournament or missed the Monday qualifier or whatever. So I just hung out and caddied for Ken and then he he he always made the cut. Uh never played great with me caddying, but yeah, I caddy for him four times, and to this day uh people still think that you know I grew up caddying on the you know, started off caddying on the PJ tour.

Bruce Devlin 38:17

So did he pay well?

Mark Calcavecchia 38:20

Uh no, he didn't. He didn't pay well? No. He didn't pay good at all. I think he bought me a dinner and a couple beers. That was about it.

Mike Gonzalez 38:26

Oh man. Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. That little white palette. Please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, tell your friends. Good of the game, fairly.