Mark Calcavecchia

Lore & Background

Calcavecchia was born in Laurel, Nebraska. While he was a teenager, his family moved from Nebraska to West Palm Beach, Florida in 1973. He attended North Shore High School in West Palm Beach, and won the Florida high school golf championship in 1977 while playing for the North Shore golf team. While playing in junior tournaments, Calcavecchia often competed against Jack Nicklaus' son, Jackie, and as a result began a lifelong friendship at the age of 14 with the legendary pro.

In Their Own Story

The air at the 1986 PGA Championship hung thick with late-summer heat, the kind that made the grass look a shade greener than it was. Calcavecchia stood on the 18th tee, the gallery a murmuring wall of white hats and sunburned shoulders. He could feel the weight of the round in his forearms, the sweat tracing a line down his spine. He set the ball on the tee, not too high, and took his stance. The swing he unleashed was the one the cameras would replay for weeks—big, loose, almost careless in its confidence. The ball left the face of the club with a crack that echoed off the trees, and for a moment the only sound was the whoosh of air parting. It landed in the fairway, spun, and stopped. He exhaled, wiped his hands on his pants, and walked toward the green with the easy stride of a man who had just reminded everyone what a golf swing was supposed to sound like.

Reader's Guide

Calcavecchia turned professional in 1981 and joined the PGA Tour in 1982, but lost his card after the 1985 season. His most notable achievement was in 1989, when he won The Open Championship (the 'British Open'), one of the four major championships, by beating Wayne Grady and Greg Norman in a four-hole playoff at Royal Troon in Scotland. He shares the record for the lowest back nine in the Masters at 29, in 1992. He has won 13 times on the PGA Tour and 13 times in other professional events. He spent 109 weeks in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings from 1988 to 1991. In winning the 2001 Phoenix Open, he set the Tour scoring record at that time by making 32 birdies in 72 holes finishing at 28 under par for the tournament. He has won the Phoenix Open three times (1989, 1992, 2001). He was a member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2002. On July 25, 2009, Calcavecchia set a PGA Tour record by getting nine consecutive birdies during his second round at the RBC Canadian Open at the Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Calcavecchia joined the Champions Tour in 2010, but still plays a limited PGA Tour schedule that includes The Open Championship.

Did You Know?

• Calcavecchia's Italian surname translates as 'old crowd'.
• Upon winning the Open Championship, he asked 'How's my name going to fit on that thing?' referring to the Claret Jug.
• He initially did not want to play in the 1989 Open Championship because his wife was expecting their first child, but she persuaded him to go.
• He did not know the Open Championship had a four-hole aggregate playoff format until just before he teed off in the playoff.
• His 1991 Ryder Cup performance is remembered because he lost a four-hole lead to Colin Montgomerie in the last four holes of his round, and broke down in tears thinking he had cost his team the victory—not knowing the U.