Time mark for Calcavecchia
NORTON - If PGA Tour officials were to ask Brianna Laflamme how to solve the slow-play problem that sometimes plagues the sport, she would be prepared with an answer.
Tell them to play like Mark Calcavecchia.
Laflamme, who lives in Bellingham, drew the assignment of being standard-bearer for the first group off in yesterday's final round of the
That player was the inimitable Calcavecchia, who plays at a pace that is nearly unmatched - and on this day, he did not disappoint.
"Two hours, nine minutes," stated Calcavecchia's caddie, Eric Larson.
A moment or two later, they ducked out of the scorer's trailer and asked for a mulligan.
"The official time is 2 hours 7 minutes," said Larson.
Calcavecchia didn't seem entirely satisfied, though. The birdie, birdie, birdie finish for a par 71 was pretty good, but the time? He felt it could have been quicker.
"I tried too hard on the front," he joked.
Truthfully, Calcavecchia, who won the 1989 British Open, was doing what comes naturally. He wasn't just going through the motions, because if it were up to him, all golf would be played this way.
At 47, and in his 26th year on the PGA Tour, Calcavecchia was playing in his 669th PGA Tour event. So you can safely assume that he's had the opportunity to go off first in Round 4 before. Most famously at the 1992 Players Championship.
"Me and [John] Daly played in 2 hours 3 minutes," said Calcavecchia.
Which rankled PGA Tour officials, did it not?
"Commissioner Deane Beman tried to fine us, but it didn't work," said Calcavecchia.
That day, Calcavecchia shot 81, Daly 80, but yesterday there was no hint of such ragged play. Calcavecchia, who is 15th in the
"Everyone knows I've always been one of the top 10 fastest players out here," he said. "I walk slow, but I play fast. Today, I played fast and walked fast. I got a good workout in."
Calcavecchia's shirt, drenched in sweat, proved his point. And his score, he said, proved something else.
"I'm working on next week's swing," he said. "I was concentrating on every single shot out there."
To testify to that, we have Laflamme, who managed to keep pace with Calcavecchia and Larson, while handling the correct score. But as she stood outside the scorer's trailer at 9:50, her work done for the day, she laughed.
"I wasn't prepared for that," she said.
Calcavecchia, of course, was, because it's what he does best, and the par-5 18th hole was vintage stuff. Having driven into the fairway, he lifted his second shot from 240 yards onto the green, but it bounded into the rough long and left. Wedge in hand over the last 100 yards, Calcavecchia strolled to his ball, took one practice swing, and pitched a shot to 8 feet. Putter handed off to him by Larson, Calcavecchia didn't even mark his ball, nor did he take a long look at the putt.
But, big deal, he drained it for his third straight birdie.
"Strong finish," he said.
And fast. Very fast.
"I should get a hundred FedEx points for the time," he said.
