- FedExCup Points: 50,000
- Purse: $1.26 million
- Winning Share: $1,260,000
- Yards: 7,154
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
ATLANTA -- Mark Calcavecchia was 27 years old when he played in the first TOUR Championship in 1987. He remembers being "still pretty much in awe of my surroundings" at Oak Hill Country Club in San Antonio that year.
"It happened so fast," Calcavecchia recalled. "Kind of almost a Steve Stricker-type comeback story. To start '86 I had no status, and then in September of '87 I was sitting at Jack Nicklaus's house on the Ryder Cup team. So it happened fast for me.
"I was coming into my own kind of quickly like Brett Wetterich has in the last couple years. ... I wasn't quite cocky enough or brash enough as I would say, because I'm kind of quiet and shy for the most part. But I was cool; I was glad to be there.
"I was like, all right, Top 30 (on the money list). At that point I'm still counting how much I get for last."
For the record, Calcavecchia did much better than finish last at Oak Hills. He tied for fifth that year with Ben Crenshaw, Corey Pavin, Nick Price and Hal Sutton, six strokes behind Tom Watson, and won $68,800.
Calcavecchia returns to play in THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola this week at East Lake Golf Club. In 13 previous starts, Calcavecchia has five top-10s and a career-best tie for third in 1988.
No one else in the field for the finale of the inaugural PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup played in the first TOUR Championship. In fact, of the 30 players at East Lake, one-third of them were under 10 years old in 1987 and another four were just 11. Hunter Mahan was the youngest at 5.
"My longevity is hanging in there, so it's good," Calcavecchia said with a smile. And in case you're wondering, he could win $112,000 for finishing last this week.
Calcavecchia's sights are set higher as he enters the final Playoff event ranked a solid 18th in the FedExCup standings, though. He tied for fourth at The Barclays but cooled off in the next two Playoff events, finishing tied for 72nd and solo 65th.
"It was my hope (to play in THE TOUR Championship) at the start of the year, and I knew going into The Barclays I was in good shape, but I've never played good at Boston and never played good at Chicago, and that held true to form," he said.
"Thankfully my finish at The Barclays secured my spot here. I knew when I went to ninth at (The Barclays), I wouldn't get past 21 guys in two (weeks). ... "I was obviously hoping to have a chance this week to win the whole thing, but that's not the case. It's nonetheless great to be here."
Only five players have a mathematical chance to win the FedExCup, but Calcavecchia can still improve his take of the $35 million bonus pool with a good finish at East Lake. Not to mention, there's a tournament with a $1.26 million first prize to win.
"Some guys are tired, I'm one of them, but I worked out a little bit this morning and liked the way I hit it," Calcavecchia said. "I made a few changes yesterday and think I'll do well this week.
"It's still a golf tournament, it's still nice. Even if you can't win the FedExCup, it's still nice to win THE TOUR Championship. Other than the majors and the World Golf Championships events and (THE PLAYERS Championship), I'd say it's our biggest tournament."
Making the elite field for THE TOUR Championship has always been one of Calcavecchia's goals. A spot at East Lake signifies another stellar season -- and this year comes with an invite to another Georgia classic, the Masters Tournament.
"I love playing this tournament," Calcavecchia said. "This is the only reason my wife didn't go home. She probably said it the best. I said, 'You're going to be bored stiff. I got done at 10 o'clock Sunday. Why don't we just fly back to Phoenix, you stay there, I'll shoot over to Atlanta.'
"She said (she wanted to go) because it's THE TOUR Championship. I want to watch you play because you earned your way there and it's a big tournament. That's the end of that discussion right there.
"(And) she's sitting in the hotel bored stiff, like I said."
Calcavecchia laughed. At his self-deprecating best on Tuesday, he proceeded to talk about how he has finally learned to use his belly putter for all putts -- rather than switching to a shorter version for longer ones as he did at The Barclays.
"What I do is just pull it out of my gut and stand a little further away from the ball and use my regular claw on longer ones," Calcavecchia said. "So it's basically a short belly putter because I've got shorter legs and a big belly so I don't need a very long putter."
The solidly built Calcavecchia also admitted he was tired. His exact words, in fact, were wrecked and destroyed.
"Like someone else said, Tiger is tired after two weeks," Calcavecchia said. "I've got him by 80 pounds and 17 years. How do you think I'm doing after eight out of nine? He could run from here to downtown. I couldn't run out of a burning house.
"I'll suck it up this week, though. I'll be all right."
