Insider: Calcavecchia ready to step up to new challenges

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Calcavecchia has won 13 times on the PGA TOUR, including the 1989 British Open.

If there was a starting gate in golf, Mark Calcavecchia would be the first one out. With blinders on, he'd fly onto the rail and never look back. He's ready for the Champions Tour and he can't wait to get there.

Calcavecchia will celebrate his 50th birthday Saturday (June 12) and begin his Champions Tour career at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on June 25.

Calcavecchia bid farewell to the PGA TOUR at the Memorial Tournament after playing in 736 events since 1981. He won 13 times, including the 1989 British Open. He did it with a certain flare, plenty of good nature, wit and wisdom.

And to top it off, he had game. He'll bring all those qualities to the Champions Tour and those who have been paying attention know that Calcavecchia will be an excellent fit.

Most of all, he knows it. That's why he can't wait.

"It's a great change of pace, for one," Calcavecchia said. "New courses, new towns, new holes to screw up. Tired of screwing up the same holes every year."

See?

"I'm a full-time Champions Tour player now," he said at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

"It's a new challenge I'm looking forward to and excited about."

Calcavecchia has no trouble ticking off a list of things he's looking forward to. It begins with being back among his peers.

"I know everybody," he said. "It will be nice not to have to crank my head to see who that kid is over there or try to see his name on his bag. I know everybody out (on the Champions Tour)."

But there's something that may trump that familiarity.

"The relaxed atmosphere of it," Calcavecchia said. "Everybody tells me it's a lot of fun. The golf is still super competitive, which I know, and we all know the scores they shoot out there and how good everybody is. You've still got to play great to win or even to contend. That doesn't change.

"It's just I think the whole atmosphere and nature of the Champions Tour will kind of allow me to be more relaxed and more comfortable. When I get in that mode ... "

Let me finish his thought. In that mode, Calc's anticipation peaks, his game perks and he becomes ultra-competitive. The rigors of the profession, plus the evolutionary tendencies of any game, have taken their toll on Calcavecchia with assorted injuries. What hasn't changed is that when he's in that "mode" he goes flag-hunting with the same passion as always.

"My enthusiasm for golf has gone down a little bit as you kind of struggle," Calcavecchia said. "Every week I struggled to make the cut, and that just gets tiring. So I think my enthusiasm level will go up. Once I start shooting some good scores, it will even go up higher. One thing will lead to another, so I think that's probably what I'm excited about the most."

And, of course, that there are no cuts on the Champions Tour to worry about.

In his prime, Calcavecchia was a warhorse who always played plenty of events.

"Yeah, 700-and-some 30-odd tournaments, that's a large number," he said. "To have made 520 cuts or whatever I've made now (518 including the Memorial Tournament), that's a lot, too. It seems like I missed more cuts than that, but I guess as it turns out I made 70% of my cuts. I did have a stretch there in my prime where I'd miss three or four a year out of 25.

"It's gone by fast, obviously. It doesn't seem like I've played that much. But I still get excited about coming to play and waking up Thursday mornings and getting ready to go play in a tournament. It's still fun. So that is another reason I'm looking forward to it. I plan on playing a lot."

Calcavecchia looks at what Fred Couples has done as a rookie on the Champions Tour, and the manner in which he's done it.

"He's played great," Calcavecchia said. "There is the confidence thing that I'm talking about. He kind of came out relaxed and started making putts right off the bat in his first tournament, and it just snowballed for him."

"Corey Pavin played great and Tom Lehman, and all these guys. Like I said, I've played a ton with them, and I know how good they all really are. So I have to get out of a little bit of a lull that I'm currently in. I'm hoping when I get out there and get a little bit of momentum and kind of start shooting some decent scores, that will happen for me.

"If it happens in the first week or two, great. If not, it may take a little time. I don't know. But I'll be ready to go."