Calc looking forward to 'new places, old faces'

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

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

Mark Calcavecchia doesn't do nostalgia.

He's more into making history, not re-living it.

Yet Calcavecchia knows he will become a little emotional this week during the Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley in Columbus, Ohio. It will be -- after 737 starts, 13 PGA TOUR wins, including the 1989 British Open, and almost $24 million in earnings -- his last start as a full-time member of the PGA TOUR before turning 50 on June 12.

"I'm kind of looking forward to screwing up some different holes for a change," Calcavecchia said Tuesday, in his typical self-deprecating form.

As we said, Calcavecchia isn't a nostalgia-type guy. But even he knows Jack Nicklaus' tournament is a perfect venue for him to close this chapter on his golfing career.

When Calcavecchia's family moved from Nebraska to South Florida in the mid-1970s, he started playing plenty of junior golf against Jack Nicklaus II. The elder Nicklaus would usually be in the gallery. Calcavecchia points out he lived just 2 miles away from Jack Nicklaus, but it seemed that would be as close as he would get to the golfing legend.

Who knew that, less than 10 years after, Calcavecchia would be standing on the same fairways as Nicklaus, making his living as a PGA TOUR member? It took Calc two trips to Q-School -- he even caddied for buddy Ken Green in some PGA TOUR events when he wasn't in the field -- before he became a full-time TOUR member for good in 1982.

"I was kind of wide-eyed and awed to be out there and seeing guys like Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino walking around," Calcavecchia said. "It was a really cool feeling."

Calc will also have some positive vibes when he walks out onto Muirfield Village's layout. It was here in 2001 that he met Brenda Nardecchia, a Columbus native, for the first time. Two years later, they were married and remain inseparable (she will caddie for him on the Champions Tour.) These factors are why Memorial's staff offered Calcavecchia his second consecutive sponsor exemption into the event (the only two exemptions he said he's received during his 28 seasons on the PGA TOUR).

"I'm not sure if they gave the exemption to me or to Brenda," Calc joked.

Calc has compiled some impressive numbers on the PGA TOUR beyond his victories and earnings. He finished in the top 125 -- the level to keep his card -- for 22 consecutive years. Almost half the time (13), he qualified for THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, signifying he finished in the top 30.

Consistency, in other words, was a big part of his game.

"I went almost 30 years without missing more than two cuts in a row," he said. "That may not seem like much for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who miss like one or two cuts a year. But when I was off, I was never that far off. I never got into a huge slump."

If there's anything Calc would like to change, it might be the number of second-place finishes -- he has 27, more than double the number of wins.

"I probably should have 20 wins and two majors," said Calcavecchia, who almost won the 1988 Masters until Sandy Lyle birdied the 72nd hole from a fairway bunker.

But there's not a golfer who walks off a course and thinks he could have shot lower and won more. Of course, it was difficult for Calc to feel that way when he broke Mike Souchak's 46-year-old TOUR scoring mark when he won the 2001 Phoenix Open at 28-under 256.

"I'd like to think people enjoyed watching me play," Calc says, "that I was aggressive and I went for it."

But Calc admits this year hasn't been much fun. He has missed more cuts (seven) than he has made (six) and has just one top-25 finish. It hasn't helped that some of his "last trips" to many of the TOUR stops have ended hastily on a Friday. Calc says he's been thinking about the Championship Tour since he was 47, and this time he's not just joking.

"I think it's almost a relief for Mark," Brenda said, about making the change in tours. "He feels like it has run its course. He's ready for new courses, new cities and new places to go. You get tired of the same-old. I made up a new motto for the Champions Tour: New places, old faces. I think he's going to get excited to play golf again."

While he can no longer play for seven-figure first prizes, the Champions Tour will allow Calcavecchia the opportunity to contend again in a more relaxed environment. There is another huge benefit he hopes to receive -- a chance to play competitively again with his close friend Green, who recently returned to the Champions Tour after having his lower right leg amputated in an RV accident last year.

"I certainly hope we get paired together somewhere down the line," Calc said of Green. "That would be a blast."

Whether he cares, Calcavecchia has played a keen role in golf's history the last 25 years. In addition to winning the major, he played in four Ryder Cups and The Presidents Cup once. While winning the 1987 Honda Classic for his second PGA TOUR victory -- a year after he caddied for Green in the event -- he stopped a shot out of the deep rough late in the third round that many believe was the tipping point for the squared-grooves controversy.

"I don't think people held that against me," Calcavecchia said. "Like one guy pointed out at a players' meeting, it's not like I had square grooves on my putter."

Calcavecchia will be remembered as a guy who was never afraid to aim at a pin or say what was on his mind. Some of his post-round press conferences were hysterical the way he poked fun at himself.

For instance, when he was told he had passed the $20 million mark in career earnings after winning the PODS Championship in 2007, he didn't blink. "Hard to believe," he said, "$20 million and I'm $3 million in debt."

He didn't hide his emotions on the golf course, either. You could always tell how his round was going simply by looking at his demeanor. This week won't be his last PGA TOUR event -- he's eligible for the British Open for 10 more years and he hopes to play in his "hometown" events, the Honda Classic and the Phoenix Open, another time or two, and maybe at Disney World later this year.

But this week will mark the end of his era on the PGA TOUR. Golf will be a little less fun because of it.