Calcavecchia continues career resurgence
December back surgery changed his outlook, invigorated his game.
BOCA RATON — Posting just 10 top-25 finishes in 61 events over the past three years on the PGA Tour Champions had Tequesta’s Mark Calcavecchia thinking the unthinkable. Could the former British Open champion walk away from the game for good at age 57? If pain was going to be his constant companion, then the answer was yes.
A surgical procedure on his back — known as a rhizotomy — that he underwent in December changed everything, and Calcavecchia came out firing Friday in the first round of the Boca Raton Championship on the Old Course at Broken Sound. He shot an 8-under 64 to take a one-shot lead over Rocco Mediate and Jeff Maggert.
“I’m not in excruciating pain for the first time in five years,” Calcavecchia said.
A long-time Palm Beach County resident and a University of Florida graduate, Calcavecchia won 13 times on the PGA Tour and twice in his first two years (2011 and ’12) on the Champions Tour. But back issues have made him mostly an afterthought since.
“I talked to my wife (Brenda) and she’s like ‘How much longer do you want to do this?’ I said if I keep finishing 60th every week and 66th on the money list, not much longer. You look at Bernhard (Langer) and the way some of these guys are playing into their late 50s, I’ve got to do a Senior Tour 2.0, second chapter, otherwise I’m done.” Fellow competitor JayHaas had gone undergone a rhizotomy — a procedure to sever nerve roots in the spinal cord — and emerged pain-free, so one day in mid-December Calcavecchia hopped in his car, drove to Naples, had it done and drove back. A month later, back-to-back rounds of 67 had him tied for fifth at the season-opening event in Hawaii before a final-round 80 dropped him to 36th. “Pain crept in, I had some issues in the last round and just fell apart,” he said. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again. “You can’t compete out here in pain. You can’t practice, you can’t do anything. I’m able to play and practice and that feels really good.” His start Friday couldn’t have been much better, with birdies on five of his first seven holes and seven of his first 10. Another birdie at the short par-4 No. 7 — he started on the back nine — put him clear of the field and he would have been two up if notfor a 5-foot putt lipping out at No. 8. “Played real good,” he said. “I could have hit a few more fairways, but some of these fairways aren’t easy to hit, so a really good day.” Maggert and Mediate played in the same threesome Friday and will join Calcavecchia as the final group off the tee at 12:50 today. Mediate, who won this event in 2013, held a share of the lead until his inability to get up and down out of a bunker produced hisonly bogey on his final hole, No. 9. “It’s always good because you always have good feelingshere,” Mediate said. “I like this part of the country anyway, I’ve always liked being here, so it’s awesome. Lots of friends, good stuff. The golf course is perfect.” Mediate posted an eagle on the par-4 seventh hole with a 30-foot putt. “One of those ones you’re tr ying and, to two-putt oops!” he said. “Accidental, totally.” Maggert birdied four of his first five holes and didn’t post a bogey in going 31-34—65. Three Palm Beach County residents — Boca Raton’s Langer and Jupiter’s Fred Funk and Jesper Parnevik — were two shots back at 66 while crowd favorite John Daly, Michael Allen and Steve Flesch were another shot back at 67. Allen won here in 2014. Scott Parel, who won a pro/ celebrity event last month in Orlando, recorded a hole-inone on the 169-yard eighth hole with a 7-iron.