Open 2009: Calcavecchia won't oblige title talk

Published on Thursday 16 July 2009 22:45

EVEN though he has enduring memories of lifting the Claret Jug 20 years ago when he became the champion golfer after a four hole play-off at Royal Troon – the American has totted up no fewer than four top 11 finishes in south Ayrshire – Mark Calcavecchia is too much of a pragmatist to harbour any illusions about repeating past glories at Turnberry.

While the veteran American, a well built 49-year-old with a dodgy back, was glad to talk about a useful opening salvo of 67 – his lowest score in the oldest major since he posted 66 at Muirfield in 2002 – Calcavecchia is free of the conceit that he only enters tournaments in the belief he can win.

"I don't think the course has anything to do with the fact some of us old guys are playing well," he reflected. "Tom Watson can obviously still play and I had my moments. But I'll be the first to admit I'm not as good as I used to be.

"My thoughts of winning have pretty much gone out the window as times goes by. The Open is my favourite tournament to play. Most of those guys (who don't enter if they can't win] are called Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and whatnot. Tiger entered the US Open last year with a broken leg and still thought he was going to win.

"Does Mark O'Meara think he can win this tournament? Or does Tom Watson think he can win? I don't know, maybe they do. They're possibly mentally stronger than I am. But I certainly don't think about it on a Monday through Friday. If I'm leading after Saturday, then, okay. Evidently Greg Norman thought he could win last year, and he probably should have, as it turned out. Anything is possible. The bottom line is I'm not physically in good enough shape. Losing a little weight would certainly help, but that doesn't seem to be happening. So I've got to just work around it I guess and hope for the best."

One of the characters of American golf with a very different personality from the majority of modern American Tour pros, Calcavecchia enjoys a beer and is not renowned for the frequency of his visits to the gym. He does like the courses in Ayrshire, mind you, and apart from that victory at Troon in 1989 can look back on an 11th place finish at Turnberry in 1994, tenth at Troon in 1997 and 11th on the same links in 2004.

As long as the weather holds and his back doesn't crumple, the Ayrshire specialist expects to flourish. It's a changed scenario from Birkdale a year ago when the early morning conditions on Thursday could hardly have been more vicious. After Calcavecchia got up at 4:30am, his wife Brenda was feeling poorly and he decided she shouldn't come with him to the course. "I woke up to the sound of driving rain hitting the window," he recalled. "I thought, 'That doesn't sound too good'.

"She wasn't feeling well, anyway. She's actually sick this week, too. But I didn't want her out there in that. It was nothing more than that. It was just the weather last year was probably more than a lot of professional caddies can handle, and she didn't need to be out there in that. That was all that was.

"There were articles written (because she wasn't on the bag] and some of them bothered her, but it was nothing more than what I just explained. And no matter, even if it's like Thursday of last year tomorrow, she'll be out there. So you can count on that. She'd go 36 holes a day if she had to. She's pretty fired up."

TEE-OFF TIMES

6:30: Damien MCGRANE, Tim STEWART, Matt KUCHAR

6:41: David HIGGINS, Jeremy KAVANAGH, Daniel GAUNT

6:52 Gaganjeet BHULLAR, Rhys DAVIES, James DRISCOLL

7:03 Sandy LYLE, Alvaro QUIROS, Steve MARINO

7:14 Sir Nick FALDO, Soren KJELDSEN, Brian GAY

7:25 Mike WEIR, Ben CURTIS, Ross FISHER

7:36 Tim CLARK, Stephen AMES, Charles HOWELL III

7:47 Ernie ELS, Lucas GLOVER, Martin KAYMER

7:58 Hunter MAHAN, Justin ROSE, Andres ROMERO

8:09 Colin MONTGOMERIE, Zach JOHNSON, KJ CHOI

8:20 Rory MCILROY, Anthony KIM, Retief GOOSEN

8:31 Todd HAMILTON, Soren HANSEN, Tomohiro KONDO

8:42 JB HOLMES, Ian POULTER, Miguel Angel JIMENEZ

8:58 Ryuji IMADA, Paul CASEY, Angel CABRERA

9:09 Padraig HARRINGTON, Jim FURYK, Geoff OGILVY

9:20 Davis LOVE III, Paul LAWRIE, Stuart APPLEBY

9:31 Paul MCGINLEY, Carl PETTERSSON, John DALY

9:42 Stephan GROSS, David TOMS, Tom LEHMAN

9:53 James KINGSTON, Charley HOFFMAN, Fredrik JACOBSON

10:04 Paul GOYDOS, Francesco MOLINARI, Richard STERNE

10:15 Richard S JOHNSON, Thomas LEVET, Kevin SUTHERLAND

10:26 Thomas AIKEN, Peter HEDBLOM, Peter BAKER

10:37 Josh GEARY, Fredrik ANDERSSON, HED David DRYSDALE

10:48 Kenichi KUBOYA, Bruce VAUGHAN, Elliot SALTMAN

10:59 Timothy WOOD, David SMAIL, Oliver FISHER

11:10 Terry PILKADARIS, Steve SURRY, Koumei ODA

11:41 Paul BROADHURST, Michael CAMPBELL, Mark CALCAVECCHIA

11:52 Jeff OVERTON, Pablo LARRAZABAL, Gary ORR

12:03 Anthony WALL, Rory SABBATINI, John SENDEN

12:14 Graeme STORM, Nick WATNEY, Charl SCHWARTZEL

12:25 Rafa ECHENIQUE, Richard FINCH, Mark O'MEARA

12:36 David DUVAL, Nick DOUGHERTY, Adam SCOTT

12:47 Greg NORMAN, Kenny PERRY, Oliver WILSON

12:58 Henrik STENSON, Steve STRICKER, Wen-Chong LIANG

13:09 Sergio GARCIA, Tom WATSON, Matteo MANASSERO

13:20 Peter HANSON, Dustin JOHNSON, Louis OOSTHUIZEN

13:31 Vijay SINGH, Bubba WATSON, Graeme MCDOWELL

13:42 Camilo VILLEGAS, Yuta IKEDA, Sean O'HAIR

13:53 Azuma YANO, Luke DONALD, Darren CLARKE

14:09 Robert ALLENBY, Justin LEONARD, Anders HANSEN

14:20 Tiger WOODS, Lee WESTWOOD, Ryo ISHIKAWA

14:31 Richard GREEN, Chad CAMPBELL, Gonzalo FERNANDEZ-CASTANO

14:42 Stewart CINK, David HOWELL, Thongchai JAIDEE

14:53 Raphael JACQUELIN, Ken DUKE, Mathew GOGGIN

15:04 Mark BROWN, Briny BAIRD, Johan EDFORS

15:15 Prayad MARKSAENG, DJ TRAHAN, Markus BRIER

15:26 Chris WOOD, Boo WEEKLEY, Rod PAMPLING

15:37 Bryce MOLDER, Jaco AHLERS, Richie RAMSAY

15:48 Billy MAYFAIR, Marc CAYEUX, Lloyd SALTMAN

15:59 Robert ROCK, Martin LAIRD, Ben CRANE

16:10 Branden GRACE, Thomas HAYLOCK, Brandt SNEDEKER

16:21 Daniel WARDROP, Michael WRIGHT, Peter ELLEBYE