From Caddie To Champion
Mark Calcavecchia carried Ken Green's bag at the 1986 Honda Classic and then came back and won the event in 1987
It was a shaky start for Jake Knapp but he was able to hold on to win his first PGA TOUR title in just his fifth start on the circuit. Scroll down for the Clips You Might Have Missed and the highlight reel.
This week, the tour starts a residency in the state of Florida with the playing of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens. Rory McIlroy returns to PGA National for the first time since 2018 and Ryan Palmer will make his 500th career PGA Tour start.
The Cognizant was first played in 1972 as the Jackie Gleason’s Inverrary Classic and went through many names. Gleason was dropped in 1981 when it became the American Motors Inverrary Classic which only lasted a year before it became the Honda Inverrary Classic. Honda ended its title sponsorship last year and the PGA TOUR took over tournament operations adding Cognizant as a sponsor.
We’re going back to 1987 when Mark Calcavecchia won the tournament one year after being a caddie for Ken Green in the same tournament. Scroll down to read.
If you want more Honda Classic stories, check out our archives. We’ve written about the 1969 event HERE, the 1978 event HERE, and the 1972 event HERE.
I screwed up last week’s Tour Backspin Poll, by misspelling Jim Nantz’s name. I know, how can you do that to a national treasure? After correcting the mistake the poll totals did not calculate. But CBS was clearly way out in front over NBC on who covers the PGA TOUR better. We’ll do better this week.
We had the The Match played on Monday night with Max Homa, Rory McIlroy, Lexi Thompson, and Rose Zhang playing a skins game for charity. While there were some glitches in the broadcast coverage (putting golf on TV is hard), it was fun to watch. There was a relaxed vibe to the competition and lots of great humorous back-and-forth between the players. Max Homa had the best lines.
After he knocked a birdie putt four feet past the cup on the 8th hole and not having the putt conceded, he said, “You guys are bad people. My mom is watching. Could you imagine this, my mom is gonna watch me three-putt from 15 feet?”
“This Max guy sure hates charity,” he declared on the way back to his cart after failing to win any skins up to that point.
Did you watch the The Match on Monday? Did you stream it on MAX or watch on TNT. When I tried to stream on MAX, it was like watching something on the internet from the late 1990s it was so pixelated. So let us know which platform you watched it on and whether or not you enjoyed it in this week’s Tour Backspin Poll.
Tour Backspin Poll
The consumer product being advertised in this week’s Vintage Ad was especially valuable to golfers wishing to improve their swings. Scroll down to view.
The distinctive swing of Mark Calcavecchia is featured in the Swing Like a Pro feature.
Another of my favorites, Warren Zevon, in 1987 on the MTV Cutting Edge Tour. Check out this week’s Tour Backspin Music. Listen HERE.
Do you know what happened today in golf history? Or which famous golfer has a birthday today? Me, neither. But I do know where to go to find out. Check out the Your Golfer’s Almanac podcast. Host Michael Duranko celebrates birthdays, milestones, and other accomplishments that occurred on the day in golf history. Listen HERE.
We’re playing Honda Open Trivia in this week’s Tour Backspin Quiz. Scroll down to play.
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Okay, we're on the tee, let's get going.
Enjoy!
Larry Baush
Calcavecchia’s Course Knowledge Helps Him Win
It is Tuesday, March 3rd, 1987, at the TPC Eagle Trace course in Coral Springs, Florida and the pre-tournament festivities for the Honda Classic began with a ten-player shootout. The format is one that every country club member has probably competed in. Usually called a “horse race,” the nine-hole competition eliminates the high scores from each hole until there are only two players remaining to play the final hole to determine the winner. Ties are broken through a closest-to-the-pin short game shot.
The ten players at the Honda shootout included Greg Norman, who was the reigning World Player of the Year, Ray Floyd, Bernhard Langer, Payne Stewart, Kenny Knox who was the defending champion at the Honda, George Burns, T.C. Chen, Jim Thorpe, Paul Azinger, and Mark Calcavecchia, who caddied for Ken Green at the 1986 Honda Classic. Admission to The Merrill Lynch Shootout was free and parking was $3 per car. The winner of the event would pocket $3,000.
“Boy, wasn’t that something? I hope they got that on tape.”
Players dropped out, one by one until the field had been whittled to the final three players, Floyd, Langer, and Norman, who tied the 17th hole. The three players went into a bunker for a closest-to-the-pin face off to determine the two players who would go on to the final hole. There were 7,500 spectators crowded around the green.
Floyd hit first and ran his explosion shot down the slope to nine inches from the cup. Langer went next and splashed his shot out of the bunker and into the hole. Norman had to get inside Floyd, or he would be eliminated. He scratched his neck while he surveyed his shot, and then hit his shot to four inches sending Floyd home. Norman then parred the final hole while Langer bogeyed, and Norman collected the $3,000.
“Boy, wasn’t that something?” he rhetorically asked after the final hole. “I hope they got that on tape.”
“I think this TPC course is a lot better than some of the TPC courses they’re building.”
The next day, Wednesday, Norman, and Jack Nicklaus shared a Bell helicopter to ride from North Palm Beach to the course in Coral Springs for the Golden Eagle pro-am, the final pre-tournament event at the Honda Classic. Norman won that, too. He shot a 65 and earned another $750. It was fair to say that “The Shark” was the odds-on favorite to win the tournament. Plus, he liked the course.
“I think this TPC course is a lot better than some of the TPC courses they’re building,” he said after the pro-am. “It’s not as severe as some. I wouldn’t want a steady diet of these courses, but once in a while they’re okay.”
The course featured spectator mounds, common at TPC courses, with no trees and a brutal northeasterly wind that when blowing made the course a very difficult test. Then there were the greens which measured almost 10 on the Stimpmeter, very close to major championship green speeds.
Another player who liked the Eagle Trace was Mark Calcavecchia who finished second in the pro-am. He was quite familiar with the course as he explained to Bruce Devlin and Michael Gonzalez on their excellent podcast FORE the Good of the Game.
“I drove down there almost every single day from North Palm Beach—an hour and five minutes each way,” he explained. “I’d get there, you know leave at 5:30 in the morning and get there when the sun came up. I’d be first off the tee, I’d play 18 holes, two balls per hole which is like playing 36 holes. I’d rest, maybe get something to eat, and go hit a bucket or two of balls, go hit some chips and bunker shots and I was done by noon. I did that, I’d say, five days a week for at least a year.”
Norman’s tee time in the first round was at 12:34 off the tenth tee, while Nicklaus teed off at 8:18 off the first tee meaning that they probably did not share a helicopter ride. Nicklaus’ son, Jack Nicklaus, Jr., was also in the tournament and he teed off at 8:45 from the first tee. Bernhard Langer teed off at 12:51 off the first tee, Payne Stewart at 12:25 from the first, and Calcavecchia teed off at 8:09 off the tenth tee.
“If we didn’t have the wind today, my 69—you wouldn’t even hear about it. There would be lots and lots of scores under par.”
Tim Rosaforte, staff writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel conceded that the weather for the first round “may not be Chamber of Commerce weather.” Mike Sullivan enjoyed the luck of the draw as he teed off early. In fact, he was in the first group off at 7:15 on the first tee and was four under at the turn before the winds kicked up. He made another birdie on the tenth hole and then saved pars on the 11th, 12th, 14th, and 15th holes before he birdied the 16th and 17th holes. It all added up to a 65 and gave him a four-shot lead by the end of the day. The 40 mph winds played havoc with scores.
“If we didn’t have the wind today,” Bruce Lietzke said, “My 69—you wouldn’t even hear about it. There would be lots and lots of scores under par.”
As it was, his 69 placed him in a tie for second along with Brad Faxon and Calcavecchia. Langer was another stroke back. Norman fired a 77 and climbed back aboard his Bell helicopter for the short flight to North Palm Beach. Payne Stewart struggled in the conditions on his way to a 75.
Kenny Knox was also at 70 and his interesting round had one thing in common with Sullivan’s round; they both went bogey free. However, Knox did have a double and a triple bogey. He also had five birdies and an eagle.
The conditions continued to be blustery for Friday’s second round. So tough were the conditions that the 36-hole cut was blown to a three-year high on the PGA TOUR at seven-over-par 151. Langer navigated the conditions for a 67 and a two-day total of 137. Lietzke shot a 70 and was two shots back of the lead while Calcavecchia was another stroke back after a second-round 72. Stewart came back into the hunt with a 68 for a total of 143. Sullivan skied to a 77 and was five shots off Langer’s lead.
“Could Calcavecchia Come From Caddie to the King?”
Notable names that did not make the cut included Fred Couples, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange, and Jack Nicklaus, Jr. With a second-round 67, Norman easily made the cut while Jack Nicklaus had to make an eight-foot par putt on the last hole to survive the cut. Bob Lohr made the biggest turnaround after shooting a first round 81 by firing a 67 in the second round.
The headline on Tim Rosaforte’s Sunday article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel asked, “Could Calcavecchia Come From Caddie to the King?” after Calcavecchia shot a 68 on Saturday. That got him to within two shots of the leader, Langer, who added a third round 70 for a total of 207. Lietzke was tied with Calcavecchia for second after shooting a 70. After two straight 68s, Payne Stewart had put himself in the fray at 211. It was setting up for an exciting Sunday finish.
The lede of the article in the South Florida Sun Sentinal, written by Steve Hummer, staff columnist read, “Unmade bed wins Honda Classic.” Mark Calcavecchia finished with a two-under 70 while Langer’s putter deserted him, and Stewart’s dreams of victory were dashed when his cut six-iron found the lake on the 17th hole and resulted in a double bogey. He finished at 282, tied with Langer, who shot a final round 75. Both men earned $52,800 while Calcavecchia took home the $108,000 first-place check.
“He may be the best player on tour from the rough.”
The shot that won the tournament for Calcavecchia came at the 406-yard, 16th hole. After pushing his drive so far right that he was almost in the 15th fairway, his ball came to rest in a divot. His shot to one of the funkiest greens on the PGA TOUR was a blind shot. He could only guess the distance to the peninsula green framed in railroad ties and guarded by water.
“He may be the best player on tour from the rough,” observed Calcavecchia’s best friend Ken Green, who had Calcavecchia on his bag as a caddie the year prior.
“I know I just kicked their butts and that’s what I wanted to do.”
Calcavecchia swung an 8-iron as hard as he could, took a 6-inch divot and watched as his ball flew to the green landing and stopping about 25-feet away from the cup. He then made the putt for birdie while Langer missed his birdie putt. Instead of a one, or two shot swing in the German’s favor, Calcavecchia increased his lead from one to two shots.
“When I turned that six into a three,” Calcavecchia said about the shot, “I knew I strengthened my grasp on winning the tournament. I know I just kicked their butts and that’s what I wanted to do.”
He certainly felt that his familiarity with Eagle Trace was a key to his victory.
“As far as Eagle Trace goes, I knew every break and nook and cranny in that golf course and how to play certain holes. I think it was a huge advantage for me in ’87 because it was super windy,” he recalled years later to Devlin and Gonzalez.
The $108,000 that Calcavecchia won was more than he earned in his first five years on tour combined. And it was certainly much more than he earned toting Ken Green’s bag at the 1986 Honda Classic.
“He didn’t pay me at all. I think he bought me dinner and a couple of beers, that was about it,” Calcavecchia disclosed on the Fore the Good of the Game podcast.
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BONUS STORY
Ken Green identified Mark Calcavecchia as being the best player on tour from the rough. Others thought that there was another contributing factor to the fantastic shot that was played from the rough by the winner of the 1987 Honda Classic at the 16th hole. As depicted in this week’s feature story, Calcavecchia hit a 150-yard 8-iron from a divot in the rough to 25-feet from the hole. It was the shot that propelled Calcavecchia to the winner’s circle.
That other contributing factor? The PING Eye 2 8-iron that Calcavecchia used, and which featured “square grooves” that put more spin on the ball. His shot from the rough actually spun back when it hit the 16th green.
In 1981, the USGA, the governing body of golf in the U.S., changed a rule that now allowed manufacturers to design irons with square grooves. This change was not about affecting performance, but rather to make the manufacturing process easier. Karsten, the manufacturer of PING irons was the only company to take advantage of the new rule.
In 1985, the PING irons were widely accepted as they performed well. The only problem was that the square grooves put so much bite on the ball that they were shredding the covers on the balata balls being used during that era. So, Karsten rounded the corners on the grooves just enough to remove some of the bite.
In 1986, the USGA ruled that the PING Eye 2 irons with the rounded square grooves did not conform to existing rules. The ruling had more to do with the spacing between the grooves than the actual shape of the grooves.
The irons were not officially banned from the PGA TOUR at the time of the playing of the 1987 Honda Classic, but there was still a lot of controversy about the grooves. In addition to Calcavecchia’s shot, a shot hit by Fred Wadsworth at the same 16th hole landed long and in the rough. His shot actually sucked back up the hill and onto the green, and helped fuel the controversy.
The matter now moved into the courts and PING settled quickly with the USGA who agreed to grandfather in the square grooved irons. The PGA TOUR fought on until 1993 before finally settling out-of-court to a deal like PING’s deal with the USGA.
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WHAT HOLE IS IT?
Are you on the leader board?
Congratulations to Chip Oat who correctly identified #16 at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough, NY, in last week’s WHAT HOLE IS IT? contest. Chip beat out seven other correct answers in the random drawing. Submit your answer for this week and get yourself into the race for the Herbert C. Leeds Trophy, our new perpetual trophy for the annual winner.
PGA TOUR Wrap-Up | Mexico Open at Vidanta
After starting his Sunday round with a four stroke lead, Jake Knapp went bogey-par-bogey to start his day and he only hit two fairways all day. Still, he was able to hold on to defeat Sami Välimäki becoming the third rookie to win on the tour this year. Välimäki is another DP World Tour member who qualified for the PGA TOUR and is making the most of it.
Check out the fourth round highlights from the PGA TOUR.
Clips You Might Have Missed
Nice shot, but I’d like to know the thinking behind this. To lower yourself to ground level?
Fast start for Ortiz.
Another drop that raised questions. I don’t know about your group, but mine would call this ball out-of-bounds.
The urban legend is returning to professional golf.
Don’t be this guy.
Tour Backspin Quiz | Cognizant Classic Trivia
Who won the 1974 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic (now known as the Cognizant Classic)? Who did he donate a portion of his winnings to?
Scroll down for answer
Swing Like a Pro
Mark Calcavecchia, down the line.
Blind Shot
Click for something fun. 👀
Here’s what happened after a televised walk and talk included a shot that went into the water. Read it at Golf Magazine.
Tour Backspin Music
Warren Zevon in 1987. Hurry home early, hurry on home Boom Boom Mancini is fighting Bobby Chacon.
Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema tells the story of one of the tour’s biggest stars in the mid-1960s. A fascinating glimpse into the traveling caravan that was the PGA TOUR during an era where the fields were full of “Mad Men” era personalities. From a hardscrabble youth spent on the “wrong side of the tracks” in the Oakland suburb of San Leandro, to the temptations of Elko, Nevada, to the bright lights of the PGA TOUR, Uncorked tells a story of determination, redemption and, above all else, a love story that documents how Betty, Tony’s new wife, provided the direction and motivation for him to become a top star. Order on Amazon.
WHAT IS HIP?
Colorful, and baggy in 1987.
Tour Backspin Quiz Answer:
Leonard Thompson won the 1974 Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic (now known as the Cognizant Classic) and donated $10,000 of his $52,000 winner’s check to the Boy Scouts of America.
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Final Thoughts
Remember how those square grooves gave your ball an afro?
That one club challenge at The Match was so fun to watch. Rory’s play was amazing.
I would bet that Mark Calcavecchia is the only PGA TOUR winner to have won an event one year after being a caddie in the same event.
Would you like to play a round with Olive and Mabel?