	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FRYS.COM OPEN BENEFITING SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN

October 10, 2007

Mark Calcavecchia

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

JOAN ALEXANDER: Mark, thanks for joining us for a few minutes. Great year for you year with a victory and a good effort at the end of FedExCup season and just coming out for a couple events this fall, I assume.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Right. I'm going to play the last four, Joan. I had the last three weeks off, and I had them off. I didn't do a thing. So actually I was itchy to get back out and play some golf.
I was looking forward to it. I always enjoy coming to Vegas, and next week home at Grayhawk, and then the next week is another home tournament down in a Florida. So get to sleep in my own bed two weeks in a row, si it's a great stretch for me.
JOAN ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Mark, you had a nice run here in the mid to late '90s. I think it third, fourth and -- you played very well.
JOAN ALEXANDER: Third in '96, fourth in '97, and second in '98.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: And I haven't done anything since.

Q. My question to you is this: It seems like at this tournament lately guys have come from out off nowhere that nobody seems to know and wins it. Guys like yourself that are a known commodity struggle. Is there any explanation from your side of things, not just for yourself, but why this phenomenon seems to happening here in had Vegas?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: That's a good question. It's kind of unexplainable. The only thing I can really think of is it is down towards the end of the year. And, you know, maybe just the necessity to have to play great is good for some guys.
You know, over the last week the three or four guys that played great and finished in the top 5 to get their cards or get right there, I think that's really the only thing I can think of.
In my case, yeah, I had a great run here three or four years in a row and really haven't played any good here since. But, you know, maybe I just have a little too much fun here. I don't know. I enjoy this place. We have great meals and go to shows.
Maybe for me it's just more of a vacation, and I think for some of the other guys that come out of nowhere it's really a great business opportunity to secure the job for the next year.

Q. Given the way you played this year then, is your approach a little different coming to Vegas this week? You had three weeks off.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, it is. I'm a little more business-like, I guess I'll say, this year. I want to come in here and play well, you know, get on a late season-roll. Like I said, I'm playing the last four. I played well at Disney last couple years, so I really want to finish in the top 10 on the Money List.
I think that would be kind of a late season-goal for me I should say. That's kind of what I'm looking at for the last four, and especially after not playing great here for a while and having a nice break.
It was almost like a winter break. I spent a lot of time sitting on my butt in my chair thinking about what I want to accomplish the last four weeks, and playing well here right off the bat is one of them.

Q. I know you're playing all four of the tournaments as you said. Can you maybe give us a brief explanation about each tournament?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: What do you want me to say?

Q. How you like the tournament or if you've played them before.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, here we are at the Frys.com Open in Vegas, and I always enjoy playing here. Las Vegas is just a blast. My wife and I always have a great time here.
The next tournament is a home tournament at Grayhawk, Frys Electronics Open. Played Grayhawk plenty of times and always enjoy playing in Phoenix. I'll have a lot of friends out so I already told them I need a bunch of tickets so they're looking forward to that.
Then we go to Florida for a new tournament, the Ginn Sur Mer Classic, and that's just 30 miles up the turnpike from my Florida home. So another home tournament, so that'll be great. Two weeks staying at home playing in PGA Tour events is a pretty good deal.
And then Disney is always a lot of fun, too. I played great in the last two years, so it's a great four-week stretch for me.

Q. I didn't hear this but my boss did. He said something about part of getting out here and getting on a roll is the money is going to help for a new house project or something you got going.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah. We found our dream lot this year, and it was a tear down. It was a really old house and it's right on the water, right on the Loxahatchee River in Jupiter. We're going to build a house next year. It'll take over a year to build, but that's going to be my final resting spot.
So I just recently found out my wife says she wants a guest house now. Her theory was, Look at it this way: If we have my mom or whoever over they can stay over there and we don't to have look at them. I said, Well, that's a good point.
Some of my annoying friends also that decide they want to stop over for an extended period. We can just shove them over in the guest house. So we're going build a little guest house, too. Everything comes in handy, that's for sure.

Q. Besides the house project, what are the things recreationally, hobbies, what do you liked to during your break?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, I used to like to ski but it's a little hard on my knees. I did try snowboarding a couple years ago and that didn't go over too well. We'll probably take the kids up to the mountains and I might ski a little bit. I do my one or two runs and straight to the bar for me. Sit there and watch everyone slide down the hill.
Yeah, it'll go by fast. Playing the Shark Shootout in Naples the first week and then Tiger invited me to his tournament, which was a great surprise. Christmas will go by like that and next things you know we're on a plane going to Hawaii to start all over.
November will be my four-week break and really after that it's back to work.

Q. On Tiger's tournament, obviously always a great field. You come off a break and you get right into almost a mini major.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Right. I played it in 2002 I think, or whatever year it was. And, yeah, I played a lot of Shark Shootouts there so I know the area and the course. You know, it's just a lot of fun. It's a prestigious event. Some of the best players in the world are there, and I'm glad I'm one of them.
As I said, November is going my winter break, and then really I play two tournaments have two weeks off and play five more in a row. So it's almost like starting in December at the Shark Shootout I'm really starting my season, and I think they'll help me get off to a great start next year, too.
Instead of doing nothing all of December I'll play the first couple weeks and really stay in touch with my game and practice some over Christmas and be ready to go to Hawaii.

Q. I think this is your 18th time in Vegas. Can you just talk about the way this tournament has evolved over the years from the early days when you played Spanish Trail as part of a five-day grind?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, the early, early days when we played the Tropicana and some of those other ones. But, yeah, we've been everywhere. Southern Highlands and Spanish Trail and the country club, and even the Hilton course.
When it was a five-dayer it was kind of fun, because it's kind of like the Hope because you don't see anybody all week. Everybody is hopping all over the place for three days and everybody meets up here on the weekend.
I've always enjoyed the tournament. Like I said, I love Las Vegas. It's fun playing a couple different courses and, you know, playing with the amateurs over the years. Made some friends out here that I still keep in touch with, so it's good.

Q. But as you get older, I'm sure you're appreciating the fact that you don't have to play an additional 18 holes every year.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: No, doesn't matter, you know, whether it's five or four rounds. You know, it's just when it was a five rounder it was even a better excuse to get here earlier because I claimed I had to play three practice rounds when we were playing three different courses. Any excuse to get to Vegas I'll come up with.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297