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MONTREAL CHAMPIONSHIPJune 24, 2012Mark CalcavecchiaSAINTE-JULIE, QUEBEC DAVE SENKO: Mark, congratulations. Your second win on the Champions Tour. A 64, you matched the course record today. And it's your third win in Canada now to go along with two victories, one at the Canadian Open and one at the Greater Vancouver Open, and $270,000 and this is the 21st event in a row where the winner has come out of the last grouping. So with, that maybe just share your thoughts on the day and then we'll get some questions. MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, obviously it was a great day. I got some great breaks early. I hit a horrible drive on 2. Straight left into the trees and it could have gone anywhere. It somehow went through all these trees, and then ended up 250 yards from the hole but it was in the left rough. And I hit that right of the green, a bad chip, 20 feet by and I made a par. Jay Don Blake was on the same line so I got a read. I got lucky three times on that hole alone. Then I got lucky on 3, pulled my drive and got a great bounce and made a birdie and played some good holes. It was just a week really where it was hard to hit the fairways. I think it was hard for everybody to hit the fairways. I missed a lot of them by a yard or two yards and it makes a big difference with your iron shot into the green. But anyway, it was a phenomenal week around the greens for me. Out of the bunkers and chipping and putting, it was probably the best I've ever putted. I think I only missed one putt inside six feet all week. I normally miss about three of those a day. So honestly, I putted great. You know, that's what it takes most of the time to win out here. DAVE SENKO: Go through your birdies, starting at No. 3. MARK CALCAVECCHIA: 3, I hit a 3‑wood off the tee a little left and got a great bounce to the right back to the first cut of rough. I hit a sand wedge on the back of the green about 15 feet from the hole and made that. 4th hole, I got a 5‑wood off the tee and just in the left rough. Only had a little L‑wedge in there and hit that in there about four feet and made that for birdie. Fifth hole, drive in the right rough. 3‑wood just left of the green. Tough chip. Left it about 15 feet short but I made that for birdie. 7th hole was downwind. It was probably the easiest hole of the day but hard to get your drive far enough left. I think everybody in the field had to be in the right rough there. I had a pretty good lie and hit a 4‑iron in the left bunker and blasted that out to about a foot and tapped that in for birdie. 8 was a bonus. I hit it on the right fringe, about 35 feet from the hole and made that. So turned 5‑under. Then made a nice 10‑footer for par on 9, which was huge. It really kind of kept the round going, and you know, sent me to the back nine in a pretty good mood. I got to 11, finally hit a great drive there and 3‑wood in the front bunker, blasted that out to about five feet and made that for birdie. Then just basic pars, two putts, on 12, 13, 14, 15, and great drive on 16. Over‑hooked a 4‑iron left of the green down there. Had an okay lie, not great, but it wasn't a hard chip, but you know, I knew I needed to get it up‑and‑down. I think that would have given me a three‑shot lead with two to go and sure enough, I made it. I hit a really good chip and I got a great bounce, too. Jay Don Blake said it hit the edge of the green where the fringe is and sometimes when it flies right on the edge it shoots forward a little bit and shot forward just perfect and trickled right in there. Then a couple of pars on the last two. DAVE SENKO: How far was the chip‑in? MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I would say, had to be 20 yards. So 60 feet give it. Q. I wanted to know how your fingers and back are today? MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, this rascal is pretty heavy. A beautiful trophy, though. Proud to have my name on it. I held up pretty good this week physically. Felt pretty good, and you know, a little bit of a backache here and there. But that's the best thing about playing on this tour; almost every one of us has some sort of injury. Much more even playing field than when I'm out on the regular tour, that's for sure. Q. You started the day behind; did you have a number in mind? MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I didn't really. Bob made a 30‑footer right off the bat on 1 and I hit that terrible drive on 2 and I wasn't looking real good at that point. I was just kind of focused on playing the course today. You know, the par 5s, I didn't play them very good the first 27 holes and then the last six par 5s, I played 7‑under. That was huge. I played them 5‑under today, so when I was having a hard time on 2, I told myself, even if I make bogey, you've got the par 5s, you've got some wedge holes. There's plenty of birdie holes out there. You know, once I birdied 3 and 4 and 5, I think I was in the lead from that point on. But again, I've been there before. I had a three‑shot lead in Boca with seven holes to go and managed to lose that one. I was keeping an eye on what Brad Bryant was doing and I was playing with Bob, and he got a few bad breaks. I figured if I could‑‑ I made some nice 4‑footers for pars, which were nice. Like I said, I get a little shaky on those on occasion, and for some reason today, I felt good on them. Then 16 happened, and I figured I could probably‑‑ if I bogeyed the last two holes, I'd be fine, which I was. But actually, you know, 17, I hit a bad iron into the green, and then it occurred to me, I had a Tiger Woods thought. I didn't want to make any bogeys. It would have been easy to just kind of go ahead and miss that putt and make a bogey and who knows what on the last hole, but I really wanted to keep the round clean. I only made two bogeys all week. I thought playing this golf course all weekend without a bogey was pretty good. Q. What is it in Canada for you, your third win; is it anything special about Canada? MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I've always liked Canada even in the early years when we played Glen Abbey every year, and I had some good tournaments there in my early days. One of my fondest memories of my first few years on Tour was I made the cut in the Canadian Open and I played the third round with Tom Weiskopf and Jack Nicklaus and me. I thought that was pretty cool. I'll never forget that. Three years ago, I made nine birdies in a row at Glen Abbey. So you know, to make the all‑time PGA TOUR record for birdies and of course winning at Northview in the Air Canada in 1987 and Shaughnessy in 2005 and now Montréal. And Seattle last year, which is almost Canada, you know (laughter). I'm good up north of the border or close to it, I guess. It's a great country for me. Love Canada. Q. You were telling us about the amenities; are you going to miss having that here tonight? MARK CALCAVECCHIA: I'm heading home. I actually did the rich guy thing and chartered a plane so I could get home tonight. I thought my flight was going to be close if I was in the last group, and obviously if I won, I would never make it. But I'll get my wife and the dog and the bus. The dogs are in Columbus, Ohio. We drove up there from Birmingham, which is where she's from. I'll get back there tonight and I'm sure we'll have a good time for a little while. Got a lot of things to do tomorrow. Got a chiropractic appointment at 7:30 in the morning with the guy who works the Memorial Tournament; he's worked it 20 years straight now. My shoulder was way out of whack. I went to him twice last week and he fixed me up pretty good, so it does make a difference. Got to bring the dogs into the vet at 2:30. We have a big day tomorrow, and we'll roll over to Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning. Q. How many years did you practice ‑‑ MARK CALCAVECCHIA: You know, the older you get, the less you practice, because most of us are not in any kind of shape to stand there and hit a lot of balls. But you know, when I was a little kid, I grew up in Nebraska and I played golf all day long. Then we moved to Florida and I used to sit in the bunker, the practice bunker, for who knows how long; hours. Actually, really loved practicing when I was young. Worked with Butch Harmon for quite a while; Peter Kostis for quite a while. Now I just kind of wing it and kind of go with what I've got and what I've learned and hope I can figure it out myself. Q. And where is it exactly‑‑ MARK CALCAVECCHIA: It's right next to Jupiter, Florida, which is just north of West Palm Beach. So about 70 miles north of Miami on the East Coast of Florida. Olin Browne lives right up the street. Camilo Villegas lives two doors down. Russ Cochran lives right around the corner now. Rickie Fowler bought a house there; Dustin Johnson, Steve Marino, you name it, Jesper Parnevik lives there. There's about 20 of us living within two miles of each other. So it's a good spot. DAVE SENKO: Thanks, Mark. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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