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July 21, 2012
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, ENGLAND
Q. An adventuresome day today?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: It was. That's a good word for it. It was adventuresome. The six birdies was the good news. But the three bogeys and the double‑‑ you're going to probably make a few bogeys out there no matter what. I hit a bad drive on 6. And you just accept the bogey, that's fine. But I messed up 11 and 12. 11, especially. 12 I got kind of a bad break. I flew it into the face of the bunker and it ricocheted all the way back up against the front left, which is about a foot. It was this high above where my ball was.
I got it out, but I couldn't get it up‑and‑down for bogey. But I hung in there and finished okay.
Q. Pleasing to bounce back with a couple of birdies after that bad patch?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, actually I almost holed out my little 62‑yard L‑wedge on 13 and just missed. Made a nice birdie on 14; I was thinking well, shoot, I can make a few more and forget all about that bogey‑double on 11 and 12.
And I hit a pretty good shot on‑‑ actually I hit it too good on 15 and it went over the green and I had a tough chip and I kind of duffed it, and I couldn't get one coming in. But, you know, it's fun. I'm having fun.
Q. Is it fun to be semi‑challenging, at least, at your age in this championship?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: You know, I haven't really thought about my age this week at all. I've just enjoyed the tournament, and the crowds out there are great, obviously. And, you know, the course is‑‑ it takes a lot of thinking. I've been sleeping great at night, I can tell you that. It's tiring to play this course. If it would have been like it was Wednesday, you'd have seen some guys completely lose their mind. There's no way I broke 80 in a practice round on Wednesday, when it was blowing. I teed off about 6:15 in the morning and it was blowing about 30, seriously. It was brutal. At least it wasn't like that. If it would have been howling all week, you would have seen guys losing their minds out there.
Q. (Inaudible.)
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Well, the forecast means nothing here. Like Tiger said the other day, they've been wrong every single day so far, including wind direction. So I'll believe it when I see it.
Q. Is it more for the seniors next week, are you focusing mainly on that?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: No, I look forward to this one first. I've always said even if I hadn't won in '89 this is my favourite tournament that I've ever played in, even when I don't play so well, like last year when I missed the cut, had a bad second day. I still love the tournament. The atmosphere is the best there is, even better than Augusta and even better than the U.S. Open, I think. It's fun to see all these guys, like Andres Romero and Simon Dyson and guys that I know. And then it's fun to see the young guys on Tour that I don't really get to see much anymore.
I've got eight more years of this, and I'll be looking forward to every one of them.
Q. (Inaudible.)
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, definitely. It's one of my favourite courses over here. Probably second favourite right behind Troon, to tell you the truth. So that's great. I'm really looking forward to that.
Q. You were‑‑ Adam Scott is leading now and he's still not won a major. Can you identify with what these guys are going through trying to win their first major?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: You know, I don't know. Guys just think differently now than I think we did 23 years ago. Adam Scott has won a lot of tournaments all over the world and big tournaments and THE PLAYERS Championship, and obviously I don't think because it's The Open that he's going to be trying‑‑ any less or more nervous than he was if it was the Scottish Open. He does the same thing every day.
He's got Tiger on his tails, and there's a lot of golf left to be played. But when Adam Scott‑‑ my God, he's got the best swing in the world, technically. I don't know how he ever plays bad. He's putting better with the long one. He's just multitalented. So it's no surprise, really.
Whenever he plays good, it's like, well, it's about time, where has he been? I expect him to play good every week.
Q. Do you think there's less pressure on guys to win a major (inaudible)?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yes and no. That's a good point. Money is not an issue to him. So what it means to win financially means nothing to him or Tiger or maybe a little to Brandt Snedeker or some of the other guys. But I think it's just the pressure of winning a major and finally getting that first major win, I think, is the biggest hurdle to climb.
Q. And that could still be significant?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's like trying to win my first tournament on the Champions Tour. It's the farthest thing from the major in the world, but it's still a hurdle you need to get over, and it's not easy to do.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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