After Mark Calcavecchia hit his opening tee shot Friday at the Clubcorp Classic, he was asked how he felt.
“Like I’d done it 1,000 times before,” he said.
That's because he literally has. The ClubCorp Classic marked (pun intended) Calcavecchia's 1000th start in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event. The 61-year-old became the 23rd player ever to achieve that feat, 40 years since he made his Tour debut.
There was a bump in the road for the Nebraska native en route to this landmark, though. Calcavecchia, a 13-time Tour winner and a four-time winner on the Champions tour, endured a bout with COVID-19 in August 2020 and then underwent back surgery on Jan.