Not only did Mark Calcavecchia go wire-to-wire to secure his first win on a professional tour since 2015, he did so with Bernhard Langer charging at him during the final round.
“I just didn’t think it would happen again,” Calcavecchia said after the round. “These guys are so good out here. The level of play is just insane, including Mr. Langer obviously.”
While the final leaderboard of the Boca Raton Championship presented by Sallyport might have shown Calc with a two-shot win over Langer it was anything but smooth sailing for him, especially on the back nine.
Calcavecchia got off to about as perfect of a start as you could ask, birdieing his first three holes. He quickly jumped out to a three-shot lead over Langer and seemed to be pulling away.
As everyone on the PGA Tour Champions has learned though, you can never count out Bernhard Langer.
While Calc made the turn with a four-shot lead, Langer made birdies at 10 and 12 to cut the lead to 2. He managed to get it down to just a single shot heading to the par-3 16th. That’s the spot where people will look back and say the entire tournament was decided.
As he described it, Calc chunked his tee shot, putting it into the water short of the green. Langer was safely on and had a good look at a birdie putt. It looked like, at that moment, that Langer would finally take the lead for the first time all week.
That’s why they play the game.
Langer missed his birdie try, and after taking his drop and hitting it to the middle of the green, Calcavecchia drained his bogey putt to maintain a tie for the lead.
” He made that putt,” Langer said about how 16 played out. “He made it for bogey, I missed mine for birdie, and that was clutch for him to stay level with me.”
For Calcavecchia, the win was a long time coming, and at times seemed impossible.
“This game is so up and down,” Calcavecchia said. “My best tournament last year was a tie for 15th. When you are down there crawling around in 50th, 60th place every week, it’s so far away the possibility of winning a tournament.”
As Calc put it though, this week was “a miracle”.