BOCA RATON – COVID-19 has had a dramatic effect on PGA Tour champions, and no one knows more than Mark Calcavecchia.
Like the other 81 players over the age of 50 competing this week at the TimberTech Championship, Calcavecchia has adapted to the game in front of enthusiasts and to have a social distance from the parking lot to the clubhouse through practice and the golf course.
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But as Calcavecchia, 60, of Jupiter prepares for the event, which will take place Friday through Sunday at The Old Course in Broken Sound, he is still fully searching after contracting the coronavirus in September while on vacation in your local Nebraska.
“I feel smart now,” said Calcavecchia, who won the tournament when they called it the Boca Raton Championship in 2018. “After getting sick, I was weak for two to 3 weeks and my back hurt, so it still had a great effect of pain and discomfort.
Then, of course, in Cary, North Carolina, on the last day (of the SAS championship on October 11), some back spasms stuck me in the middle of my back, bent my legs and I fell. swing. “
Calcavecchia, whose wife and youngest, Brenda, tested negative for the virus, traveled to Virginia for the next tournament, but her back did not improve. They returned to Florida, where Calcavecchia’s back doctor gave him ‘a little injection in the right place’, so now I feel really smart. We’ll see how long it lasts. “
He said his back felt smart in Wednesday’s pro-am, adding that the field had played a long time for him. One of the shortest hitters on the senior outing due to his back and COVID problems, Calcavecchia said he hit technical shots he wasn’t used to. to hit, like five irons to vegetables where he used to hit 8 or nine irons.
The pandemic has forced players to get used to not having enthusiasts and grandstands in their tournaments, which modifies the strategy in holes like the 18 par 5, many players opted for the green in two knowing that if they ended up opposed to the grandstand, they won a loose fall and a token that resulted in a simple birdie. A shot like that can end up in a pond behind the green.
“Eighteen looks absolutely different,” Calcavecchia said. ” It seems strange a stand or a fan. “
Jesper Parnevik added: “What we miss are the fans. That’s the saddest thing I’d say. It’s a little lonely out there. “
Dudley Hart can sense that. He made a hole in one on the first excursion of the tour after the final to a pin hidden in the tee. His only clue is that he hit a marshal with a smart shot waving his arm.
“This kind of thing is different, but I’m glad we weren’t playing,” Hart said.
COVID had an effect on Ken Duke of Stuart, who cancelled his annual charity golf tournament. Although the Champions Tour has had a safe season since resumed the game on July 31 after nearly five months of closing, Duke did not need to take any chance with his Ken Duke.
“It was the right thing to do with other people traveling from all over the United States,” Duke said, noting that his circle of relatives was healthy. . We’ve done pretty well over the last 4 years, raising a lot of cash for many other charities, so we thought it was the right thing to do. “
David Frost said COVID is safe and not. He took the opportunity to spend 3 months at his Delray Beach home and expand his wine business. The prestigious wines of its winery in South Africa are sold at Trader Joe’s and online at frostwine. com.
“I’ve never been home in 35 years for so long. I’ve been traveling non-stop since 1982,” he says. So it was great to take a break like that. However, when I came back, my golf game was absolutely boring.
During the break, Frost posted several Facebook Live videos on his David Frost Golf page.
“I’ve won so much in the last 30 years to play golf, so I think it’s time to spread the word that everyone deserves to be patient, stay safe, stay home as much as possible,” he said. in a short time, this will be over and we will be able to return to normal. “
Frost and his circle of relatives have and do not have COVID. He said his only close friend to get COVID was President Donald Trump.
Parnevik, from Tequesta, said COVID had little effect on him and his circle of relatives because they went to his local Sweden in mid-April and stayed there during the summer.
“We never had a lock-up, ” he said. Bars, restaurants, schools, all open, never stop. My kids thought it was wonderful because we left the Florida final where we poked our heads out the window a little bit because we were afraid COVID was in Sweden, where we were doing pretty general things.
For Hart, from Naples, the COVID closure came at the right time: he had had surgery on his thumb.
“I couldn’t exercise or play, ” said Hart. ” My son is a golfinger, he’s a new student on the University of Florida golf team. So I go out with him all the time playing, which at least they gave me out of space and gave me my wife’s hair. “
Hart’s family circle had some close COVID calls; his son’s roommate in Florida had a COVID, but he did not contract it; neither did his daughter, whose roommate at the University of Tampa contracted the virus.
“We did the right thing,” he said. Everyone very wise about it, not paranoid. I have the impression that there’s a big difference between that, I don’t mind getting it, but I’m going to do everything I can to be cautious, if I pass somewhere, step to put on a mask and my hands.
“At all times I try to live my life as often as I can imagine and do not lock myself in my space out of fear, which is not without danger to your intellectual health. “