Whatever the Name, He’s Man to Beat : Calcavecchia Comes to Torrey Pines With 2 Victories in His Bag

They used to call this thing the San Diego Open. Then it was the Andy Williams-San Diego Open. Then a furniture maker shared the title with Williams for two years. Then a car-maker got its name in the billing for three.

In 1986 it became the Shearson Lehman Brothers-Andy Williams Open. Then Shearson Lehman Brothers changed its name to Shearson Lehman Hutton. Then last November, Andy Williams dropped out of the picture.

So welcome to the Shearson Lehman Hutton Open, the tournament where the sport is golf but the name of the game is names.

It’s the tournament where zero coupon certificates have replaced Moon River; the tournament between Hawaii and Florida on the PGA Tour, and the tournament that begins today on the beaten municipal paths of the North and South courses at Torrey Pines Golf Club.

“Where you play doesn’t matter,” says Mark Calcavecchia. the PGA Tour’s leading money winner this year. “A win is a win whether it’s in Abilene or the nicest course in the world.”

This is not Abilene. The maintenance people have redone 52 bunkers on the South Course, where the pros will play Saturday and Sunday. And according to John Walter, the course manager, the greens on the South Course have been cut to 5/32nds of an inch and and are moderately fast to fast (between nine and 10 on the Stimpmeter)--right where the PGA wants them to be.

But as the man says, where you play doesn’t matter. In Wednesday’s pro-am, former President Gerald Ford dumped his first drive into the gallery.

Calcavecchia already has won twice on tour this year. And after capturing the Nissan Los Angeles Open two weeks ago, he bought himself a Porsche 930 Turbo Carerra. He also bought his wife, Sheryl, a BMW 750IL. Then he made plans to buy a house in Phoenix.

“I spend money as fast as I get it,” he said.

If he wins the $126,000 first prize Sunday, his earnings, just six weeks into the 1989 season, will be $484,952. If that happens, maybe they’ll rename next year’s tournament the Shearson Lehman Calcavecchia Open.

Or maybe Calcavecchia will buy an investment firm of his own. “I’ll never get to the point where I’ve made too much money,” he says. “There’s no slow-up in me. But this has to slow up some time. You just can’t keep this caliber of play up.”

The people who run this tournament are just happy to have Calcavecchia on the grounds. He is one of only six players in the field to have finished among the top 20 money winners last year. The other five are Joey Sindelar, Ken Green, David Frost, defending champion Steve Pate and former San Diego winner Jay Haas.

Calcavecchia originally wasn’t going to play here. After Los Angeles, he wanted to head east to prepare for the four-week Florida swing that begins next week in Doral and concludes with the prestigious TPC at Sawgrass March 16-19. But after buying the Porsche in Phoenix, he wanted to drive it somewhere. San Diego was six hours away. So he committed to San Diego.

Then he decided he didn’t want to drive back to Phoenix after San Diego before hopping a plane to Florida. Calcavecchia, a self-described “simple-type character,” finally shipped the car from Phoenix to Florida. But he didn’t have the heart to renege on his commitment. So he’s here. But he’s rusty. Before the pro-am, he hadn’t touched a club in eight days.

“I guess I’ve got to be semi-considered one of the favorites,” he said Wednesday.

So do other long hitters such as Sindelar, Green and Fred Couples. Both Torrey Pines courses are relatively wide open. Most of the par fives are reachable in two.

Mark O’Meara, on the other hand, isn’t as long as he is hot. He won the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am late last month in Monterey and is fourth on the 1989 money list at $194,500 despite having played in only three events. He also won Tuesday’s shootout with a birdie on the last hole.

O’Meara subscribes to the horses-for-courses theory that says past San Diego winners Tom Watson, Haas, Johnny Miller, Gary Hallberg, Gary Koch, Woody Blackburn, Bob Tway and Pate should also be considered favorites.

O’Meara has a putting green, cut to USGA specifications, and three tee boxes in the backyard of his home in Escondido. As a youngster, his family moved to Orange County, where O’Meara would sneak onto the Mission Viejo Country Club course and play as many holes as daylight and club officials would allow. He says he has no problem if the children of neighbors want to sneak onto his backyard layout.

“As long as they fix their ball marks,” he says. “I’ll even put balls out for them.”

Notes

Winners of the pro-am on the North course were pro John Adams and his amateur partners David Desmon, Ben Easterling Jr., Ray Twigg and Darwin Zavadil. Their best ball score was 52. Winners on the South course were pro Rex Caldwell and his amateur partners Dick Herrman, Dan Kelly, Louis Robles and Bob Schack with a 55. Low pro on the North was Adams with 63. Low pro score on the South was 68 by Tom Watson, Don Pooley and Mark Hayes. . . . Gene Sauers won the Hawaiian Open Sunday by chipping in on the last hole to beat David Ogrin, he became the first PGA Tour player this year not named Mark or Steve to win an event. Sauers is not playing in San Diego. Neither is Steve Jones, who won the tour’s first two 1989 events. . . . The computer age advances. Spectators at Torrey Pines this week will have free access (including free printouts) to 22 Epson America Inc. computer terminals scattered around both courses. They can use the terminals to call up information on leaders’ scores, hole-by-hole scoring for each player and players’ stroke averages. This is in addition to the customary computerized leader boards.