Calcavecchia Is Golfer to Beat at San Diego

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 company 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 in which the sport is golf but the name of the game is names.

It’s the tournament between Hawaii and Florida on the PGA Tour, and it 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 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 here 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--right where the PGA wants them to be.

Calcavecchia has already won twice on the tour this year. And after winning 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 seven weeks into the 1989 season, will be a whopping $484,952.