GOLF PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP : Calcavecchia, Mudd Putt Way Into Lead

Mark Calcavecchia says he will pick up a golf tip at any time, even during a competitive round, if it will help him.

So after missing a three-foot putt on his third hole Thursday in the opening round of the Players Championship at the Tournament Players Club in Sawgrass, Calcavecchia studied playing partner Paul Azinger’s putting style.

“After that, I hit every putt where I aimed it,” Calcavecchia said.

So did Jodie Mudd, who had 11 one-putt greens and shared the first-round lead with Calcavecchia. Each had a 67, five under par, on a humid, slightly windy day.

Calcavecchia and Mudd were pursued by David Graham and David Edwards with 68s, and 10 players were grouped at 69.

“I just had a hot putter,” Mudd said. “My ball-striking was mediocre, and I was only even par for the first nine. But on the back nine I one-putted the 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th greens.”

Mudd, who has won two tour events in a career that began in 1982, had six birdies, sinking three putts from 15- to 20-foot range. He had one bogey.

Some of the players complained that the greens were bumpy. They didn’t bother Mudd, who played in the last group of the day.

“I scraped it around pretty good,” he said.

Mudd said that the course is one of the most demanding he has played, adding that the best player will eventually win.

“Not anybody will do like I did for four days,” he said, referring to his putting performance.

When asked if there is pressure on him now, he said: “I’m not picked to win this tournament. That’s for the big guys like Calcavecchia and (Greg) Norman.”

Calcavecchia said he has used as many as 10 different putting strokes in one round.

As for Thursday’s change, he said he just put his hands farther down on the putter and hit down on the ball with a little pop stroke, emulating Azinger.

Starting on the 10th hole, he had eight birdies and three bogeys. He got two of his birdies with spectacular shots.

Calcavecchia chipped in from 30 feet on the par-four, 395-yard 10th hole. Then, on the par-three, 172-yard 13th, he holed a bunker shot from 40 feet.

The 29-year-old professional, who won the British Open last year, is known for his aggressiveness and long fairway woods.

Still, he has always had a delicate touch around the greens and acknowledged it by saying, “You have to have a lot of touch and guts around the greens, and I think I have a little of both.”

Calcavecchia has finished second three times this year and is second to Azinger on the money-winning list with $389,040. Yet, he says his game isn’t really on track.

“The reason I played well today was because of my putting and chipping,” he said. “I’m not hitting the ball like I want.

“If you don’t have your short game, you don’t have anything.”

Calcavecchia said he has never been successful at this stadium course, and the record bears him out.

In three previous appearances, he finished no higher than 50th and missed the cut last year.

“I just tried to play it smart and not force anything,” Calcavecchia said. “I played more to the center of the green than I have in the past. Just get your two putts and get out of there.”

He finished on the par-five, 582-yard ninth hole, where he said he “smoked” a three-wood 275 yards to the front of the green. He chipped to within six feet of the cup and made his birdie putt.

Azinger matched par at 72, but Calcavecchia’s other partner, Mark O’Meara, had a disastrous day. O’Meara shot an 84, 44 on his front side, and withdrew.

Calcavecchia said: “I’m happy I only have to play the 17th four times a year. You can conceivably hit a perfect shot and still get a triple or double bogey.”

Calcavecchia, mindful of his previous performances here, spent three hours on the driving range Wednesday, trying to correct a hook.

Golf Notes

Australian-born David Graham, who will be 44 in May, said he had no explanation for playing so well. He has played a limited schedule in recent years and missed the cut at Phoenix in his only previous tour event this year. He said that he is involved in other things now, such as designing golf courses. When someone mentioned the possibility of his playing on the senior tour when he turns 50, Graham said: “I wish they would change the minimum age to 45. I don’t think a player from 45 to 50 can realistically come out here and say, ‘I’m playing to win.’ ”

Tom Watson, 41, who has been struggling in recent years after being voted the player of the decade of the 1980s, doesn’t agree with Graham. “I think 50 is the senior age. I don’t think they should reduce it to 45,” he said. “It works just fine the way it is. There is too big of a difference of a 60-year-old playing a 45-year-old.” Watson shot a three-under-par 69 while playing with Greg Norman (71) and Fred Couples (69).

“The start of the year was a downer for me,” Watson said. “I missed the first three cuts.” . . . Tom Kite, the defending champion, shot a 72, matching Curtis Strange. . . . Forty-one players broke par.