GOLF : Everything Is Not Fine With Calcavecchia

Mark Calcavecchia is having some problems on golf courses, not necessarily related to his scores.

His conduct has been questioned by the PGA Tour on two occasions and he probably will be fined.

The first incident occurred in the Nissan Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club in late February.

On the third hole of the second round, Calcavecchia was so disgusted with his tee shot that he slammed his driver onto a concrete path bordering the hole.

Spectators Brian Henderson and his wife, Gail, were watching near there.

“The head of his driver broke with such velocity that it flew very near my wife’s head and halfway into the 18th fairway,” Henderson said.

Henderson was naturally upset and said he yelled at Calcavecchia, as did others in the gallery.

“He mumbled an apology and kept on walking, and then his wife (Sheryl) said to me, ‘Haven’t you ever made a mistake?’ ” Henderson said.

Henderson later informed the PGA Tour of the incident.

Steve Rankin, vice president of tournament affairs for the tour, said a letter of inquiry was sent to Calcavecchia, who failed to respond in the required 14-day span.

“Once that period has expired, if a player hasn’t responded with mitigating facts or circumstances, the commissioner (Deane Beman) proceeds with the imposition of penalties, if any, with the facts we know,” Rankin said.

Rankin added that it has been a longstanding policy of the PGA Tour not to discuss disciplinary matters publicly. Most other professional sports reveal fines or suspensions.

Rankin added, though, that the player is free to discuss any sanctions that were assessed.

The problem with that policy is that it leads to conjecture as to the severity of the penalty, prolonging an issue that could be resolved with a simple, straightforward announcement.

A month later in the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, Fla., Calcavecchia and his playing partner, John Daly, were “put on notice” by the tour for “failure to exert their best effort.” Calcavecchia shot an 81, Daly an 80.

Surprisingly, they were cited for fast play, so fast that they toured the course in 2 hours 3 minutes during the final round. They were, of course, out of contention at the time.

Anticipating a fine, Calcavecchia told Golf World magazine: “This is going to be appealed, big time.”

He added that Mark O’Meara and Greg Norman played the final round of the 1988 Nabisco Championships at Pebble Beach in 1 hour 26 minutes--actually, it was 1:24--and were warned, but not fined.

“Nobody warned us,” Calcavecchia said.

When questioned by The Times at the recent Masters tournament on the incident at Riviera and the possibility of a fine, Calcavecchia curtly replied, “That’s tour business, not media business. The tour is taking care of it. I sent a letter to the guy.”

Then, he added flippantly: “I was fined $100,000.”

Presumably, the guy he referred to was Henderson. But Henderson said he has not received a letter of apology from Calcavecchia.

It would seem that Calcavecchia should get his act together, and the tour should re-examine its policies regarding public disclosure of sanctions.

Raymond Floyd, who finished second behind Fred Couples in the Masters, has been a guiding force in Couples’ advancement from a talented but unfocused player to his status as best in the world.

Couples has won three tournaments this year, among them the Los Angeles Open, and has finished second twice. He has earned more than $1 million in official money in four months, and Floyd said Couples is emerging as the next great player in the game.

“The (Masters) win was at my expense, but I predicted this,” Floyd said. “I’ve said there’s one more plateau, and he would reach it, winning a major. He will continue from here. He’s a great player now, and he will be even a better player.”

Floyd said Couples hit the turning point during the 1989 Ryder Cup at the Belfry in England.

An errant nine-iron shot cost him a match against Irishman Christy O’Connor, preventing the U.S. team from beating the Europeans. Instead, the teams tied, 14-14, with the Europeans retaining the cup.

“He took it very hard, hitting that shot,” Floyd said of Couples’ lapse in the Ryder Cup. “But he didn’t lose the Ryder Cup. He just hit a bad shot at the last hole. I told him, ‘That shot is going to make you so much a better player, you’re not going to believe it.’

“Even though it was negative at the time, it was a very positive influence on his career.”

In interviews after that experience, Couples talked about the next Ryder Cup and his redemption. He easily made the U.S. team for the matches last September with more Ryder Cup points than any other American player.

Then, he scorched the opposition, scoring 3 1/2 points out of a possible four as the U.S. won the cup competition, 14 1/2 points to Europe’s 13 1/2.

“To come back and manhandle the Ryder Cup competition as he did was the next level for him,” Floyd said. “Then, the next level after that was this major (the Masters). So he has run through a lot of levels in about three years. We all knew he had this talent.”

Floyd said he requested Couples as a partner in the Greg Norman Invitational tournament--the Shark Shootout--in 1990 at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

“Freddie didn’t manage his golf game very well (at the time),” Floyd said. “He made mental errors on the course. I didn’t let him do that. That’s why he says I helped him so much.”

Floyd said Corey Pavin, the former UCLA star, will also be a factor in major competition in years to come. Pavin finished third in the Masters, three strokes behind Couples and one behind Floyd.

“I take my hat off to a player like that,” Floyd said. “He’s not long. He doesn’t hit a whole lot of great-looking golf shots, but he’s a scraper. He does what it takes to win golf tournaments.

“I think Corey will win a major championship. Augusta National is not a good course for him; he isn’t long enough. But he’s a winner.”

Golf Notes

The Lompoc Valley Senior Open, a two-day event, starts next Monday at La Purisima Golf Course. The course will also be host of the sixth annual “Windvitational” May 16-17. The format is two-man better-ball.

The fourth annual DARE tournament, sponsored by the San Fernando Police Officers Assn., is scheduled May 24 at the Vista Valencia course. DARE is a drug awareness program directed at elementary and middle-school students. . . . Detroit Lion quarterback Erik Kramer will play host to his first celebrity-amateur tournament on May 11 at Porter Valley Country Club. The tournament benefits the L.A. Valley College football program.

The Women’s Southern California Golf Assn. will hold its 34th annual desert event May 4-5 at five clubs in the Palm Springs area. . . . THE (Therapy-Health-Education) clinic in Del Mar will conduct its first golf school next Sunday through April 29 at the La Quinta and Citrus golf courses in La Quinta.

The inaugural Riverside Senior Open Pro-Am is scheduled May 1-2 on the Gen. Old course at March Air Force Base in Riverside. Entries for the first 50 pros and amateurs who enter will close next Friday. Details: (619) 941 1000. . . . The 12th annual tournament to benefit the Little Company of Mary Hospital will be held on May 4 at the Palos Verdes Golf Club.

Former Ram quarterback Pat Haden, Times sports columnist Jim Murray, Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor, jockey Gary Stevens and pro golfer Jim Colbert will play in the 10th annual Padua Village Golf tournament next Monday at Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga.