Calc eagles the last to share lead

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bruced
August 28, 2011

Mark Calcavecchia sunk a 20-foot eagle putt to take a share of the lead after the third round of the Boeing Classic on Saturday.

Calcavecchia shot a five-under-par 67 at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge to take his total to seven under for the tournament after two rounds of the 54-hole event in Washington.

He’s tied with three others at the top – Kenny Perry (68), Russ Cochran (71) and Jeff Sluman (70) – and the quartet are two shots clear of Bob Gilder, Chien Soon Lu and Chip Beck, who all shot 69s on the day.

Nick Price of Zimbabwe lies three shots back on four under after a 69, while Bernhard Langer lies on three under after a second-round 73.

Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples, fresh off his Senior Players Championship victory in New York last week, shot a 69 to lie on two under.

Calcavecchia is a 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, but in 30 starts in two seasons on the Champions Tour he has yet to taste victory.

“I’m done thinking about that,” he said. “I won’t say I’m overdue. I just haven’t played good enough for three or four straight days to win.

“I’ll just go out there tomorrow, be careful, pick my spots and be patient.”

He started shakily on Saturday, bogeying the third before four staight pars, but then made his first birdie of the day at the par-five eighth.

It was his back nine, however, where he really came alive, rattling off birdies at 12, 14 and 17, before the eagle at the 18th.

“Pretty much my whole day was the last couple holes,” he added. “Nothing was happening for me on the front but I was being careful.”

Perry equalled Calcavecchia’s eagle at 18, holing out from a bunker and making up for the double-bogey he suffered at the 14th when he overcooked his wedge approach shot and hit it over the back of the green.

“The course took it away from me but gave it back again with the unbelievable eagle on 18, a one on a million shot,” said Perry.

“It’s a 30-foot face bunker, green sloping away from you and it takes two hops and (like) Michael Jordan, just dunks.”

Cochran, last month’s Senior British Open champion when he triumphed by two strokes over Calcavecchia, started the day tied for the lead with Sluman, and looked set to retain sole possession of the lead before a bogey at 17 dropped him back to seven under.

“I have to play a whole lot better tomorrow,” Cochran said. “There’s a couple guys out there who are used to winning that haven’t won on the Champions Tour that are really going to go after it. If I don’t go after it, I’m going to be left behind.”

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