LYTHAM ST ANNES, ENGLAND - Mark Calcavecchia, 52, worked his way into the top 10 at the British Open Saturday.

You think he was happy?

“I’ve always said even if I hadn’t won in ’89 this is my favourite tournament that I’ve ever played in, even when I don’t play so well, like last year when I missed the cut, had a bad second day. I still love the tournament,” said Calcavecchia, who had a 1-under par 69 Saturday. “The atmosphere is the best there is, even better than Augusta and even better than the U.S. Open, I think.

“It’s fun to see all these guys, like Andres Romero and Simon Dyson and guys that I know and then it’s fun to see the young guys on Tour that I don’t really get to see much anymore. I’ve got eight more years of this, and I’ll be looking forward to every one of them.”

Calcavecchia said he likes the challenge presented by Royal Lytham & St. Annes even if the lack of wind and soggy conditions haven’t made it a typical Open Championship.

He’s shown he can still play major-championship golf.

“You know, I haven’t really thought about my age this week at all. I’ve just enjoyed the tournament, and the crowds out there are great, obviously,” he said. “The course, it takes a lot of thinking. I’ve been sleeping great at night, I can tell you that. It’s tiring to play this course. If it would have been like it was Wednesday, you’d have seen some guys completely lose their mind. There’s no way I broke 80 in a practice round on Wednesday, when it was blowing. I teed off about 6:15 in the morning and it was blowing about 30, seriously. It was brutal. At least it wasn’t like that. If it would have been howling all week, you would have seen guys losing their minds out there.”

chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca

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