The Loop

Calcavecchia was his favorite player

February 25, 2010

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- When Matt Every was growing up in Florida, his favorite player was another Floridian, Mark Calcavecchia, with whom he was paired in the third round of the Mayakoba Golf Classic last week.

"It was really cool for me," Every said. "But it was the perfect storm. I doubled the last hole and I was ticked off. It was just kind of an immature thing for me to do, but he had my (score) card, just threw it toward me and I didn't even look at it. I just signed it and turned it in.

"I was like 40 yards out of the scoring area, and they called me back in. He had written a three down on number six and I made a four, so I got DQ'd."

It qualifies as a rookie mistake for Every, a PGA Tour rookie. It took him no time to put the error behind him, however; he birdied six straight holes at one point in the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Thursday en route to an eight-under par 63 that puts him one stroke off the lead held by his former University of Florida teammate Camilo Villegas.

As for Cacavecchia, "he's still my favorite player, and he was a blast to play with," Every said. "It was 100 percent my fault, and he felt horrible. It's in no way his fault. But if somebody would have come up to me (15 years ago) and said, 'you know, you're going to get to play with this guy in 15 years and you're going to get DQ'd,' I would have been like, 'yeah, right.'"

-- John Strege