“Pushed Me Out of the Way”: Larry Bird’s Stoic Persona Humbled Golf Legend Mark Calcavecchia in First Meeting
“Pushed Me Out of the Way”: Larry Bird’s Stoic Persona Humbled Golf Legend Mark Calcavecchia in First Meeting
You could have 13 PGA titles but it takes a lot more to get a ‘hi’ out of Larry Bird. He could be the friendly Hick from French Lick one moment and an intensely competitive athlete the next. One golf legend found that out in a stinging fashion. Over three decades ago, Kenny Rogers hosted pro athletes, musicians, and Hollywood stars at his ranch for a televised weekend of golf, basketball, and fishing. Michael Jordan was often the scene-stealer at the Kenny Rogers Weekend Classic. It was not only an occasion to enjoy Rogers making Jordan trip, but also for the basketball and golf worlds to intersect. Just not always in the way we’d expect.
Some things went down behind the scenes that now seem funny. Back then, golf star Mark Calcavecchia might have been awkward around Larry Bird. The Celtics icon’s mood was hard to gauge when he was at Rogers’ ranch. Calcavecchia had missed the memo.
“I had just won the British Open and I kind of thought I was a little bit of a big deal,”Calcavecchia recalled with reference to his 1989 PGA title. It was his earliest most notable achievement. So allow him to feel chuffed walking into the Beaver Dam Farms for the Kenny Rogers Classic Weekend in 1989. While hanging out with the likes of Jordan and Gladys Knight, he ran into Bird.
