Mark Calcavecchia whiffed on a chip Saturday. Luke Donald made a quadruple bogey earlier in the week.
Bad mistakes? Absolutely. But to win at PGA National, one must overcome blunders, which Donald and Calcavecchia have done with ease.
Donald shot a 4-under-par 66 on Saturday and Calcavecchia finished with a 67, and the two former Honda Classic champions wound up tied with Matt Jones (71) atop the leaderboard at PGA National.
“There’s a lot of danger out there,” Donald said. “There’s some very daunting shots, a lot of scary shots with a lot of water around. So you have to really stand up there and hit good, solid shots.”
He has hit plenty of those. A bogey-free 64 on Thursday started him on his way, but the quadruple — an 8 on the 14th hole Friday — knocked him well off the pace. He has been flawless from there, with five birdies and no bogeys in the last 22 holes.
“Obviously, other than that, I’ve played very solid this week,” said Donald, who won the 2006 Honda at Mirasol.
Calcavecchia’s game has been just as good. He made a bogey on the second hole Saturday when his drive nestled against a palm tree, and he decided to take a left-handed whack to advance the ball a few yards. But he missed everything, and eventually made a bogey.
It was his only mistake. The two-time Honda winner birdied the next two holes, connected again at the par-4 12th, and made pars the rest of the way.
“It’d be pretty special to win a tour event three miles from your driveway,” said Calcavecchia, who splits his time between homes in South Florida and Arizona.
