Denied by Sandy Lyle's dramatic birdie from a fairway bunker on the final hole of the Masters in 1988, Calcavecchia had to wait only until Royal Troon the following year to become a major winner.
After nearly not playing in his third Open Championship because his wife was expecting, he tied with Australians Greg Norman and Wayne Grady and won the event's first four-hole play-off.
Twenty years later just down the coast at Turnberry he was only a stroke behind at halfway and in 2012 at Royal Lytham and St Annes, aged 52, he had his first top 10 finish in a major for a decade.
Spent over 100 weeks in the world's top 10 and among his 13 PGA Tour victories was the 2001 Phoenix Open, where he posted a second round 60 and lifted the title for a third time with a 28-under-par total.
His four Ryder Cup caps included a memorable half with Colin Montgomerie in the 1991 singles at Kiawah Island, while he partnered former US Open champions Tom Kite and Curtis Strange to the 1989 Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews and was runner-up to Russ Cochran in the 2011 Senior British Open at Walton Heath.