Like numerous peers of a certain age, Mark Carnevale transitioned from his professional playing career into broadcasting, so there are fans in younger generations who have no idea that he even played—and won—on the PGA Tour.
It was an eventful journey, with Carnevale bouncing around the mini tours before, at age 31, finally earning his PGA Tour card through Qualifying School. And in that rookie season in 1992, shared with other newcomers Phil Mickelson and David Toms, the Maryland native achieved his greatest success, winning the Chattanooga Classic, coming from five shots back with a closing 64. He would go on to be named that season’s Rookie of the Year.
On that Sunday of his victory, Carnevale’s father, Ben, who served as the head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina and later Navy, was packing at a hotel after spending most of the week at the golf tournament. “I called him in the room, and he couldn’t speak,” Carnevale recalled in an interview with Golf Digest writer Bill Fields in 2008. “That was one of the few times in my life I ever heard him choked up. It’s probably the most memorable moment in all of golf, just making that phone call.”