SNOQUALMIE — For more than five hours, over more than 18 holes, two good friends, two Florida neighbors, Mark Calcavecchia and Russ Cochran threw haymakers at each other.

It was golf as pugilism.

Calcavecchia holed a diabolical downhill bunker shot on nine. Cochran curled a 10-foot putt on 14. Calc finished birdie, birdie, birdie. Cochran finished birdie, eagle.

"Calc didn't have any let-up on him," Cochran said.

"Every time Russ had to make a putt, he made one," Calcavecchia said.

It was Sunday on the tour and four players — Calcavecchia, Cochran, Jeff Sluman and Kenny Perry — were tied for the lead. It was Sunday on the Champions Tour, where entering the day, 15 different golfers had won this season. Sunday on the tour and the day was thick with possibilities.

"You never quite know how things are going to work out (on Sunday)," Cochran said. "But I think you kind of just skip over that and you say, 'You know what, make sure your patience is there. Make sure your effort's there.'

"I think that's hard for some people to kind of figure out. There's that factor in there of what you have and how you perform and how you keep it together."

At the Boeing Classic on Sunday, cheers rolled like the wind through the canyons and fir trees of Snoqualmie Ridge as the duel between Calc and Cochran played out in the brilliant sunlight and against the spectacular backdrop of Mount Si.

Calcavecchia, who hadn't won in 30 previous tries on the Champions Tour, threw eight birdies at Cochran. He took a two-stroke lead after six holes. Cochran never blinked.

"I have no complaints," Cochran said. "I hit the ball on the button today. I rolled it. ... Nobody wants to finish second, but that's just the way it is. I've played worse and won, I can tell you that."

Cochran said Calcavecchia had that look in his eye, the look that nothing was going to upset him, not one wayward drive, not one lipped putt, not one bad fairway bunker shot.

"Sometimes Calc can come out and a situation may irritate him, bother him and that can throw him off a little bit," Cochran said. "He never had that today. Today he looked like no matter what was going to happen he was just going to keep coming and keep making birdies and keep doing good things."

It was Sunday on the Champions Tour and it was as thrilling as any Sunday on any tour.

On this day Calcavecchia, who has lost a number of Sunday leads, was as placid as Lake Chelan. He loaded his iPod with a lot of blues and funk and gave himself what he calls the basic speech. You know, "Play your best. Don't worry about what anyone else is shooting. Just focus on what you have to do."

This time he listened to himself.

"I'm getting more relaxed when I wake up on a Sunday morning," Calcavecchia said. "I wasn't nervous or anything today."

Even when he skulled his shot out of the bunker on eight, he kept his composure, didn't lose his confidence. He followed that bogey with the birdie out of the trap on nine.

"I'm an emotional player," Calcavecchia said. "When I lip out a few times and get a few bad breaks, all of a sudden I think I'm the unluckiest guy on the planet. Sometimes it affects my game and sometimes it doesn't. That's just kind of the way I've been."

On a day that was too good to end, Calcavecchia and Cochran both shot 65.

On the final hole of regulation, a par 5, Cochran hit a hybrid from 235 away that curled about 12 feet from the pin. And, after Calcavecchia made his short birdie putt, Cochran drained his do-or-die eagle.

"You didn't have to make that," Calcavecchia said, riding up to the scoring tent before the playoff.

But back at 18, the first playoff hole, Cochran and Calcavecchia hit dueling 3-irons into the green.

Cochran yanked his into the front trap, Calcavecchia hit his about 40 feet from the hole. This dramatic Sunday was about to belong to Calcavecchia.

"I think this will help me down the road," he said. "I've kind of let a few tournaments get away. I've let a lot of tournaments get away my whole career. I kind of have that fault, not that I'm not tough.

"I just don't always play so great on the back nine when I need to. I hit great shots on 18 both times and I think that will go a long way. I think it will help me a lot. Very important for me."

It was Sunday on the Tour and Mark Calcavecchia played like a champion. Look out.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com