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Mark it down
O'Meara is ready to take on young guns
Posted: Saturday April 06, 2002 8:13 PM
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Mark O'Meara reacts after chipping in for an eagle on No. 2 in the final round of the 2001 Masters. O'Meara, the 1998 Masters champion, tied for 20th last year. Michael Holahan
The Augusta Chronicle |
By Scott Michaux
The Augusta Chronicle
Letdown theorists have spent months analyzing and documenting Tiger Woods' play in the aftermath of his four-major sweep, completed at the 2001 Masters.
But the limbo bar was set by another Isleworth, Fla., resident and Masters champion in 1998. Tiger's closest friend, Mark O'Meara, is still recovering from his own major letdown.
By winning the Masters in 1998, O'Meara completed his career goal to win a major championship, then capped it the same year by winning the British Open. Now the question is: Did his 15th and 16th professional victories also cap his career?
"Going into Augusta I wasn't hitting the ball all that well in '98," O'Meara said this year. "I know I won the championship, I putted extremely well and went on to win the British Open. It was kind of the icing on the cake. It was a dream come true to win those two championships. Was there a letdown? Yeah, probably."
In the three full seasons after his defining season at age 41, O'Meara has been merely ordinary. He hasn't won since the British Open at Royal Birkdale. He posted three top-10 finishes in 1999 and just one each in 2000 and '01. In the past two seasons, his money earnings slipped outside the top 100 for the first time since 1982, his second full season on tour.
O'Meara makes no excuses about his performance since cashing in on his major accomplishments of '98.
"I certainly took advantage of the opportunities to go around the world playing," he said. "If that meant sacrificing my game a little bit, fine. I was 41 years old; I wasn't 27. These young guys like Tiger have to look at the long term, while I was looking at the short term.
"I'm 45 now and still think I can play a little bit. Hopefully, if I can get to hitting the ball a little bit better and get a little more confidence, maybe there's a chance I can play well at the Masters or Open or PGA."
At 45, O'Meara is a classic tweener - much older than the youth movement dominating the PGA Tour but still five years removed from the Senior Tour. He's the kind of marquee player Fred Couples' proposed Majors Tour would target.
But O'Meara is committed to making himself relevant again among the young guns of the PGA Tour. He flirted with taking a television gig but made the decision to keep playing full time. He wants to honor that decision by resuming his long-standing competitive ways. He showed some flash by finishing second at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.
"What keeps me motivated right now is I made a decision to play and compete at a decent level," he said. "I didn't think it was fair to try to do TV and play a little bit. It was either do TV or play. Now I can play and be my own boss. I'll take it one step at a time and see what happens."
Can he contend again at the Masters or another major? O'Meara considers it the same challenge he faced when he crossed the 40-year-old barrier and critics wondered if he could ever win a major.
"Whenever someone says you can't do it, that's when you want to try to prove them wrong, if you can," he said. "A lot of people said I couldn't win a major championship or wouldn't win at Augusta National. I don't blame them for feeling that way. But when you're a competitor and want to win, and if you give a good player an opportunity to find himself coming down the stretch with an opportunity to win, people are going to rise to that level and win. That's what happened to me at Augusta, and I was proud of the way I won, as Tiger was proud of the way he won his two green jackets."
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