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 O'Meara's reign ends with disappointing round

photo: top_stories

 Mark O'Meara waves his hat as he walks off of the No. 18 green with his caddy Jerry Higgenbothem Sunday at Augusta National.
Michael Holahan/Chronicle Staff

Posted Sunday, April 11, 1999 at 10:13 p.m. EDT

By Chris Gay
Chronicle Staff

The defending champ's reign is over.

Mark O'Meara posted a 6-over-par 78 in the final round Sunday to finish with a 5-over-par total of 293 in the 1999 Masters Tournament.

``The conditions were very tough,'' he said. ``I didn't play well. It was a disappointing round.''

O'Meara started the round in the wrong direction by carding a bogey on No. 1. His approach went through the green, and then his chip shot coming back rolled into the bunker.

O'Meara blasted out to 2 feet to save bogey.

Things appeared to get better for O'Meara as he two-putted for birdie on the par-5 second hole. But bogeys on Nos. 4, 6 and 7 dropped him to 2-over for the tournament.

On No. 11, O'Meara's round went from bad to worse as his 6-iron approach got caught up in the wind and found the pond in front of the green. He double-bogeyed the hole to fall to 4-over par.

``I hit a couple of bad shots, but I didn't play that badly,'' O'Meara said. ``I didn't get too many good breaks.''

O'Meara added a bogey on No. 12 before birdieing No. 15 and then bogeying No. 16. He added pars on the final two holes to end his round.

``The greens are very hard coming home,'' he said. ``It was definitely mentally trying out there.''

O'Meara birdied the final two holes in 1998 to defeat Fred Couples and David Duval by a stroke and obtain his first green jacket. But he knew his title defense soon would be over.

``I look forward to putting on the green jacket on this year's champion,'' he said. ``It's been a dream 12 months for me.''