A grand occasion
O'Meara ready to cap big season with slam victory
Posted: Monday November 16, 1998 06:40 PM
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A season to remember: In 1998 Mark O'Meara has won two major championships and the World Match Play Championship Craig Jones/Allsport |
KAUAI, Hawaii (AP) -- Mark O'Meara already has won the Masters, the British Open and the World Match Play Championship. Starting Tuesday in Hawaii, his dream season has a chance to get even better.
In the hardest tournament to get into, O'Meara, U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, PGA champion Vijay Singh and Tiger Woods will square off in match play in the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Resort Golf Course.
The event brings together the winners of the four major championships. Because O'Meara won two majors, Woods qualified by having the best overall record in the majors.
The format has changed this year from 36-hole stroke play to two rounds of matches, with O'Meara playing Singh and Janzen going up against Woods in Tuesday's first round. The winners will meet in the finals on Wednesday.
"This has been a great year for myself and my family," O'Meara said Monday in a conference call from Hawaii. "What transpired at the Masters and the British Open is something I'll never forget."
Singh will do well to forget what happened at the World Match Play Championship in England last month, when O'Meara handed him the worst beating in the 35-year history of the event by closing out their semifinal match at 11&10.
A friendly matchup: Tiger Woods (left) and Mark O'Meara could go head-to-head on Wednesday in the final round for a purse of $400,000 Allsport | |
O'Meara went on to beat Woods 1-up in the finals with a 15-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the last hole.
Should O'Meara get past Singh, it's possible he'll see Woods in the finals again. Is a repeat performance in the works?
Based on what transpired in the Tour Championship three weeks ago, O'Meara isn't so sure. Singh set a course record at East Lake Golf Club with a first-round 63 and wound up losing to Hal Sutton in a playoff.
"He was playing with Tiger and came to the 18th at 8-under," O'Meara said of Singh's first round. "I looked at him and said, 'Vijay, what course are you playing?' And he said, `I'm getting ready for you, baby.'"
Singh has a strong history of match play. He won the World Match Play in 1997 and is one of only three players from the International team with a winning record in Presidents Cup matches.
"Whenever I play Vijay, I've got my hands full," O'Meara said. "I've got to play well tomorrow to repeat that. All you can do is give it your best."
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Repeat performance? At the World Match Play Championship in England last month, O'Meara (above) defeated Singh in the semis and Woods in the finals David Cannon/Allsport |
Singh, who won his first major at Sahalee Country Club and then won the Sprint International a week later, is coming off a two-stroke victory over Jesper Parnevik in the Super Tour, where four rounds were played in four Asian countries.
"I'm very fond of it," Singh said of the match play format. "It gives you a chance to be aggressive. My mode is not to give holes away and make a lot of pars and birdies."
Janzen and Woods will each be playing the PGA Grand Slam of Golf for the second time. Janzen tied for third in 1993, the year he won his first Open at Baltusrol, when the event was moved from Hawaii to California because of a hurricane.
Woods, the 1997 Masters champion, finished three strokes behind Ernie Els last year at Poipu Bay.
The $1 million event, which awards $400,000 to the winner, has been played continuously since 1988 and first started in 1979.
"This format will make a huge difference," Woods said. "You can be a lot more aggressive."
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