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O'Meara Sets Out Aim of His Game
by Martin Hannan, The Scotsman
July 23, 2007
BEFORE last week's Open Championship, the competitors sought various
ways of preparing themselves for the tournament. Some went to Loch
Lomondside for the Scottish Open, some took part in the Irish PGA
championship at Brittas Bay, others played the John Deere Classic on
the PGA tour, while many others stayed at home to practise.
Mark O'Meara went fly fishing in his beloved Ireland.
Renowned as a genial, gentle character, O'Meara is nevertheless a
formidable competitor, and of course he kept up his practice quotient
during his time in the Ould Country of his forefathers.
He also enjoyed Ireland's social event of the year, attending the
wedding reception of Sue Anne McManus to Cian Foley. Sue Anne is the
daughter of O'Meara's friend and sometime golfing partner, billionaire
and legendary gambler JP McManus, and the 'Limerick Kid', as he is
known, spared no expense as the father of the bride - entertainment
was provided by Lionel Richie and Billy Joel, among others.
With one Open out of the way, O'Meara's focus is now firmly fixed on
Muirfield, though he confesses that Scotland's rivers and lochs might
just grab some of his attention.
"I've brought some of my fishing gear along with me just in case,"
he
says. "I was able to fish the River Shannon on three days while I
was
in Ireland, and I hear there's some very good fishing to be had in
Scotland."
Right now, however, he is fishing for an elusive first trophy as a
senior, and victory at Muirfield would be a highly satisfactory win.
O'Meara is one of the 'Class of 2007' who joined the Champions Tour in
the USA after turning 50 on January 13 this year.
He has already taken part in nine tournaments, with two fifth places
in his first three outings and a second at the Ginn Championship, in
April, which earned him the tidy sum of dollars 200,000. He was 11th
in the US Senior Open and has already won more than dollars 540,000 on
the tour.
O'Meara dipped back into the PGA tour to play the Masters where he
missed the cut, but is adamant that the over-50s circuit is where his
future lies, not least because he is anticipating the challenge of
meeting the likes of Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, and Ian
Woosnam.
"I'm a senior, now," says O'Meara, "and so far things
have gone
reasonably well. I'm still looking for that first win, and I'd love it
to be at Muirfield because I'm still passionate about links golf.
"Muirfield is one of the great courses in golf. I played in three
Opens there, and I've played it when the weather was good and when the
weather was not so good, and it's always a fair test.
"I am looking forward to playing against the likes of Nick Faldo
and
the other big Europeans when they join us. I grew up playing with
these guys and they are as competitive as they always were, they are
just as skilful, and still very good players in their own right.
"There are not many other professional sports where you can begin
again at 50, and there are some serious prizes to be won.
"But that's not my main motivation at the moment. My motivation
is to
get the competitive fires rekindled and get that winning habit again.
There is a challenge facing me, and that challenge is to win at this
level just as I have done at every other level of golf."
O'Meara may love Muirfield, but it's not his favourite links course.
That is undoubtedly Royal Birkdale, where he won his initial victory
on the European Tour, the Lawrence Batley International of 1987, and
where, 11 years later, he won the Open Championship after a dramatic
play-off against Brian Watts.
"It has to be Birkdale because of the success I had there. I had
been
third in the Open behind Sandy Lyle at Sandwich in 1985, and I was
third again behind Ian Baker-Finch in '91, before I won in 1998."
That victory came at the age of 41, when he also won the Masters and
the World Matchplay Championship. The two majors crowned a career in
which O'Meara won 16 PGA tour events, plus 14 others worldwide. For 16
years, he was never out of the top 30 earners on the PGA tour and in
1998, was rated second in the world rankings behind only his great
friend, Tiger Woods, with whom he won golf's World Cup for the USA in
1999.
They seemed an unusual pairing, the avuncular O'Meara and the young
superstar of golf, but it is a friendship that has endured.
"I don't see as much of him as I used to," says O'Meara, "but
we're on
different tours now and he has a wife and a young child to look after.
We keep in touch all the time, though."
Born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, O'Meara himself describes his
background as "modest". His father Robert is a second generation
Irish-American who was a furniture salesman. At the age of 78, Robert
was with his son at Carnoustie last week, but has returned home and
will miss Muirfield.
Robert O'Meara has taken great interest in the family's Irish roots in
the Cork and Tipperary areas, but though proud of his ancestry, Mark
quips: "I just wanted to know where the best fishing was in Ireland."
O'Meara's talent at golf was obvious from a young age and he won the
US Amateur title, beating John Cook in the final of 1979, the year
before he graduated from Long Beach State University.
Joining the PGA tour the following year, O'Meara enjoyed initial
success, but it took him until 1984 to win his first title, the
Greater Milwaukee Open.
Winning regularly throughout his career, apart from his two majors,
O'Meara's most notable feat is winning the National Pro-Am, the former
Bing Crosby National, at Pebble Beach, five times in 13 seasons. His
record low score of 268, or 20 under par, which he set in 1997, was
equalled only this year by Phil Mickelson.
O'Meara has long been happily married to Alicia, and they have two
children, Michelle and Shaun. Michelle is at the University of
Southern California while Shaun is also set for university at Irvine
in California.
"Shaun wants to be a golfer, and he's got the talent for it,"
says
O'Meara. "He showed that when we played in father and son events
when
he was 14."
O'Meara himself is displaying another talent, making a name for
himself as a course designer. His first three courses at Grandview
near Toronto, Carton House near Dublin and at Tuhaye, Park City in
Utah, have all been well received and he hopes to do many more.
Asked where he rated himself on the roll of golfing honour, O'Meara
replies with typical modesty: "I don't consider myself to be one
of
the greats. I'm not up there with the Woods, the Faldos, the
Nicklauses, Hogans or Nelsons.
"It really was such an honour to play those courses and lift those
trophies."
You get the feeling that he's not finished yet. Muirfield could well
be the start of something for O'Meara.
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