Mark O’Meara is coming off what he calls a “B minus” season on the Champions Tour. The two-time major champion hasn’t won on the 50-and-over circuit since his two victories in 2010, but this year was a challenge for the former Mission Viejo resident because of a foot injury that lingered from May through June.
On the bright side, O’Meara, 58, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in July and won the pro-junior at September’s Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. The 1979 U.S. Amateur champion enjoys that event because of its focus on youth, a memory that got rekindled in late October during Toshiba Classic week at Newport Beach Club, where O’Meara finished tied for 28th at 9 under. It was then that O’Meara and caddie Mark Miller played with O’Meara’s 1979 U.S. Amateur opponent, John Cook, and Cook’s son Jason at Big Canyon Country Club.
“No, we didn’t play a rematch,” Cook laughed in reference to his 8 and 7 loss to O’Meara in the U.S. Amateur final 37 years ago. “It was a fun round of golf between friends.”
For O’Meara, it was a sentimental experience playing with a friend in familiar surroundings.
“It brings back a lot of good memories,” O’Meara said. “John and I go way back to junior golf days, amateur golf days. We started playing against each other around age 13. To have his son Jason out there was nice. We had fun. It’s really hard to beat playing golf with your friends in Orange County because the weather is always so nice.”
The climate was also favorable the day before when O’Meara was back at Mission Viejo Country Club, a place where he used to pick up balls at the range and help fold shirts in the pro shop. His round was followed by a visit to City Hall where Mission Viejo City Council member Ed Sachs gave O’Meara a Hometown Hero proclamation. Sachs, a longtime member at Mission Viejo Country Club, then invited the golf teams from Mission Viejo High to the podium to join in photos. His day was capped by a return trip to the club for the unveiling of Mark O’Meara Lane, the new name for the former Country Club Drive.
“It makes me think about how fortunate I was growing up there and that everything I have in my life now, as a near 60-year-old man, stems from what happened in those early days at Mission Viejo Country Club,” O’Meara said.
This month, O’Meara and his son Shaun will play in the Father/Son PNC Challenge in Florida – “I welcome the opportunity to play in that” – and he’s eagerly anticipating his annual trip to Augusta National in April for the Masters where, as a former champion, he gets to take part in all of the week’s activities.
“I got a lot of congratulatory texts from people,” O’Meara said about his induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. “It’s nice because I have the utmost respect for the people and the Masters tournament. Mr. [Billy] Payne, the chairman, is a friend of mine too; so it was nice.”
Now living in Houston, O’Meara and his wife Meredith bought two Labradors this year and named one Georgia because of his affinity for the Masters. (The other is named Crosby because of his five victories at Pebble Beach.) Augusta National also has a special place in O’Meara’s heart because it’s the site of his 2009 marriage proposal to Meredith.
This winter, O’Meara and Meredith look forward to spending time at their second home in the mountains of Park City, Utah, at Tuhaye Golf Club, one of his course designs. O’Meara enjoys skiing at Deer Valley but by no means is it his favorite winter activity. That distinction comes on the seat of a snowmobile.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good snow season because I’m a big snowmobiler,” he said. “I have a few that I own and an enclosed trailer. I’m pretty hardcore and I like to ride up in the backcountry, so for me that’s what I enjoy doing in the wintertime.”
As 2015 nears closure, O’Meara, a 16-time winner on the PGA Tour, reflects on three things from the year that he is especially proud.
“To get in the World Golf Hall of Fame, to finish 22nd at the Masters and to make the cut in the British Open – the two big professional majors that I played in – that says something,” he said. “I’m proud of that.”
