May 20, 2009
AN INTERVIEW WITH:
MARK O'MEARA
KELLY ELBIN: Mark O'Meara, ladies and
gentlemen, joining us at the 70th Senior PGA
Championship at Canterbury Golf Club. Two time
Major champion. This will be Mark's third Senior
PGA. Tied for 12 in the 2007 at Kiawah Island is
his best finish, but 30 years ago, mark, you won
the U.S. Amateur here at Canterbury. Must be
awfully nice to be back at a place that's one of the
highlights of your career.
MARK O'MEARA: Yeah, it is. Kind of all
got started here. Obviously in 1979 coming here
as a southern California boy and not playing a lot
of golf in the Midwest and the East and playing
these beautiful golf courses.
This week is no exception. The fairways
are as good as any fairways pretty much we
played on all year and pretty much anywhere you
could play on. The greens are in good condition,
firm, smaller, have a lot of severe break to them a
little bit out there.
So I think the golf course is ready to go.
It's a good test of golf. The rough is deep.
I just remember on that Sunday back in
September 30 years ago certainly playing John
Cook who is a very dear friend and a kid that I've
grown up playing golf against, to have won the
U.S. Amateur definitely got me started in the right
direction, especially beating the best amateur
player in the country, which was John.
So it was kind of a dream come true then
and it will be 30 years now that come to pass, and
look at what's happened to a guy that grew up in
Mission Viejo Country Club washing cars and
picking up the range. I got, I've been very blessed.
Let's put it that way. I had my ups and downs, but
the game has been very tremendous to me and I
feel very, very fortunate still at 52 to be competing
and very playing a very humbling game I might
point out.
Q. What do you remember most about
that match with John Cook?
MARK O'MEARA: What I remember most
was John was very favored over me, which I tried
to use that as an advantage because he was
coming off of a 1978 U.S. Amateur win trying to
win back to back, and so I looked at it I was the
underdog. And especially John being an Ohio boy,
going to Ohio State, growing up down there in
Columbus, I felt like, ,well why put any more
pressure on me, if I lose, I'm losing to the best
amateur at the time. So it wasn't that big a deal.
And I got off to a slow start, I think I was
3-down after five, something like that. And then I
rallied to where I had a 2-up lead after nine. And
then I started making a bunch of birdies, making a
bunch of putts. Like I said, it was a drizzly day,
kind of a wet, fall day. And next thing you know I
was 8-up going up the ninth hole over here, the
par-5, which was our 27th hole, and it looked like I
had a chance maybe to win nine, because he had
driven it in the rough.
And I was thinking to myself, gosh, if I win
this hole I'm nine up with nine to go. If I lose this
thing it will be the biggest collapse in the history of
the U.S. Amateur. But that's the way that the mind
works sometimes.
I thought, no, no, no, just one shot at a
time, stay in the moment. And we parred nine, I
was eight up with nine, he birdied 10, I birdied 11
and he made bogey and I won 8-7. So it was a,
obviously it was a good day for me, I felt bad for
John, but he had a U.S. Amateur under his belt, so
I think he felt like, hey, if he couldn't win, he was
glad his buddy won. And I would feel the same
way about him.
KELLY ELBIN: How many times have you
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been back here since?
MARK O'MEARA: A couple times. I came
back for the 25th anniversary, the members here at
Canterbury were really great to me to give me an
honorary membership.
Not that I come to
Cleveland and play golf a lot in my time off, but the
club has got so much history to it on this golf
course and having Major Championships here. It's
a classic golf course, it requires you to do
everything. It requires you to drive the ball well, be
very accurate with your iron shots into the greens,
try and keep the ball below the hole. And the
greens are a very good test because they're very
speedy and they're kind of undulated, so you got to
be very aware of that at all times when you're out
there on the putting greens putting.
there and play the best you can and hopefully you
come out on top.
For me, I played reasonably well when I
came out my first year on the Champions Tour and
I didn't get a victory and haven't won yet. Last year
was a struggle, but this year I'm doing a lot better,
I'm hitting the ball better, Bruce Davidson is back
here, he's been helping me since last fall. He's the
Director of Golf at River Oak and he helps Keith
Fergus and he's played well this year winning two
two tournaments. I've come close a couple of
teams and hopefully this week I can play well and
be in contention come Sunday.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record, Mark has
tied for second twice in Champions Tour events
thus far this year.
Q. A young guy who you've had some
influence on, I think his name is Tiger Woods,
always talks about he has memories of
Firestone, how much he loves the track, old
school, everything is in front of you, tree-lined
fairways, do you feel a little bit that way about
Canterbury and courses like it?
MARK O'MEARA: I do. But it's difficult in
today's era of golf where they got quite huge
galleries and corporate hospitalities to get
everybody to fit. Especially parking on some of
these golf courses. But I think any player who
plays the game certainly would not shy away from
a golf course like this. Where it makes you play.
Q. Is the difference this year that you're
more settled mentally, you got your edge there,
things are better in your life?
MARK O'MEARA: Yeah, it's pretty well
documented that I had kind of kept it quiet, but
when you go through a divorce it's not a lot of fun.
It wasn't really in the media, a lot of the people in
the media were very gracious to me. And I was
married for almost 29 years and when you go
through a situation that I went through, I'm not
going to lie, that that didn't have a huge impact on
my life. It beat me up pretty good.
So now I'm engaged, I got a new lady in
my life, she's phenomenal, I have some certainty
there in my personal life. My kids understand.
Everybody understands that I'm moving on. You
got to move forward. You can't really look at the
past any more. And I got to look forward to my
future and I'm excited about that.
When you have stability in your personal
life, off the course, it's a little easier to be focused
on the course. When there's instability in your
personal life, it's really tough to be focused trying
to play this game. Especially when you've been
doing it for 30 years. I've been doing it a long time.
Q. One final or one follow-up on the '79
question. Every year the U.S. Amateur has a
good field. But if you look back at that field
with full benefit of hindsight that was a really
good field.
MARK O'MEARA: Right.
Q. Does that make with full benefit -MARK O'MEARA: It made it even more
special for sure. When you look at the guys who
had had played in the U.S. Amateur in '79 and
quite a few of them have turned pro and had nice
careers. So to know that I had won, because
there's a lot of luck going to win the U.S. Amateur
besides skill. It takes quite a bit of skill, but
certainly you can go out and shoot 3 or 4-under
and play reasonably well in a match and get
knocked off.
So there's -- like winning any golf
tournament, unless you're like Tiger who wins by
18, that probably doesn't take a lot of luck there,
but a lot of times you got to just kind of hang in
Q. Is it almost like you're making a real
start now on the Champions Tour?
MARK O'MEARA: I think so. I would say
that last three or four years have been kind of a
blur and not the greatest, but now it's nice to see,
with the help of Bruce, certainly and seeing some
better signs, I'm not there yet, but I would say I'm
90 percent there.
Confidence is a huge thing in this game.
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Confidence comes from hitting better shots and
believing in yourself. I'm starting to see some of
those things come that way. So it's exciting.
Q. Is this kind of a flip-flop on the
pressure when you first went on PGA TOUR
younger guys are considered to wait their time,
kind of learn what the TOUR is like before they
win. Guys who come off the Regular Tour, they
get here at 50 you think, well they have got an
advantage.
MARK O'MEARA: Some the of the guys
have. Some of the guys who were playing well
when they're 47, 48, 49, Jay Haas, Loren Roberts,
Kenny Perry coming out pretty soon or maybe
even Fred.
For me I wasn't playing that great when I
was 47, my last win was in 2004 in Dubai, I was 47
years old. So it's almost like for me it's been more
of a motivational thing and being a little more
committed and I have. When you work a little bit
harder and you see some results it's a little easier
to be a little more positive.
But you got to give guys the credit out
here. They play extremely well. They're still very,
very competitive.
The scoring -- granted the
courses might not be as long as the Regular Tour,
but Oak Hill last year it was setup a couple tees
maybe two or three tees were up a tee further but
rough was just as deep as any Open or any PGA
Championship regular that I played on.
So the golf courses are still pretty
competitive and this is no exception here at
Canterbury this week. So I dearly want to win, but
I can't force it. I got to let it kind of come to me and
be patient and right now I'm trying to do that.
Q. How do you take advantage this
week of the good memories from the U.S.
Amateur, it was a long time ago, but is there
anything you can do in your game or your
preparations to kind of bring back that good
feel?
MARK O'MEARA: It was 30 years ago, so
I'm 52, you start forgetting a lot of those memories,
but, yeah, to know that you've won on a golf
course is definitely an advantage. It's a plus. But
on the other hand, I think that that event certainly
is different than this event. This is a stroke play,
that was match play. You tend to play match play
events a little more different than you would a
medal play event.
But here for me I know the key for me is to
do and work on the things that we have been
working on, and try to keep the ball in the fairway
and putt well. If I do those two things then there's
no reason why I shouldn't have a good
tournament.
Q. I don't know how much you've
played with Bernhard this year.
MARK O'MEARA: I have.
Q.
But he's having obviously a
marvelous year. Can you talk about his game
and how he really hasn't seemed to miss much
of a beat, has he?
MARK O'MEARA: No, he's stayed in very
good physical shape.
I know he complains
sometimes about his back, I look at him I'm like,
man the guy's body fat must be about 10 or 12
percent. He looks like he could be a track and field
guy. He looks super conditioned.
He's still very highly competitive. Very
methodical in his game and his approach. And
he's just scored well. He drives it pretty straight,
he chips it well, he putts it good. I played in the
final round at the Liberty Legends with Nick Price
and we played with him and Lehman and the guys,
even though they might be 52, like we have always
said, we feel a little older, maybe, but the golf ball
just doesn't know how old you are. You're only as
old as you want to feel you're old.
So I just look at him and winning breeds
winning. You win one, you win two, you get a taste
of it, it's a little bit easier to continue on that path.
So knows he's done it, he's got the confidence to
do it he'll play well here this week.
KELLY ELBIN: You've been 7th in right
now in greens in regulation, is that the iron play
been kind of the key to your playing better this
year?
MARK O'MEARA: I think there's just some
things that I was a little bit lost with my swing for
about a year and a half and I was just confidence
wasn't there. And certainly some of the things that
Bruce and I have been working on and Bruce
recommended me to go see Hank and I saw Hank
again this December so Hank's been watching me
a little bit, that brings back some good memories.
But living in Houston now and being right
there at River Oaks and being able to practice
there and they have the kind of a TPI setup with
the video and that, I have a clearer picture of what
I need to do in my swing to become a better player.
If that makes sense. Even at 52, you never, I know
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it's sometimes in golf it seems like you just borrow
it for awhile, and then you lose it most of the time,
so the whole process is kind of understanding
where you're faults lie or where your mistakes lie
and try to work around those. And right now I got a
clearer picture of what I need to do to hit a better
golf shot and that's a big plus.
Q. You said winning breeds winning, is
that part of what happened in '98?
MARK O'MEARA: I think a little bit. But I
also would tell you that in '98 when I went to
Augusta I was not hitting it well, I wasn't very
confident, I wasn't putting well. So I lowered my
expectations. Sometimes when you do that it
takes a little of the pressure off. The pressure kind
of builds when -- that's why Tiger, what he
continues to do is pretty amazing. He continues to
win with the ultimate pressure on him all the time.
For me, I just, at 41, you know, I thought
maybe my time had passed me by and next thing
you know there I was birdied three of the last four
holes at Augusta to win. Played well at the Open
Championship at Birkdale later that year, won the
playoff. I think winning the Masters helped me
have an edge in that playoff. And then finished
third at the PGA Championship at Sahalee. So it
was a dream year.
But it was one of those years that was kind
of the icing on top of the cake for me you might
say. I tried to take full advantage of it, bask in the
glory of being Player of the Year and especially in
the Tiger Woods era, to have him put the green
jacket on me and the people know that our
relationship is very, very close, so I think that a lot
of the success I had late was in direct correlation
being around Tiger Woods.
He pushed me
motivated me, so it definitely was a benefit for me.
Q. Did he kind of give you a sense of
possibility too?
MARK O'MEARA: He always asks me
why, why I hadn't won a Major. And I said listen,
I'm not, you know, I don't know, I've come close,
but I consider myself a very good player, I've had a
nice career, but sometimes I guess maybe just
applying too much pressure on myself at a big
tournament instead of just trying to be focused on
doing it the way I know how to do it and giving
myself the opportunities.
Because when I did have chances to win
on the PGA TOUR I usually got it done. So I took
a lot of pride in that. But it just never really
materialized in a Major Championship until '98.
Q. The issue of Majors, have you
noticed a difference in your approach and your
anticipation for senior Majors, you got the
Senior Open coming up-MARK O'MEARA:
A little bit, the
Champions Tour is still, you know, I believe in golf
you play for your pride. I know there's money
being involved here, I know there's trophies
involved here, I know there's championships. But
a golfer like myself is kind of plays for my pride. I
know where I should be and where I would like to
be and when I'm not there I'm not really pleased
with myself.
So that's the driving, really the motivating
force that I have is to try to continue to get better.
You're either getting better or you're getting worse
and for awhile I was getting worse. Now I'm
getting better.
Q. Whether it's here or Crooked Stick
or any other sites of the Champions Tour
Majors this year -MARK O'MEARA: The Majors definitely
have a little more pressure. Even here. Because
they're run at a higher quality, there's more
galleries, there's, it would be very nice to win any
tournament on the Champions Tour, let alone a
Major, but I believe in my heart that people are
going to remember Mark O'Meara for winning the
Masters in '98, making the putt on 18 and then
winning The Open Championship.
So not to disregard how great it would be
to win out here, but it's just, I feel lucky that, at 52,
to still be playing a game that I dearly love, even
though it's one of the most frustrating humbling,
beat you up type of games, to still be able to be
competitive and play at the ultimate level is
tremendous. So I feel fortunate for that. And so
this week go out there I've had good preparation,
just try to stay in the moment and do the best I can.
KELLY ELBIN: Mark O'Meara, thank you
very much.
MARK O'MEARA: Thank you.
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