Mark O'Meara - Part 2 (Early PGA Tour Wins)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Just for our listeners, just to kind of recap as far as the chronology here is Mark O'Mear winning the uh winning the U.S. amateur uh in the summer of of 79. He gets to play in the Masters, a qualify was to play in the Masters U.S. Open. So he plays the Masters with uh with the defending champion and uh and uh tees it up with Fuzzy Zeller and then uh and then gets to tee it up with the defending champion of the U.S. Open, Hale Irwin, and the and the uh um the open champion from Litham the year before, Sevi by a stars, but Sevy had just won the Masters too, hadn't he? He had. So he was on he was on a pretty good run as a as a 22 or 23-year-old. Yeah.

Mark O'Meara 0:55

Uh needless to say, it was pretty intimidating. Oh no question.

Mike Gonzalez 0:59

Well, I'm sure we'll talk some more about Sevy later, but uh but uh then you go to fall tour school 1980 and and and off you go, as you said, with uh just week to week uh grinding it out. Uh let me just recap a little bit for our for our listeners in terms of the professional career. Um 33 professional wins for Marco Mira, uh 16 PGA Tour victories, five wins on the European Tour, three senior PGA tour wins as well.

Bruce Devlin 1:25

And a major what's a major, a major on the senior too.

Mike Gonzalez 1:30

Oh yeah, yeah, and uh and uh rank second was his highest ranking, I think, world ranking in 1998, nearly 200 weeks in the top ten. Very well traveled, having one on four continents. Uh and so uh relative to the PGA tour, we'll talk a little bit about sort of year by year. I want to talk about some of your your your other wins before we talk about the majors. But Mark uh had a wonderful year in '98, uh won two majors that year, the Masters and the Open Championship at Burkdale. He was the player of the year that year on the PGA tour. And uh just had a fantastic season. But uh as you mentioned, uh you you titled off to the GMO, the Greater Milwaukee Open, which is I I spent a little time in Milwaukee years ago and in 1984 at Tuckaway.

unknown 2:22

Yep.

Mike Gonzalez 2:22

Dispatched uh young Tom Watson.

Mark O'Meara 2:25

Yeah. I mean it was and I and I was paired with him on Saturday and Sunday. So to be able to you know, certainly, Mike, to get your first win playing alongside a superstar like that was very rewarding. And and and to be fair, Tom is an intimidating guy. He's a heck of a player, we know that. But he was great. He was gracious after I won. He he shook my hand, he says, Mark, congratulations. This is probably you know one of many more to come. And you know, I never forgot that.

Bruce Devlin 2:54

Yeah, that's great of him to do that.

Mike Gonzalez 2:56

So, what else do you remember about that first win?

Mark O'Meara 3:01

I remember that I was staying with my mom and dad. They were living in a little town just west of Milwaukee, um, in Delafield outside of McGuanago, and I was staying there with my folks, and at that time Alicia and I were looking for a home, our really first nice home, um, which wasn't really that nice, but it was nice. And so relevant. We know we'd found this house in Escondido, uh, California, just north of San Diego and the inland corridor there, and it was really we were excited, we thought we could we wanted to buy it. It was maybe I can't remember how much it was, maybe$200,000 or whatever,$230,000. And I remember sitting with my father and we've been talking to the real estate people and this and that. This was the week of the GMO at Tuckaway in 84. And my dad looked over at me, he's like, you know, Mark, let me tell you, son, he goes, You should just buy it because you'll figure out a way to pay for it. And I'm like, God, you know, you always make you always make it so sound so simple. I just wasn't that simple. So then we decided before the tournament started that we were gonna pull the trigger and and and buy this house. And and we did, and then we won the tournament and fifty-four thousand dollars. So that helped with the down payment with the chance to go ahead and you know do it. Yeah, that's great. Great story.

Mike Gonzalez 4:25

Great history with that tournament, too. We've talked to several of the winners uh uh remembering uh there wasn't a there must wasn't much purse appreciation in that tournament for a very specific reason. I think they tried paying about 40 grand back in 70 or so when uh when Stockton won it as an attraction to keep players in the States from going to to the British Open, which that that year only paid 14,000 the same week we paid 40 at the GMO. But uh then I think the tournament went into hawk a little bit to uh to kind of cover some of those bills and I actually think that decreased the purse before getting it back up to the level that you won at you know the purse is back then, uh as Bruce knows.

Mark O'Meara 5:07

I mean, look, we we we we played for$300,000. I mean, that that was the overall purse. So, you know, we didn't we didn't know any different. I mean, when that was a lot of money for us back then, you know, and and many times I've told people, and Bruce would know this. I mean, uh, I think my rookie year, third of the tournaments that I played on on the PJ Tour, I paid for range balls at the golf courses that that we played our tournaments at. There was no courtesy cars, there was no corporate hospitality, right? There was nothing like it is today, and and good on the way the game has changed and what the players are experiencing, and and the way that the purses have have gone much, much higher, and the social media and all the other things that that come with this that helped push the game, you know, it's awesome to see.

Mike Gonzalez 5:53

Yeah, so Bruce, when you started, I suspect you probably brought your own range balls.

Bruce Devlin 6:00

I believe that at one point in time we did bring our own range balls, and we had the caddy go out there and and hit golf balls with the caddy. Now, I wouldn't have liked to have been a caddy back in those days, I don't think. But uh yeah, well, look, as Mark says, times have changed with this wonderful game, but uh I think it's changed for the better. I think we see uh we see the game in great hands today, Mark. I think uh a lot of these great young players uh you know that know their way around how to get the press on their side. I think they're doing a hell of a job.

Mark O'Meara 6:36

Yeah, it's not easy, Bruce. I mean, certainly it's different from the standpoint that all the things that come with with the way the game has grown, you know, but the the best thing I see is the amount of young people playing the game, men, women, children, young ladies playing the game, girls getting involved in a game that that they can play for a lifetime. And you know, I know everybody always has aspirations, as you and I both did, to be a professional and to try to compete and make a living and play the game at the highest level. But on the other hand, no matter whether you do or you don't, I mean, what other sport, you know, can you really play for the longevity of your life and the amount of friends that you meet and all the different walks of life, the business activity that could possibly happen on the golf course? There's just so many things that that sets our game apart from all the other sports. No doubt about it.

Mike Gonzalez 7:27

So let's move on to 1985, and I've got to ask you the obvious question. What is it about the Bing Crosby National Pro Am and Mark O'Marrant?

Mark O'Meara 7:36

Well, uh, you know, one time somebody told me, hey, that you know, there's a the trivia, there's a game called Trivia Pursuit. I'm like, oh yeah, I've heard of it. And they said, well, we just pulled up a question, and it was who was the last player to win the Bing Crosby National Pro Am? And so my sister, obviously, she knew, and they somebody called her and said, Hey, you know that Mark is on the trivia pursuit um question. And so that was kind of fun. And and the fact that, you know, Bruce has been around there, has played Pebble so many times, like I had. And I I truly believe that when you play a golf course and you've had past success and went in the state amateur there in 79 as a senior in college, um, there's no place prettier than the Monterey Peninsula. And Pebble Beach, uh, you know, obviously it's my favorite course just because it would have been my favorite course if I hadn't really won many times there. But you're you're right. Like I don't I don't know what the reason is. Everybody always asked me that. Um I remember one year playing there, and I was playing with Ben Crinshaw on the Pro Am, and the fact that you get to play alongside your amateur is tremendous. And we were on the uh fourth T one time, and somebody in a spectator yelled out, Omera, you own this place. And I looked up at the gun and I backed away. Crenshaw was standing there. I'm like, no, no, no. I tell you what, if I did own this place, I certainly wouldn't be playing the golf as a professional golfer anymore.

Bruce Devlin 9:06

So yeah, you your love was so great that in '85, '89, '90, '92, and '97, you uh championed it Pebble Beach. That's quite a record, Mark.

Mark O'Meara 9:23

Yeah, thanks, Bruce. I mean, you know, you always dream as a pro golfer winning on these classic golf courses. And certainly Pebble Beach is known around the world as one of the best golf courses in the world. So to just win there one time would have been a dream come true, let alone, you know, the five times. I won the Crosby Pro Am in '84 with my amateur partner, you know, winning the California State Amateur in 79. So a lot of people say, oh, you know, you won there five times. I'm like, no, not really. I've kind of won like seven times there.

Mike Gonzalez 9:56

I'll ask you a question that I know the answer to. Uh, if you could trade in those seven wins for uh one of the three U.S. Open wins there that you uh competed at, which one would you take?

Mark O'Meara 10:08

Well, I I mean, I would take the U.S. Open win for sure. I mean, that would be a dream come true. Any major championship, it's hard to compare uh, you know, winning a tournament a numerous amount of times and and taking those over the fact that you could win one of the four majors. So I mean a major, and Bruce and I would we would always say that that's something you would want.

Mike Gonzalez 10:29

Yeah, how much different uh was the setup at Pebble Beach for those three, I think three US opens you competed at there versus uh the setup typically for the Crosby.

Mark O'Meara 10:39

Oh it was huge. Um you know, the rough is is extremely thick and deep. Uh the greens are much firmer. Uh it's a different time of the year when we usually play the Crosby, and now the ATT Pebble Beach Pro Am, it was always, you know, earlier in the year the course was soft. It was usually the only thing you had to worry about, you know, was the wet conditions and the rain. But you can never compare the way a major championship course like a US Open is set up compared to a regular tour event. It's completely different.

Mike Gonzalez 11:09

And did you have a regular partner there or did you play with a lot of different amateur partners over the years?

Mark O'Meara 11:15

I think the first year, a few years I had um the same amateur partner. In fact, 84, I I I played with a gentleman named Jack Diesel, who was the chairman of the board of Teneco, which was a big oil and gas company out of Houston, and a guy named Gary McLaughlin who was tight with Mr. Hogan because I turned pro in Hogan's office in the fall of '80, and I represented the Hogan company. They wanted me to play with Mr. uh uh Mr. Diesel. So I was paired with Jack. And in '84, we made the cut and we were playing well, and and I was playing well. We came down the stretch and we were on the last hole, the 18th hole, very famous, as we all know, along the ocean there. And if we make Birdie as a team, we tie for first in the Pro Am division of the clam bake. And I needed to make Birdie to tie a guy named Jim Nelford who was in the clubhouse, Canadian player, very good choir. Um and so we both hit our drives, and I hit an okay one down the fairway, and so did Jack, and I helped him all along and laid up and then he hit a seven hour on the green. I hit it about 14 feet. So if I make Birdie, I tie for first individually. If we make Birdie, and I'm thinking, you know, Jack uh obviously gets a stroke and he hits the green, he's got about a 40-footer, and I'm over there lining up his pot, helping him, blah, blah, blah. And I walk away, and I thought to myself, if he two putts this, it'll be a miracle. And he and he made it for a birdie for a Netty Eagle, and he jumped on me and hugged me and was like, We just won the Masters. But he didn't realize, you know, I hadn't won yet on the tour, and I had this 14-footer. And earlier that year I had left one short and lost in a playoff at Phoenix at Phoenix Country Club. So I thought if I ever have a chance to win on the PJ tour again, I'm not leaving it short. And of course, you know, I run upon two and a half, three feet, and I three putted. So uh I finished third, but then the next year I came back and I played with Jack again and I won individually. So, and we made the cut. And then it was time, you know, I asked my father. I might play with my father in '86. Um, we made the cut. Um, we had a good time. It was a dream come true to be able to play with my dad in a setting like that. And then after that was just a one, I thought it was a one and done deal. And then after I'd won, as as Bruce pointed out in '89, I invited my father to come and play with me again in '90. And we played together and we made the cut again. And then I played alongside my father on Sunday, and we're in the final group, and I went on to win the tournament individually in '90 with my dad right alongside me. So, you know, there's no greater thing than number one, playing golf with one of your children.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

Yeah.

Mark O'Meara 13:49

Andor, you know, watching your children have some kind of success. And certainly that was one of the ultimate highs for me and all of things that have happened to me in this great game of golf. Playing alongside my father and winning at Pebble Beach was as good as it gets. Yeah.

Bruce Devlin 14:05

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 14:05

That's I'm sure the ch the tournament changed a bit over the years, you know, from the Crosby days to then ATT and more of a corporate uh sort of feel. Uh, did you take full advantage of all the early fun in those early years with uh uh you know some of the celebs and so forth?

Mark O'Meara 14:22

Oh, yeah. You know, I mean I played with Jack Lemon and Peter Jacobson a bunch, and then I played with Ken Griffey Jr. as my partner a few years. Um one year I played with Tiger, and Tiger was paired with, you know, his father, Earl, and I played with the chairman of the board for many years, a guy named uh Bob Allen, who was the chairman of the board at ATT back then, he was a very close friend. He became my partner. We played together probably five or six times uh in the tournament. So, you know, I think those relationships that you make out there and the fact that it was such a unique event, and everybody always wanted to play, you know, back in the day with the clambake with Bing, Crosby, and you know, you look at all the guys played, all the entertainers played, and that's what makes it unique from this standpoint. You've got maybe people in the sports world that want to play, people in the political world, the entertainment world. I mean, it's uh in the business world, so the connections and the people you get to meet were were fantastic.

Mike Gonzalez 15:22

Yeah. Bruce, I know you had fun with your regular partner there.

Bruce Devlin 15:25

Yeah, I had uh I played with Dean Martin for ten years, which was a lot of fun. There you go. There you go. Yeah. It was uh you know, you you sort of you like you said earlier, Mark, you know, you sort of dream about things like that, you know. I mean, how would you how would you get to play with a guy like him for ten years, you know? And it was like uh he became like a brother, really, you know. Uh yeah, you never forget those things, Bruce. No, you don't, you can't forget them. Anyhow, that was uh that was a great time. Uh and you mentioned about Pebble Beach being one of the great golf courses in the world. There's absolutely no doubt about that. It's it's you know, everybody always asks you, what's you know, what's your favorite golf course in the world? I always include Pebble Beach in my top five. Uh so you know it's ranked very high with a lot of players. For sure.

Mike Gonzalez 16:19

So you can imagine, Marcus, we've been doing this over the last few months. Uh I start pulling these stories out of Mr. Devlin, you know. Uh and and I will tell you that when it comes to Dean Martin and the rat pack, and some of the stuff I'm sure he saw and participated in and witnessed, some of that stuff maybe will remain buried forever. I don't know. Yeah, we gotta be a little careful. Mr. Gloria may be listening. But you guys had some fun, Bruce. I mean, you talked about uh going down and and playing uh riv or whatever uh to get ready uh beforehand with him and with his buddies, and that had to be a blast.

Bruce Devlin 16:59

Yeah, that was great. I used to go out uh I used to go out to uh Riviera each year and play with Dean and a guy by the name of Artie Anderson and a couple other guys, and one of Dean's good friends, a guy by the name of Lou Rosanova. You may have met him, I don't know if you did at all. I knew Lou. You knew Lou, I'm sure you did. So uh I mean we'd play golf, you know, might be eight of us, twelve of us, whatever. We'd play golf at Riviera, and then we'd go have dinner somewhere. And uh it was it was a great way to get ready for a golf tournament. I always enjoyed that a lot.

Mike Gonzalez 17:32

Well, what a what a fun tournament. Even as a fan like myself, watching it over the years and seeing uh Bing and and Phil Harris, and uh uh you may not know, but uh our intro music mark that will play in front of your episode will be Bing Crosby straight down the middle.

Mark O'Meara 17:48

Yeah, that's perfect. That's a you know, Clint, you know, look at Clint Eastwood, you know, the legend that he is and what he's meant to that Monterey Peninsula. You know, it's it's it's it's a it was the it was the invitation that you always look for, yeah, you know, to be able to play in the old clam bake or now the ATT Pebble Beach Pro Am. And you know, I I a couple years ago when when Phil won for his fifth time, um, I remember calling him and congratulating him. And I also remember telling him, hey, listen, bro, next year if you're playing really good and you're coming down the stretch, it's okay if you go on to go ahead and peel into the ocean. You don't need to win anymore. You've won five times now. There's only one other guy that's done that. So don't don't you don't need to take away, you know, just stop. It's okay.

Mike Gonzalez 18:30

Records aren't necessarily made to be broken, are they?

Mark O'Meara 18:34

Especially not at Pebble Beach.

Mike Gonzalez 18:37

Well, that that first one in 1985 was by one over Curtis Strange, Lee Rinker, and Kakuo arrived from Japan, huh?

Mark O'Meara 18:46

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's not a name I remember. No, that was a long time ago, too. And I think when I won there in 85, it was interesting because on Friday it was the deadline to commit for the next week. And I had played in Hawaii a few times, but I wasn't a big fan of going across. And I I and I was playing okay, I guess, in 85. So I decided on Friday I'd go ahead and commit for the Hawaiian Open in Hawaii, and and then I go on to to win the Crosby in '85, and I think I won$90,000, which obviously is a lot of money back then. And then I went across to to the Hawaiian Open and won the next week, and won at Hawaii and won another$90,000. So, you know, the story goes, um, after I'd won at Pebble, the week I was over in Hawaii, the golf world came out, and my dad got it. And, you know, it's just funny how my my father, you know, he he would always say, Hey, um, I know you made this and you won that or whatever. But I saw that other box over there in the corner, Team Omera, you know, Omera won, you know, six thousand dollars. So I'm like, yeah. And he goes, Well, when are you gonna send me this$3,000? Yeah, where's my talk? I'm like, Dad, you know, you can't you can't accept prize money. You're an amateur. And he goes, No, no. He goes, I'm turning pro. So go ahead and send me the 3K.

Mike Gonzalez 20:04

Well, by then the the house was probably paid off or or you had upgraded one of the two.

Mark O'Meara 20:09

No, it was yeah, no, it wasn't paid off, but I I tried. I'm not a big guy that I likes to have, I'm a guy that likes to have no debt. So after a few years, I played well enough to be able to pay down the debt on that house. So and we lived there until 89, so we were there for about four and a half years, and then that's when we moved out of California and went to Florida.

Mike Gonzalez 20:29

Yeah. So so back to back in 85, that was a victory by one over Craig Stadler. And uh uh our listeners might remember two years prior to that, that's the year that a Saw Aoki slammed one for Eagle, right? Yep. To beat Jack Renner. Jack Renner by a shot. Yeah. I'll never forget that one.

Bruce Devlin 20:46

So who was doing the television that day?

Mark O'Meara 20:50

Well, that would have been you, Mr. Devlin.

Bruce Devlin 20:52

Yeah, we were it was it was pretty amazing, you know, and you see him hacking it out of that left side of the 18, the damn ball going right in the hole. I mean, well, I nearly fell out of the tower.

Mark O'Meara 21:04

Especially when Jack had no idea he's in the scorers topic. Yeah, no idea. You know, I'm gonna win, no problem. And then it's not I'm not even in a playoff anymore. No. But it was kudos to Jack Renner because he came back and won the next year. He did.

Bruce Devlin 21:17

That's right, right.

Mike Gonzalez 21:17

Yeah, very exactly right.

Bruce Devlin 21:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good thing.

Mark O'Meara 21:21

See, Mike, even us, Mike, even us old guys can remember some of this stuff. Some of that stuff, yeah. But you know, Mike, a little trivia question would be, and and Bruce would know this, and we'll see, Mike, if you you get this. It's quite an honor to have a green jacket. But you know what else I'm extremely proud of? Is I have a gold jacket. And you know what that is, Mike? Can you think of what a gold jacket is? I know Bruce knows. All right, time's up. The Australian Masters. Oh my god. Gold jacket. Isn't that right, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 21:55

Correct. And you have a uh I believe you have another jacket. Don't you have a plaid jacket? Didn't you? Did no I never wanted to be a big one. I lost one.

Mark O'Meara 22:06

I lost a langer one there that year. But um the gold jacket was fun because I I held off a guy named David Graham.

SPEAKER_04 22:16

Yeah.

Mark O'Meara 22:16

Who was as Bruce knows, I mean, lucky we we went into the Hall of Fame in the same class together in 15. So David was he was as good or the best competitor, right? Bulldog. The dog.

Bruce Devlin 22:30

The dog. A bulldog.

Mike Gonzalez 22:33

And Mark, you can appreciate this, but David Graham was our guest number one.

Mark O'Meara 22:38

There you go.

Mike Gonzalez 22:39

And we did that one down in Dallas in person with him and Bruce. And uh, of course, a lot of fun because you know Bruce was like a big brother to him.

Mark O'Meara 22:49

Yeah, no, no, for sure.

Bruce Devlin 22:52

Yeah, it was fun. It's been a it's been a fun ride, Mark. Thank you, you know. Thank you again for being with us. It's just man.

Mark O'Meara 23:01

Well, it's it's it's easy when you're around classy people, and I put you at the top of the list on that, Mr. Deviland.

Bruce Devlin 23:07

Thank you, sir. So after Hawaiian Open, uh you had a little bit of a little bit of an off spell there for a while. You didn't sort of uh what happened?

Mark O'Meara 23:19

You know, that's what what happens in this game, you know. I think what what happened was is that uh you know, you you can't rest on your laurels, right? You you have moments where you go through these peaks and valleys, and certainly 85 was a peak, and then I had a little bit of a valley there at 86. I I remember playing in the Ryder Cup in 85, that was my first Ryder Cup, and I wasn't very good. I mean, I was intimidated, I didn't play that well. I always felt like team competition was a lot different, and I tended to put more pressure on myself. Um, and then in 87 I started to find my game a little bit more again. But yeah, I mean that there's been a number of times in my career where I've had some peaks and valleys, and and that's not unheard of. But that's you know, my take would be is look, you usually improve the most, whether it's in your professional life, your personal life, business life, whatever. In your downtimes, that's when you grow the most. You don't grow the most when everything's going your way, right? When you're winning or you're playing good, you know, life is kind of easy, but you really seem to to grow a lot more, you know, when you're struggling. It's not fun to struggle, but you tend to get to the other side and appreciate it even more when you do break through. True.

Mike Gonzalez 24:32

Were any of the times when you were fighting the sort of the lulls in your game? Uh did any of that relate to any physical issues?

Mark O'Meara 24:40

No, no, I've been blessed. Like I never swung the golf ball that hard, so I never really had uh many you know injury setbacks that that held me back from the game. You know, even at this stage where I'm 64, almost 65 years of age, knock on wood, I mean I I I feel all right. I mean, I I don't have a lot of issues when it comes to the physical side of playing the game. You know, certainly there's times where as we get older, mentally, you know, you're focused or this or that. Um, and even in the this this break that I've had for the last you know two months or so, I I've played one round of golf. You know, I haven't been I don't worry about it as much, I don't let it beat me up as much. Um, my desire to go out there and and practice isn't that high right now because there's really nothing to practice for. So but you still like to play. Yeah, I do, you know, like uh I mean I do. Um, but the thing is, is I have so many other hobbies. There's so many other things that I love to do outside this great game that uh, you know, when it the those seasons come around, you know, that's where I want to be. And it it's it's a great um reminder of the fact that you know you if you get away from the game and you have other hobbies, I think when you come back you're so much more refreshed.

Mike Gonzalez 25:56

Yeah, good point. Well, you got back in the winner's circle in 1989, so I guess uh uh boy, if you need a victory, just go play Pebble and uh and then do it back to back.

Mark O'Meara 26:09

Yeah, well, you know what happens once again. I mean, we're coming down the stretch, it's not easy to win. You're nervous. There's players that are playing really well right around you. I think that the my self-talk, I'll always remember this. My self-talk on the back nine at Pebble Beach was always, you know, hey, MO, you've done this before. You can do it again. That's what I kept telling myself. And that doesn't mean everybody's gonna lie down and let you win. You're gonna go out there and have to get the deal done. You're gonna have to hit the shots and you're gonna have to make the putts, and you're gonna have to win. And I always putted well around Pebble because I grew up on Poanna Greens.

Mike Gonzalez 26:45

Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of guys struggle with those greens, didn't they? For sure. Yeah, so you've been a real real good player in Tom Kite that year by one. Came back the next year, won it again uh by two over Kenny Perry. And as you mentioned, you had your your dad as your final round partner in that one, didn't you?

Mark O'Meara 27:00

Yep. Yep, it was special. I mean, it was so good. I just can't even tell you. I remember playing the last hole we were on the tee, and I needed to make a par to win. And my father, uh, who hit I always back in the olden days, as Bruce will remember, I mean, we we played from like the same T's. You know, we we didn't have like all these different T fit configurations. And I always let my dad hit first, and you know, he always hit it pretty straight or a little fade. One time he was a decent player, he was a six or five handicap. And by now he was you know in his late 70s or 76, 72, whatever my dad was. And he'd he was about 14, 15 handicapped, and he got up on the 18th T and hit this low snap hook right in the ocean right in front of me. And I remember he he was picking his tee up and he looked up and he's like, God, that wasn't a good time to hit one like that, was it? I know dad, just move over here and side. And I hung on for dear life uh with my tee shot, and I got it down the fairway and we're walking off the tee, and he's like, What do you think I should do, son? I'm like, Well, Pops, we're not gonna win the team. I said, All I need to do is party's yeah, just put your ball in your pocket, enjoy the sunset. You know, it's on CBS, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he looked over, he goes, You know, that's the best damn advice you've given me all week long, son. And so he did. You know, I won and gave him a hug and a kiss on the 18th green. And yeah, it was special. Yeah, yeah. Great.

Mike Gonzalez 28:24

Great memories. Uh so sometime later that year went down to Texas, and uh uh I'm sure Bruce knows this Texas-based grocer that sponsored that tournament, H E B, that was named after uh founded by Florence Butt, but named for her son Howard E. Butt, uh fairly famous grocer in uh Texas that that sponsored that tournament for a while, didn't they?

Mark O'Meara 28:48

Yeah, I mean uh it was uh it was played at Oak Hill, which uh Warren Chancellor was the head pro, I think, that year when I won there. And I and even though I hadn't won that many times yet on the PJ tour, it seemed like every one that I'd always the tournaments that I did win, it was like I had to lead or I had to, you know, I never really came from behind, we'd say, or or maybe someone would mess up and you know, you kind of slip in there and get a victory or this or that. And that year I remember the last day I shot I think 64 or something like that, because I was there was quite a few players ahead of me.

Bruce Devlin 29:24

63, actually.

Mark O'Meara 29:25

Was it 63? And and I I think I beat Gary Hallberg. I think it was Gary Hallberg by a shot.

Bruce Devlin 29:30

True.

Mark O'Meara 29:31

And and I was because I was on the range and remember thinking, okay, we're gonna have a playoff and whatever. And luckily, you know, I didn't have a playoff, and I I went on to win the Texas Open that year.

Mike Gonzalez 29:41

And then uh uh next year went down to Walt Disney World, which uh that tournament back then was played at the Palm and Magnolia courses. You won by one over David Peoples.

Mark O'Meara 29:50

Yep. I remember having to make a I hit the green, I had to make par there on the last toll, which is a pretty long par four in the Magnolia course. Bruce was would have played there for sure. Yeah. Uh and I had about a I hit the green, but I had about a 45-50 foot. I left it five feet short. And I remember back then, I you know, all those victories, even when I won the two majors, I was putting with a ping answer to putter. And it was my favorite club in my bag. Obviously, it it and I remember that five-footer, I was shaking like a leaf over it. And I I and I made it, and I thought this is why I put with this putter. Because if it can make it one year, without you're that nervous, this putter is not going anywhere.

Mike Gonzalez 30:34

The next year, another victory that was your fourth victory in 1992 at the Pebble Beach Pro Am. Uh had by then the Crosby name was off of it, but that was in a playoff with Jeff Slumman.

Mark O'Meara 30:46

It was. I remember we we tied and we went, uh, I was playing my amateur partner then was was Bob Allen, who was the CEO of ATT, and he had to get on the plane and leave because he was at a board meeting back east, so he couldn't watch the playoff. And we got to the 16th hole, the first playoff hole, and we both missed the green. We didn't play very well. I chipped it down there. I think I had about a 14-footer, he had about a 15-footer, he missed. And I hit this putt from above the hole that bounced around so many different ways, it was unbelievable. I pulled it looked like it was gonna miss left, then it looked like it was gonna miss right, then it was gonna miss left, and then it bounced back to right and it went in the hole. And I went over and I apologized to Jeff Sloan because I'm like, I mean, I I've seen the video of it before, too. It was all over the place, and somehow, some way, you know, it found the hole. So it was fate that that the ball went in, but I was pretty lucky too.

Mike Gonzalez 31:40

Interesting place to start a playoff. Why 16?

Mark O'Meara 31:44

You know, that's a good question. Back then, I'm not sure. That's a that's a very good question, Mike. I I don't know. We just I know that that's the hole we went back to because I remember in '84, um, when I three plied the last hole, Hale Irwin and and and Jim Nelford went in the playoff in '84, and they went back to sixteen. And Jim Nelford, the fine player that he was and and is, um, never won on the PJ tour. And in that playoff, they went back to 16, and Hale hit a hybrid off the T or a four-wood or whatever, skied it, and he was in the cross bunker. I don't know if you remember this, Bruce. The cross bunker is only like 200 yards off the T. Yeah, it's only like 200 yards off the T. And Nelford hit a pretty good T shot. He hit it on the green. Hale Irwin hit a three-iron out of that bunker, a four-iron. It was a long iron, and he hit it a foot from the hole and made Bertie and beat Jim Nelford. And Nelly never won on the PGA tour.

Mike Gonzalez 32:38

And I can't recall now, but that uh playoff in the PGA with uh Lanny Watkins and Gene Littler where they were at least Lanny was a little bit surprised that it was sudden death instead of 18 holes. I think that was the first sudden death playoff in the PGA. I don't remember what hole they played.

Mark O'Meara 32:53

I think they went back to 18, I'm pretty sure.

Bruce Devlin 32:56

I think they went to 18. Yeah. Yep. Okay. All right. That was 77, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 33:03

So now we fast forward to 95, uh, Honda Classic at Weston Hills Golf and Country Club by one over Nick Faldo.

Mark O'Meara 33:11

I hit one of the greatest shots, Mike, of my life. When I look back, people say, hey, you know, what's the greatest shot you've ever hit? And I would tell you, because I'd had a little bit of a lull there, but that fall prior to that spring in '95 at the Honda Classic, I'd gone down to Argentina and I'd won the Argentina Open down at Buenos Aires. So that gave me a little bit of confidence, not a ton. And we played at Weston.

Mike Gonzalez 33:36

Didn't you win it by a bunch?

Mark O'Meara 33:40

No, I don't think so. I think I beat Stadler or somebody. I uh I didn't win by a lot, I don't play down Argentina. Okay. But anyway, so we come back in that spring. We're playing at Weston, uh Weston Hills in just outside of Fort Lauderdale, down there in South Florida in the Honda Classic. And on the final day, you know, I had one in a couple of years, and I'm paired in the final group with Nick Faldo. And, you know, certainly Nick's one of the greatest players at the time, and blah, blah, blah. We came to the last hole. I had a one-shot lead. And I remember on the last few holes that everybody was like pulling for Nick Faldo. I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I understand he's a great player, but he's a Brit. I'm gonna I'm a Yank, I'm an American. Come on now. And so the wind was blowing, Roger Malpe, NBC was doing the telecast, and Roger was walking uh out in the fairway, and we we it's a par five, and water all up the right, hit a good drive, laid up. We both were about the same position. I was a hundred, I'll never forget, I was I think I had a hundred and I don't know, forty-seven yards, something like that, to the flag, and the pin was kind of over by the water, and the wind was blowing 40 at least in off the right. And I remember taking out a five-iron and chipping a little held five-iron shot. And I remember looking over because Faldo was about a yard in front of me, and Roger looked over at my caddy to see what club I was hit. And he showed, you know, he flashed a five to Roger so they could say it on the telecast. And Mike, I hit this little chippy cut held up against the wind, boom, 12 feet behind the hole. And I will tell you that was one of the greatest shots I've ever hit in my lifetime. Because then Faldo, who was a yard in front of me, tried to take out a seven iron. And of course, he tried to hit it hard and bruised nose being an Aussie, it ballooned it up in the air, short and left, and I went on to win by a shot or two over Faldo. But I I I look back at that, that was a game changer for me. That shot. It's a great memory.

Mike Gonzalez 35:42

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