O’Meara Has Come Out of the Shadows and Into the Spotlight

The average weekend golfer, who considers back-to-back pars to be a monumental accomplishment, cannot relate to the recent achievements of one Mark Francis O’Meara.

The man has spent his last two weekends winning professional tournaments, first the Bing Crosby National and then the Hawaiian Open.

However, O’Meara can relate to the weekend golfer.

“This game,” he said, “can come up and get you when you think you’ve got it figured. You just can’t think that way. You can’t take anything for granted.”

O’Meara will be going for his third straight win when the Isuzu Andy Williams San Diego Open begins today at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Rather than think in terms of good things coming in groups of three, the 28-year-old from Cal State Long Beach will try to isolate the San Diego Open and insulate himself from those delicious recent memories.

“The last two weeks are over with,” he said. “I can’t dwell on them. I’m not the type to say I’m something great because I’ve won two straight tournaments. I’m another good player, and there are a lot of them out here.”

However, the galleries will pluck his name out of that pack of “good players” and accord him special attention. Not too many golf fans are likely to identify him as the man who finished second to Tom Watson in earnings in 1984, but back-to-back wins on national television will take a fellow out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

“It’s amazing,” he said, “how all these guys can play 72 holes of golf and have it all come down to one little putt on the last hole.”

O’Meara won both the Crosby and the Hawaiian by one stroke, tapping in winning putts that might have been gimmees among high-handicappers who might have missed them. In each case, the work he did on the previous 71 holes positioned him to win in less-than-dramatic fashion.

“And,” he said, “there’s a lot of luck involved. You’ve got to get the right bounces at the right time.”

In the Crosby, for example, he might have gone to that 18th hole one stroke behind but for a fortuitous brush with a pine tree on his second shot on the second hole of the last round.

“It went straight through the pine tree,” he said. “It could have hit anything and bounced anywhere. If it bounces out of bounds, it’s a different tournament. It was a very good break for me.”

Lucky breaks aside, O’Meara is essentially winning because he is striking the ball consistently well. It is the result of a total reconstruction of his swing, which began 2 1/2 years ago when he met a Houston professional named Hank Haney.

“I had put in a lot of effort and a lot of time,” O’Meara said, “but it was nothing without knowledge. I had done well, but I didn’t know anything about golf.”

O’Meara, the 1979 U.S. Amateur champion, had joined the tour in 1981 and earned $76,063 to finish 55th on the money list. However, he slipped to $31,711 and 118th in 1982. He was in a mood to listen, and Haney did the talking.

“I thought golf was tempo and timing,” he said. “That’s what you always hear. You have some problems and someone says, ‘You look too fast.’ I’ve learned that tempo and timing are the results of proper mechanics.”

Haney, a boy wonder only a year older than O’Meara, convinced his protege to abandon his upright swing and go with a more rounded arc that looks flatter than the usual tour swing.

It has worked for O’Meara. Starting basically from scratch, he earned $69,354 in 1983 and exploded to $465,873 in 1984. He is the leading money-winner in 1985 with $194,625, including $162,000 the last two weeks.

During the course of the 1984 season, O’Meara learned to play with his name at or near the top of the leader-board. He won the Greater Milwaukee Open and had five seconds and three thirds.

“I had to get worse before I could get better,” he said, “but the work with Hank started producing for me last year--especially the last half of last year. Hank Haney is very responsible for the success I’ve had.”

O’Meara came into the 1985 season hoping to maybe win a couple of tournaments, including one of the majors. It is only mid-February and he already has his two wins.

“Now,” he said, “my goal is to play well in the majors. And I’d like to make the Ryder Cup team.”

However, those goals are in the future--and the last two weeks are in the past. O’Meara’s concern is more immediate. He will take his first swing of the San Diego Open today at 11:04 on the 10th tee of the north course. And he knows he is only as good as his next swing.