Make It O’Meara Beach After He Wins His Fifth

In golf, you have something called local knowledge and Mark O’Meara knows this place like the back of his swing.

O’Meara knows every grain of sand, every blade of grass, every tree, every sea lion and every pebble at Pebble Beach.

He just has to, because there is no other explanation for what O’Meara did Sunday on some of the most famous real estate in golf, where he held off Tiger Woods and won the AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the fifth time.

It’s getting so that when you think of this tournament, Bing Crosby, Carmel Bay and Mark O’Meara will be mentioned in the same breath as rain falling sideways and wind bending flagsticks into pretzels.

“There must be someone floating high above the Monterey Peninsula who’s a huge Mark O’Meara fan,” O’Meara said.

The 40-year-old with the syrupy swing birdied two of the last three holes, closed with his fourth consecutive 67, set a tournament record with his score of 268 and won a personal-best $342,000.

And if that isn’t enough, O’Meara proved to be tougher than the bark on that lone Cypress tree when he managed to avoid getting tackled by Woods in the stretch.

Woods, who had a 63 on Saturday, finished with a 64 and missed a playoff by one shot. Woods and David Duval tied for second, four shots ahead of Jim Furyk.

In the end, the 51st edition of what began as Crosby’s clambake and golf outing for his buddies turned into a contest between neighbors from the same resort community in Florida, who go fishing together and play a little friendly golf on the side.

“I love Mark to death,” said Woods, 19 years younger than O’Meara. “We talked about it back home--’Wouldn’t it be great to battle it out down the stretch?’ Lo and behold, that’s what happened.

“Even though I made a run at him, it was too little too late,” said Woods, who learned something from Sunday’s experience.

“I learned the first two rounds of the tournament are pretty important,” said Woods, who was 10 shots off the lead after 36 holes.

He was still seven shots behind Duval when the last round began, but that margin did not last long.

Woods had five birdies on the front nine to get to within two shots of Duval and O’Meara, who had needed only six holes to catch the leader.

When Woods knocked a sand wedge to within four feet and birdied the 16th hole, he was within one shot of O’Meara, who was one group behind Woods on the fairway and heard the cheers.

O’Meara promptly missed the green to the left with an eight-iron. The ball stopped in the fringe, about 15 feet from the hole.

What O’Meara did next probably won the tournament. The shot was slightly uphill with a left-to-right break. O’Meara used a seven-iron because it had less loft than a wedge, and he figured the ball would catch the green and roll in if he got it going properly.

He did and it did.

“I knew it was in halfway there,” O’Meara said. “It’s not like I chip in shots all the time either.”

Woods birdied the par-three 17th to get within one shot of O’Meara again, but O’Meara answered with his own birdie on the 17th, rolling in a 10-footer.

That left only the 548-yard par-five 18th, and Woods knew he needed an eagle, so he went for it. With 260 yards to the pin, Woods smoked a three-wood to the left front of the green.

He had about 35 feet to the hole to make eagle, but Woods sent the ball rolling about two feet past on the right. He made birdie, but O’Meara needed only to par the last to win, which he accomplished easily.

“It’s just really hard to get your line because you have to hit it so hard,” Woods said of his last long putt.

That was his final chance, and he put himself in those straits when, on the 13th hole, he tried an aggressive flop shot after missing the green. But Woods failed to keep the ball below the hole and walked away with a bogey.

O’Meara did not make the same mistake. He left his third shot on the 13th comfortably below the hole, accepted his par and moved on.

“It turned out all right,” he said.

It has been an all right career for O’Meara, who has not won a major tournament, but in 17 years owns 13 victories. And now five are from Pebble Beach--1985, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1997.

What’s more, he didn’t let Woods win, which seems to be news these days.

“He’s the hottest thing in sports right now,” O’Meara said. “To hold off a young, talented player, well, hey, OK, that’s great for the 40-year-olds.”

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Pebble Beach Scores

Final results of the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Par 72):

Mark O’Meara: (-20)

67-67-67-67--268

David Duval: (-19)

65-71-62-71--269

Tiger Woods: (-19)

70-72-63-64--269

Jim Furyk: (-15)

67-65-69-72--273

* COMPLETE SCORES: C9