With His Record, O'Meara Should Be Marked Man : Even Hotter Than Woods This Season, He's Looking for Third Title in a Row

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 27, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The hottest player on the PGA Tour has no catchy nickname, can’t hit the Pacific Ocean from the first tee at Riviera and doesn’t have a single swoosh.

What the heck does Mark O’Meara have to do to stand out in a professional golf forest filled with Tiger Woods? Win every tournament he plays?

Maybe that’s O’Meara’s plan. When the $1.4-million Nissan Open begins today at storied Riviera Country Club, O’Meara will be trying to win his third consecutive tournament, which promises to be about as simple as finding a par five Woods can’t reach in two.

At least O’Meara isn’t jealous over all the attention paid to his neighbor from Orlando.

“There’s no question Tiger Woods is an incredible golfer,” O’Meara said. “He’s a hot ticket in golf, but he’s a hot ticket in all of sports. Gee, when I go skiing, people look at me once, look at me twice and then they say, ‘Hey, aren’t you Mark McCumber?’ ”

Well, no. But in his 17th year on the tour, this O’Meara kid is really making a name for himself.

At Pebble Beach, he put together four rounds of 67 and managed to hold off that Woods guy down the stretch to win.

The next week at Torrey Pines, O’Meara won again with four more subpar rounds.

After four tournaments, O’Meara is a combined 64 under par. He has won $710,460 and it isn’t even March. He is No. 1 on the money list. It has taken him about six weeks to have a career year, and he mostly gets asked about Tiger Woods.

“I’m No. 1 on the money list,” O’Meara said. “He may go by me, but if he does, I’ll wave.”

Someone is going to bag $252,000 this weekend at Riviera, and it probably would be a mistake to make a short list of the likely candidates.

Craig Stadler is back to defend his title, but it won’t be easy in a field that includes Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Mark Brooks, David Duval, Corey Pavin, Payne Stewart, Tom Watson, Justin Leonard and Jim Furyk.

Naturally, Woods promises to be the main attraction, but that only happens every time he shows up on the golf course. If Woods seems distracted, it’s with good reason, since his father is hospitalized at UCLA Medical Center after undergoing a heart bypass operation last week.

In the meantime, there’s nothing like a golf tournament to distract the media from their Tiger fascination.

“It’s been a feeding frenzy,” said O’Meara, who turned 40 in January. “It’s like going out there and throwing stuff in the ocean to get the sharks to come.

“I think it’ll wear on him. I think you’ve already seen a little bit of wear. Tiger this, Tiger that, Tiger this. As long as he keeps performing at this level, he’s going to be the story.”

O’Meara’s own story wasn’t exactly a page-turner until the end of 1994, which coincided with the end of a two-year period that was noteworthy basically for absence of a victory.

Then he won twice in 1995, twice more last year and twice more to start this year. This isn’t a roll, this is a somersault.

What O’Meara did in the fall of 1994 was to think about what made him happy. For a while, golf did not. Then he changed his attitude, changed his mind-set and his fortunes quickly took off in a new direction.

Like everyone else, Pavin said he is impressed with O’Meara’s start this year.

“It’s hard enough to win once out there, but winning back to back, well, that’s more than pretty good,” he said.

Woods thinks a lot of his sometimes golf buddy from Isleworth.

“He’s been fantastic, really,” Woods said. “He hits it so well, but more than anything, the impressive thing about what Mark has done is that he minimizes his mistakes.”

There haven’t been that many. In fact, O’Meara is secure enough about his golf game that he spent last week at the Seattle Mariners’ training camp near Phoenix, where he was the invited guest of Ken Griffey Jr., another neighbor.

O’Meara wore uniform No. 26 and had his name on the back. He worked out, shagged flies and took batting practice. The first pitch he saw was right at him.

“I asked the batting practice pitcher what that was about and he pointed at Jay Buhner,” O’Meara said. “Buhner told him to throw it at me.”

O’Meara watched videotape of his swing and was not impressed.

“I said ‘Wow, that looks pretty weak,’ ” he said. “I think I’ll just stick to golf.”

That’s not a bad decision.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Winning Approval

Mark O’Meara has won two of the four PGA Tour events he has entered this season: 1997 RESULTS

*--*

Date Tournament Finish Jan.12 Mercedes Championships Tie 13 Jan. 19 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic 4 Feb. 2 Pebble Beach Pro-Am 1 Feb.9 Buick Invitational 1

*--*

BACKGROUND

* BORN: Jan. 13, 1957

* FIRST YEAR ON TOUR: 1981

* 1996 BEST FINISHES: 1st--Mercedes Championships; Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic; 2nd--MCI Classic; tie, Kemper Open; 3rd--tie, Buick Invitational; tie, Memorial Tournament; 4th--tie, Bay Hill Invitational; 6th--Honda Classic.

* CAREER FINISHES: 14 firsts, 18 seconds, 15 thirds, 100 in top 10, 187 in top 25. Best finish in major: tied for third (1985 and 1991 British Open and 1988 U.S. Open)

* EARNINGS: Best year was 1996 ($1,255,749). Has earned $8,092,675 in his career, fourth highest all time. Leads this year’s money list at $710,460.

Winning Approval

Mark O’Meara has won two of the four PGA Tour events he has entered this season:

1997 RESULTS

*--*

Date Tournament Finish Jan.9-12 Mercedes Championships Tie 13th Jan. 15-19 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic 4th Jan. 30-Feb. 2 Pebble Beach Pro-Am 1th Feb.6-9 Buick Invitational 1th

*--*

BACKGROUND

* BORN: Jan. 13, 1957

* FIRST YEAR ON TOUR: 1981

* CAREER FINISHES: 14 firsts, 18 seconds, 15 thirds, 100 in top 10, 187 in top 25. Best finish in major: tied for third (1985 and 1991 British Open and 1988 U.S. Open)

* EARNINGS: Best year was 1996 ($1,255,749). Has earned $8,092,675 in his career, fourth highest all time. Leads this year’s money list at $710,460.