Any Questions?

Mark O’Meara is the Masters champion and the British Open champion, and that adds up to two majors in one year. Because the 41-year-old grinder had failed to win a major in 56 tries up to then, it was sort of a surprise.

O’Meara wishes he knew why.

“If I could figure that out, I would have done it earlier in my career,” he said.

It has been a long road into the spotlight for O’Meara, who has spent most of his 18-year career staking out a reputation as a hard-working, straight-hitting, slick-putting total pro who was good enough to win 14 times but not good enough to win a major.

Until this year. Now he has two major victories stowed away, and the level of his reputation has been moved up a couple of notches.

“Mark O’Meara is a great player,” Fred Couples said. “He talks a lot about being semi-great. Winning two majors, I think, is incredible.

“I don’t think it changes his game any. If you win one major, that’s a nice thing. He’s won two. He’s shooting for three, whether it’s this week or next year.”

Of course, if it’s this week, it’s history. In 1953, Ben Hogan won three majors in one year . . . and he’s the only player to have done it. O’Meara has a chance to do it this week.

“I think anything is possible,” O’Meara said. “But if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that i would have the opportunity to win two of them, I would have jumped and prayed for the chance to have that happen, let alone coming here and knowing that Ben Hogan was the last player to win three major championships in one year.

“I think the odds are a little stacked against me. I know that, but that doesn’t stop me from going out there and trying to give it my best. And that’s what I’ll try to do, and if I have a chance come Sunday afternoon, hopefully I can dwell on what I’ve learned from the Masters and British Open and closing a tournament and hopefully I can use that to my advantage.”

Davis Love III said the difference in O’Meara might be the confidence he gained from winning.

“Once he got that confidence, I think he’s off and running for awhile,” Love said.

From here on in, O’Meara knows the game isn’t going to be any easier. He had to listen for years when he was asked why he hadn’t won a major. It’s all part of a strange cycle, he said.

“And then I win two majors and it might be questionable: ‘How do you win the first major?’ And then I win the second major, and it’s like ‘OK, can he win the third major?’ If I don’t play good for the rest of my life, it will be, ‘How come you can’t play good anymore?’ ”

Nobody is asking that, not this week.