To Win First Major, O’Meara Followed Bold Master Plan

So what was Mark O’Meara thinking about when he walked off the 16th green to play the last two holes of last year’s Masters?

Only two things: birdie and birdie.

Of course, that’s exactly what happened. The player who had never won a major after 17 years of grinding won this one, all right.

And O’Meara is not about to forget it now that he is ready to begin defense of his Masters championship next week amid the pine trees, azaleas, dogwood and history of Augusta National.

O’Meara said the memory of the moment he hatched his plan is safely tucked in the back of his mind. He had played 70 holes and knew he needed a plan for the last two, so O’Meara came up with an uncharacteristically bold one.

“For some reason, I said to my caddie, ‘You know, I’m going to birdie the last two holes and win this sucker.’ And he kind of looked at me, not with a shocked mind, but just said, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’

“It was real quiet, under our breaths. No one else heard it. I don’t know why I said that. I’m usually . . . not aggressive outwardly, saying something like that.

“Why I said it, I don’t know. Maybe I used that as just a little boost or little bit of motivating tool to see what I could do.”

O’Meara became the oldest first-time winner at the tournament at 41 years 3 months 29 days and also set a record for number of times played before winning--last year was his 15th Masters.

O’Meara did not lead the tournament by himself until he birdied the 72nd hole. But it was during his opening round of 74 that he wondered if he would be able to putt well enough to win.

“I remember No. 10 green, I had about a six- or eight-footer for par and I didn’t know whether I was going to pull it, push it or hit it long,” O’Meara said.

“At that point, I’m thinking to myself, you know, you can’t be thinking this way, you can’t be feeling this way if you want to win a major championship, let alone Augusta National.”

O’Meara spent some time working on his putting with his teacher, Hank Haney. They drilled on O’Meara’s setup, getting his eyes over the ball, getting the putter a little bit to the right.

O’Meara said he felt freed up, his speed got better and so did his confidence.

As it turned out, O’Meara wound up with only 105 putts in four rounds--an average of 1.46 a hole--better than any other player.

Said O’Meara: “That was the big reason I won the Masters.”

HISTORY LESSON

Only two players have birdied the last two holes to win the Masters: Arnold Palmer in 1960 and O’Meara.

WATCH THIS SPACE

She is 17 years old, the Junior Amateur champion, an all-state basketball player from Martinsville, Ind., (birthplace of John Wooden) and was the youngest player in the field at the Nabisco Dinah Shore.

Leigh Ann Hardin has can’t-miss written all over her, even if that’s just what she did at the Dinah Shore, where she shot 76-81 and missed the cut by seven strokes.

Don’t think that she minded too much, though.

“It was awesome,” Hardin said. “I wish I had scored a little better, but it was all good.”

Hardin had her picture taken with Nancy Lopez and was made to feel welcome by Wendy Ward, Juli Inkster and Cindy Figg-Currier, who took time to chat with her.

Steve Hardin, a doctor in Martinsville, served as his daughter’s caddie.

“I knew she wanted to play golf when she was 4 and she ran a quarter of a mile to join us on the golf course,” he said.

Hardin was a starter on Martinsville’s state champion basketball team last year, but her dad persuaded her not to play any more for fear of injury. Leigh Ann, a senior, reluctantly agreed.

She isn’t sure where she will play college golf, although she has visits scheduled at the University of Texas and Stanford. What Hardin is sure about is that she wants to be a pro.

“That’s my dream,” she said.

Until then, Hardin will be a member of a U.S. team playing junior matches in conjunction with the Ryder Cup and attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open for the fourth time.

“I’m optimistic,” she said.

It can’t hurt.

PALMER UPDATE

Palmer’s unlucky number is 15. That’s how many consecutive cuts he has missed at the Masters.

But Palmer has been busy down at his Florida home base at Bay Hill to try to change all that. The 69-year-old, four-time Masters champion has been playing with his regular group in shootouts every day.

“I’m just trying to get something of a game together to play Augusta,” Palmer said.

The big thing he’s working on is for more distance off the tee. Palmer averaged 249.2 yards on his drives in Senior PGA Tour events last year.

TIGER UPDATE

News item: Tiger Woods gets new caddie Steve Williams, then finishes tied for 56th and tied for 10th at Bay Hill and the Players Championship.

Reaction: “Tiger is probably the hardest guy in the world to club,” Johnny Miller says. “It’s because of his distance control with his irons. That’s always been his Achilles’ heel.”

RYDER CUP UPDATE

News item: David Howell of England is No. 1 on the Volvo Order of Merit, which means he is one of the top players in points for the European Ryder Cup team (just behind Sven Struver and Alex Cejka, both of Germany).

Reaction: The top players on the U.S. team are David Duval, No. 1 in the world, and Woods, No. 2 in the world.

Reaction II: Don’t underestimate the Europeans, who win the Ryder Cup so regularly, they could probably pull it off again with a four-ball team featuring the ghosts of Henry Cotton and Old Tom Morris.

KITE GROUNDED?

It sure seems that way. Tom Kite, 49, once made 53 consecutive cuts, the fifth most in PGA Tour history, but until last week at the Players Championship, he hadn’t made one this year.

As it turned out, Kite managed to beat one player in the post-cut field: Nick Faldo, who was disqualified.

FRIVOLITY WITH FALDO

Faldo, who hasn’t won in two years and wasn’t going to win at the Players Championship on Sunday, wound up being disqualified instead in a rules mix-up.

Faldo hit his ball into a palm tree on the sixth hole and was going to hit another ball from the previous spot when playing partner Corey Pavin stopped him.

Pavin told Faldo he could drop from under the tree for a one-stroke penalty.

Well, no, he couldn’t. Faldo was disqualified for playing from the wrong place.

Faldo, who had shot an 83 on Saturday--matching his worst round ever in the U.S.--remained in good humor after his disqualification, though.

Said Faldo: “It just adds to the frivolity.”

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD

She was last year’s LPGA darling, the rookie of the year, the winner of two majors and one of the players to beat every week. But Se Ri Pak hasn’t done so well in the early going.

The 21-year-old Korean has missed three cuts and finished tied for 13th at the Nabisco Dinah Shore when she closed with a 75.

Her problem: putting. Pak has gone through eight putters this year.

THE RATINGS GAME

When Pat Hurst was the wire-to-wire winner last year, the Dinah Shore had a 0.8 rating on Saturday and a 1.0 on Sunday, making it the lowest-rated golf tournament telecast by a major network all year.

The overnight ratings tell a different story from last week’s event, won by Dottie Pepper. The Saturday rating was 1.4 and the Sunday rating was 1.1

By the way, Saturday’s rating beat the men’s tennis final at the Lipton, which drew a 1.1 on Fox.

TOUGH TO STOMACH

Said Bob Friend, who shot an 87 on Saturday at the Players Championship and closed with a 70 on Sunday: “There was no way I was going to finish on my stomach.”

For anyone who doesn’t know what an 87 looks like, here’s Friend’s description: “A snowman [8] with a hockey stick [7].”

IS IT HALE TIME?

He has been a money-making machine on the Senior PGA Tour, but not this year. In fact, Hale Irwin has been downright, well, ordinary.

Irwin has won only $112,933 in four tournaments, his best finish a tie for fourth at the GTE Classic. Irwin’s other results are a tie for 23rd, a tie for 19th and a tie for 14th two weeks ago at the Toshiba Senior Classic.

Irwin thinks he gets worn down toward the end of the year, so he decided to take it easier in the early going and see if it made a difference.

Now, Irwin says he’s ready.

“I’ve been laying low, trying to build in a little bit of a letdown. The free fall is over. Let’s just say it’s time to hit my stride now.”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

The fifth Brandie Burton Golf Classic will be held June 4 at California Country Club in Whittier. The event benefits the Girl Scouts in the east San Gabriel Valley. Details: (909) 629-6440.

Two-time Solheim Cup captain Judy Rankin will receive the PGA of America’s First Lady of Golf Award April 14 at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in conjunction with the PGA Seniors Championship.

The Junior Chamber of Commerce is assuming management of the Los Angeles junior golf program as part of the LPGA Urban Youth Program. The program is geared to youth ages 7-17 who may not be exposed to golf.

The Golf Channel’s Junior Golf Skills competition will be held Saturday at Whittier Narrows Golf Course in Rosemead.

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Southland Focus

A weekly look at golf courses open to the public in Southern California.

COSTA MESA COUNTRY CLUB--Mesa Linda

Address: 1701 Golf Course Drive, Costa Mesa.

Telephone: (714) 754-5267.

Green fees: $18-$24.

Tee times: Seven days in advance.

The facility: The shorter of two layouts, both designed by William F. Bell, in the heart of Costa Mesa. Mesa Linda has been open since 1981. Full driving range and practice greens.

The good: The greens are surprisingly smooth and quick; the rolls are true and there are enough breaks to require a look from all angles. There isn’t a lot of trouble and most of the holes are short. Except for the 432-yard par-four first hole, the approach shot is usually target practice with an eight- or nine-iron, and that can be fun as well as a boost for the ego.

The bad: The food shack doesn’t come into play until after the 14th hole, which for those rushing off on an empty stomach is worse than the fact that the course is very short and that a few of the blind holes--especially No. 3, a sharp dogleg right--don’t offer any clues as to where to place your drives. This will cost first-time players a stroke or two.

The score--You won’t get much use of your long irons, except perhaps while teeing off. But it’s a tight enough course to make you think about placement, and the greenskeepers do a great job considering the amount of play the course gets. If you usually play more difficult courses and have been struggling of late, this is a good place to get your confidence back.

Overall rating: Two balls.

PETE THOMAS, 11 handicap

* One ball: No-frills golf.

** Two balls: Worth an occasional round.

*** Three balls: Like shooting four strokes under your handicap.

**** Four balls: Where the golf gods play.

*--*

Hole Back Tees Middle Tees Par Front Tees 1 440 432 4 318 2 131 112 3 95 3 363 343 4 324 4 347 308 4 299 5 479 452 5 425 6 129 110 3 97 7 512 463 5 451 8 114 89 3 68 9 372 352 4 2,404 Out 2,887 2,661 35 2,404 10 148 125 3 117 11 463 453 5 411 12 158 126 3 94 13 315 290 4 279 14 475 448 5 393 15 268 246 4 228 16 278 248 4 214 17 188 156 3 136 18 381 357 4 315 In 2,664 2,449 35 2,187 Total 5,551 5,110 70 4,591

*--*

Rating/Slope: Back--66.1/107; Middle--63.9/102; Front--66.0/110