Mark O'Meara

Mark Francis O'Meara (born January 13, 1957) is an American retired professional golfer. From the mid-1980s through the late 1990s, he won events on the PGA Tour and internationally. Between 1986 and 2000, he ranked among the world’s top ten golfers for nearly 200 weeks. In 1998, at age 41, he captured both the Masters Tournament and the Open Championship, making him the oldest player ever to win two majors in a single year. He entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015.

O'Meara was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and raised in Mission Viejo, California. He started golf at 13 by sneaking onto the Mission Viejo Country Club, later worked there, and played on his high school team. At Long Beach State, he was an All-American and won the 1979 U.S. Amateur, beating defending champion John Cook 8 and 7 in the final.

After earning a marketing degree in 1980, he turned professional and collected 16 PGA Tour victories, beginning with the 1984 Greater Milwaukee Open and including five AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am titles. His best season came in 1998, when he won the Masters on his 15th attempt and the British Open. O’Meara credited part of his late-career surge to the influence of his friend Tiger Woods. That year he also won the Cisco World Match Play Championship and reached a career-high second in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Known for playing abroad more than most top American golfers, O’Meara won events in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. After 1998, his form declined due to injuries, but he won the 2004 Dubai Desert Classic, a European Tour event. In September 1997, after winning the Lancome Trophy in France, a Swedish television viewer noticed O’Meara had replaced his ball half an inch closer to the hole on the 15th green. Runner-up Jarmo Sandelin later sent O’Meara a video and asked for an explanation. O’Meara said he meant no advantage; the PGA and European Tours ruled the result final. Sandelin went public, and O’Meara admitted in April 1998 he might have unintentionally misplaced the ball.

On the Champions Tour starting in 2007, O’Meara posted many top-10s and runner-up finishes before winning the 2010 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf with Nick Price and his first senior major, the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship. A rib injury sidelined him from April to August 2012. In the early 2000s, he began designing golf courses; his first design opened in May 2001 at Grandview Golf Club in Huntsville, Ontario. He is a brand ambassador for Pacific Links International. In March 2019, he won the Cologuard Classic in Tucson by four shots, ending an eight-year win drought on the Champions Tour. He retired in September 2024 after missing the cut at the PURE Insurance Championship, which he had announced would be his final event.

O’Meara once lived in Orlando, Florida, in the same neighborhood as Tiger Woods; the two became close friends and often played together. He now resides in Southern Highlands, Nevada.

Among his honors: PGA Tour Rookie of the Year (1981), BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year (1998), PGA Tour Player of the Year (1998), PGA Player of the Year (1998), and induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame (2015). His amateur wins include the 1979 U.S. Amateur and California State Amateur Championship. His professional wins total 34, comprising 16 PGA Tour victories, 5 European Tour wins, 2 PGA of Japan Tour wins, 1 PGA Tour of Australia win, 1 South American Tour win (1994 Argentine Open), 8 other wins, and 3 PGA Tour Champions wins. He won two major championships: the 1998 Masters and the 1998 Open Championship (defeating Brian Watts in a four-hole playoff). His longest streak of consecutive cuts made in majors was 11 (1995 Masters through 1999 Masters), and his longest streak of top-10s in majors was two (1998 Open Championship through 1998 PGA).