Two decades into his career, at age 41, Mark O’Meara claimed his first major victory at Augusta National.
The 16-time PGA Tour champion was up against veterans like Fred Cupples and David Duvall, but after birdieing the 18th hole, O’Meara was able to claim the first and only green jacket of his life.
His achievement made for a memorable night, but one that was also marked by an awkward moment afterward.
The Masters features many traditions, such as the Champions Dinner and the Par 3 Competition, but also the Green Jacket Ceremony, which is led by the current champion and the previous year’s winner.
As we all know, Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997. O’Meara was honored to receive the green jacket from his best friend, but he didn’t expect the height difference to be an issue. But it happened.
Recalling the 1998 jacket ceremony, O’Meara told Golf.com in 2023, “Tiger was a little taller than me, and he had his jacket up, so I couldn’t get my left arm in the jacket.
And it was a pretty awkward situation.» But then the 1998 Masters champion turned things around and asked the 15-time major winner to take off his jacket. Woods agreed, and the two exchanged hugs.
O’Meara later asked Woods what the problem was, and the young PGA Tour pro replied, “I never put a jacket on anybody!”, O’Meara recalled.
O’Meara still treasures the awkward, yet hilarious, situation. But there was something else the two-time major winner did that indirectly helped Woods’ career and pushed him to become the player he became.
What did Mark O’Meara do that also helped Tiger Woods? Throughout Tiger Woods’ career, his father, Earl Woods, was his biggest coach and driving force. Later in his career, Woods was paired with Butch Harmon.
After parting ways with Harmon in 2004, Woods teamed up with Hank Haney. Under Haney’s guidance, the 82-time PGA Tour winner won 31 titles and six major championships before parting ways in 2008. Those six years were pivotal for both Woods and Haney, establishing Haney as one of the best coaches in golf.
But Haney’s path to becoming a successful PGA Tour coach began with Mark O’Meara. The 69-year-old instructor attributes his success to O’Meara, and when asked in an interview with OTL Golf about his favorite student on tour, it was O’Meara, not Woods.
HANEY has shared O’MEARA’s first student on the PGA tour and supported him from 124th in the second money in two years. As a result, Heney became known as a “man”, fell in love with the tour code, and began to win there.
With this reputation, he was able to train more than 200 experts from the PGA tour. Hini thanked him to say, “Everything that happened to me in the golf course would have happened in my life because I met Mark Omira.”
Without Omira who gave Hein’s break -through, Woods suggested that Woods found another coach, changed the best swing, and won 31 times when Harmon was outside the team.
That special connection gives Woods a lot to be thankful for in O’Meara, who supported him like a brother, even as they eventually grew apart with Haney, whose eight-year stint on the PGA Tour made life difficult for other golfers.