Thursday, May 21, 2009
BEACHWOOD (AP) — Since dueling in the final match at the 1979 U.S. Amateur, Mark O’Meara and John Cook have seen their kids grow up, what hair they still have turn gray and traveled the world to make a living.
And now they’re circling back to the place it all started.
O’Meara and Cook are among the 156 players who’ll tee it up today in the opening round of the 70th Senior PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club in suburban Cleveland.
For O’Meara, who won the Masters and British Open in 1998, that championship match three decades ago was a tipping point.
“Look at what’s happened to a guy that grew up at Mission Viejo Country Club washing cars and picking up the range,” said the 52-year-old on Wednesday. “I’ve been very blessed, let’s put it that way. I had my ups and downs but the game has been tremendous to me.”
On that damp and drizzly day at Canterbury, Cook was seeking his second straight Amateur title. He was forced to eight extra holes in the quarterfinals before beating Lennie Clements, then subdued Gary Hallberg to make a return trip to the 36-hole championship match.
Heavily favored to win his second title in a row, the day spiraled out of control.
“By the time I got to Sunday, I kept pressing on the gas pedal but nothing was coming out,” said Cook, 51. “I was done. I was cooked.”
O’Meara ended up winning easily against his friend then and now.
The return to Canterbury has brought back plenty of memories.
“To have won the U.S. Amateur definitely got me started in the right direction,” he said.
Both have gone on to solid, successful careers as pros, O’Meara winning 16 tournaments on the PGA Tour and Cook 11. Now both are considered among the top contenders on the reconfigured 6,896-yard, par-70 Canterbury layout. They’re even in the same group in the first two rounds, playing with 1977 PGA Champion Lanny Wadkins.
Unlike the PGA Tour, where the prevailing opinion is that only a small group might have the experience and savvy to win a major, there is no shortage of possible winners this week. Forty-eight of the top 50 money winners on the Champions Tour are on hand. There are also 23 players who have won a combined 41 major championships, including Tom Watson (8), Hale Irwin and Nick Price (3), Ben Crenshaw, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, O’Meara, Fuzzy Zoeller and Dave Stockton (two apiece).