O’Meara making most of debut

A smile came to Mark O’Meara’s face when the topic of Costa Mesa came up. Those days of driving around Orange County in his Volkswagon Rabbit usually bring at least a chuckle to him.

O’Meara, the renowned golfer making his debut on the Champions Tour, has had several chances to reminisce while he’s been at the Newport Beach Country Club for the Toshiba Classic.

Taking first and $500 in Wednesday’s pro-am also gave him joy — call it an added bonus to a man who does his best to cherish the simplicity of his past.

“The greatest times of my life were really when I played high school golf, college golf, amateur golf,” O’Meara said. “I’ve been a pro for 27 years and it certainly has provided myself and my family with a nice living. But yet when I look back at it, I had some of my greatest times, driving my Volkswagon Rabbit, commuting back and forth from Mission Viejo to Long Beach State, then washing cars on the weekend. Life was pretty simple.”

In 1979, life was pretty grand as well. That was when he won the California and U.S. amateur events. During that time he also won the Costa Mesa City championship.

“I have a lot of fond memories of what transpired over my lifetime in Orange County,” said O’Meara, who went to Mission Viejo High and played several times at NBCC in the early ‘70s. “It’s always nice to come back to Orange County from the standpoint that I basically spent most of my life out here, from the time of junior high through college and the start of my professional career.”

While O’Meara reminisced Wednesday afternoon, he also touched on the rough times, “the low times, but [they were] never really low.”

In the 1981, O’Meara changed his swing and the results nearly cost him his Tour card. But O’Meara also had high times, like winning The Masters in 1998.

However, recently, more specifically the past three years, haven’t been great for O’Meara, he admitted, but he’s looking to make a name for himself once again. A glimpse of that, perhaps, came with his pro-am win Thursday.

Today, he’ll need to take his game to a higher level when the three-day Toshiba Classic begins. He tees off at 11:50 a.m. on No. 1. He’s grouped with defending champion Brad Bryant and Jay Haas, last year’s Charles Schwab Cup champion.

“There’s a little bit more pressure because I think people expect me to play well. I expect myself to play well. I want to play well. Winning is what’s it’s all about … It’s just a matter of getting back in the flow, getting competitive, keeping working at it and keep gaining some confidence.”

High self-esteem in regard to golf is very important to O’Meara. He rates confidence very high for what it takes to be a great golfer. So it makes sense that he could do without the hoopla that’s been made for him and his return to Orange County.

He certainly answered every question and cooperated during every interview Wednesday, but he wasn’t all too thrilled to work the rooms.

He said he would rather play with amateurs and go to his hotel room. After all, he just really wants to play golf.

He wants to because he wants out of that funk.

“The last three years, I can’t say I’ve had a tremendous amount of fun,” O’Meara said. “I haven’t been as competitive as I can be.

“A lot of it is desire, dedication and motivation. And, sometimes those start to slip when you do something for a long period of time. The traveling, being away from your family, sitting in a hotel room by yourself, that gets old after awhile.”

O’Meara makes sure to stay close with his family. He stressed the importance of his wife, Alicia. He met her in Orange County back when they were in high school and Alicia was a cheerleader at Dana Hills.

Now, their daughter, Michelle, is a cheerleader at USC.

Their son, Shaun, will be going to play golf at UC Irvine in the fall.

At certain times during this week, O’Meara has kept his family in mind. He’s kept the past in mind, too. Trying to learn from it, he’s wanting to find that special confidence and win again. Maybe it might come Sunday.