Mark O’Meara’s Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Tiger Takes Him for a Ride

The Action Network spoke with several of golf's biggest legends to find out their favorite personal golf betting stories. In a previous series, we spoke with several of today's biggest stars about their favorite betting stories. You can find those here.

Who: Mark O’Meara
When: April, 1997
Where: Orlando, Fla.

One week before the 1997 Masters, O’Meara was playing his home club, Isleworth, with Tiger Woods as they tried to get their games in shape for the year’s first major. The first day they played that week, Tiger shot a 13-under 59 against O’Meara. They decided to play again the next day, but the match wouldn’t last very long.

“We go and hit balls and we’re going to tee it up again. It’s just he and I. We were playing $10 automatic one-downs.

“We tee off on 10. He hit a good drive and knocks one to about 10 feet. I was about 15 feet away. I miss, he makes. So now he’s 1-up and we’re driving quickly up to No. 11, the par-3. He yells over, ‘Mo, you’ve got the autos going, you’re 1-down!’ I’m like, ‘Of course…’

“He gets up to the tee, he’s hitting like an 8-iron. I haven’t even gotten out of my cart, but he hits it and it’s going right at it. It one-hops and goes into the hole for a hole-in-one.

“So I go over and take $100 or whatever it was – I can’t remember – and I put it on his cart seat. I didn’t even hit my shot. I said, ‘That was a really nice shot. I quit. I’ll see you later on the range when you get done.’

“He’s like, ‘Where are you going?’

“I said, ‘I quit. You shot 13-under yesterday, you just jarred that, you’re 16-under for the last 20 holes. I’m not playing golf anymore with you.’

“That was awesome. I hate that guy.”

Other golf gambling stories from legends of the game

• Gary Player's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Arnold Palmer and a South African Goldmine
• Nick Price's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A Longshot to Remember
• Davis Love III's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: No-Bogey Betting at The Open Championship
• Jack Nicklaus' Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Betting on Himself at Cherry Hills
• Nick Faldo's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Getting Into Jack Nicklaus' Pockets