Mark O'Meara made a 7-foot par putt on the second playoff hole Tuesday as he and partner John Cook won the $750,000 Fred Meyer Challenge charity golf tournament.
O'Meara and Cook beat Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw in the playoff after each team finished the 36-hole, best-ball event at 17-under-par 125."It means very much to win this golf tournament," O'Meara said. "It especially is great to win since John and I have grown up playing together for the last 20 years."
O'Meara and Cook had a chance to win in regulation but they bogeyed the 18th hole to finish with a second-round 62 on the par-71, 6,889-yard Oregon Golf Club Course.
"We got a tough break on 18," O'Meara said. "It was our only bogey of the tournament."
On the first playoff hole Crenshaw made a 7-foot birdie putt. Cook followed with a 5-foot birdie putt to force a second playoff hole.
"The 18th hole (the playoff hole) is such a difficult hole," O'Meara said. "We just prayed for par. And it won the tournament for us."
Mickelson missed an 18-foot putt for par on the 449-yard, par-4 and Crenshaw just missed on an 8-foot par putt. O'Meara then made his for the victory.
O'Meara and Cook won $100,000 while Mickelson and Crenshaw picked up $80,000.
O'Meara made 12 birdies during the two-day tournament, but credited Cook as the key to the victory.
"He just played tremendously both days," O'Meara said. "Many times I was out of the hole and he came through every time."
Peter Jacobsen, the host of the tournament and designer of the course near Portland, birdied nine of the first 15 holes as he and partner Arnold Palmer shot a second-round 62. They finished at 16-under 126.
The teams of Bob Gilder and Fulton Allem, and Davis Love III and Fred Couples finished at 128.
Brian Henninger and Lee Janzen, who were co-leaders after the first round at 62 along with Crenshaw and Mickelson, led a group of three teams tied at 129.