“Shirtless” Tiger Woods Impressed Mark O’Meara & Friend Once With His Surprising Display of Talent

What do you think about the bond between Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara? O’Meara calls him “little brother” meanwhile they have also played alongside him for years. While it might be hard to describe their relationship, both golfers shared a lot of stories together. Here is one of them from 2020.

Although the story dates back to 2002, John Cook shared it with Golf Digest four years back. In that year, Woods had already won the Masters and the U.S. Open and was getting ready for the Open Championship at Muirfield. The incident occurred at the back of the range at Isleworth, where Mark O’Meara and John Cook were attempting to hit 3-irons to a green about 220 yards away.

While further talking about it Cook said “We had played Bethpage, and unlike Tiger, every hole for us was like a driver and 3-iron or 4-iron or even a wood. So we’re trying to get the ball up higher with our 3-irons, just seeing if we can launch them.” As it happened Tiger Woods joined them after a six-mile run and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. “He’s got no shirt on, he’s wearing sunglasses, his hat is turned backward and he’s sweating like crazy. He sees us, and he stops to watch, but he doesn’t say anything,” Cook said.

However, the 15x major winner didn’t wait and asked “Hey, what are you guys working on?”. Cook said talking about it “We tell him we’re trying to hit these longer clubs higher in the air. So he says to me, “Let me see your 3-iron.” And guess what happened next? As you might have guessed he hits this 3-iron not at the green Mark and Cook were aiming at but at the next green, about 245 yards out.

Tiger Woods did this without a practice swing. Following that “He flew it right into the middle of that green, handed the club back to me, and said, “Just do that.” Mark and I looked at each other like, We’re trying to beat that? I put the club back in my bag and said, “I’m going to go over here and putt more; maybe that will help,” concluded John Cook.

May 13, 2024; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Tiger Woods signs autographs during a practice round for the PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Interestingly, there is around a 19-year age gap between Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara. Despite that O’Meara calls him a little brother and they have shared a lot of moments on the greens. Surprisingly, Woods even once helped O’Meara to win a hole at the 1998 but at the Cisco World Match Play Championship. Not only O’Meara has witnessed Woods’s skill they also share an awkward yet memorable moment.

The memorable moment between Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara

It happened in 1998 during the Masters. There is a tradition at the Augusta National that the prior year’s champion sticks around for the weekend, regardless of whether or not he makes the cut, to honor the next Masters champion with a green jacket. Tiger Woods had won the 1997 Masters and was ready to honor O’Meara, who had just secured his first major victory. However, there is a height difference between these two and it created a memorable moment for them.

During the green jacket ceremony, Mark O’Meara was unable to get his arm into the jacket and it kind of created an “awkward situation” for him. Later Mark O’Meara revealed further about it and said ‘Hey, you gotta lower the jacket.’ And so he did, and I got my arms in there and he gave me a hug.” Although O’Meara is set to retire after the PURE Insurance Championship this year, he has 16 PGA Tour wins including two majors to his name. Aside from that he also shares a deep bond with golfers, especially, Tiger Woods throughout these years.