O'Meara leads surprising charge for veterans at THE PLAYERS

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Mark O'Meara shot a 6-under 66 Thursday to sit just two shots off the lead.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Mark O'Meara took his cap off and ran his hand through hair amply flecked with silver as he walked briskly toward the stage in the interview room of the media center at TPC Sawgrass.

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The 54-year-old then positioned the cap back on his head and flashed a big grin.

"I know you're all shocked," he said. "But I did shoot 68 here a couple of weeks ago."

The scribes, of course, were quick with the retorts. "We're just trying to figure out whether you played every hole," one said. "Did you play from the white tees?" another asked loudly.

"That's terrible," O'Meara countered in mock exasperation. "But I should be able to play from the whites. I don't need any more of these 470-yard par 4s."

Maybe so. But O'Meara handled them pretty darn well during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship, posting a sterling 66 that left him two strokes off Nick Watney's lead.

Can he become the oldest winner ever on the PGA TOUR -- eclipsing Sam Snead, who was 52 when he won the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open, and Fred Funk, who set the standard at THE PLAYERS in 2005 at the age of 48?

We'll know come Sunday but in the meantime O'Meara isn't the only player turning back the clock.

David Toms, who is making his 19th start at TPC Sawgrass at the age of 44, is tied with O'Meara at 6 under. And the 47-year-old Davis Love III, a two-time champion competing in his 27th straight PLAYERS, shot 4 under to tie for ninth.

Toms said he wasn't surprised to see O'Meara on the leaderboard -- even though the two-time major champion had not played the PGA TOUR regularly since 2006. And in some ways, Toms might have also been talking about himself.

"This is the kind of golf course where you can do that," Toms said. "Always helps to hit it long, but here you'd have to be long and straight. But experience, he's probably hit every shot around this golf course over the years. Doesn't surprise me at all that he's playing well."

Love, who has played in every PLAYERS since 1986 when he was just 21 years old, agreed that maturity can come in handy on such a strategic layout as the Stadium Course.

"On any of Pete Dye's courses you have to think your way around it a little bit and be patient," Love said. "I think experience always helps, especially in a big tournament like this." "

O'Meara earned his spot in his 24th PLAYERS -- and first since 2003 -- when he won the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship last year. The win was the second on the Champions Tour for O'Meara, who also has 16 PGA TOUR titles and six top-10s at TPC Sawgrass.

The round of 6 under was O'Meara's best round on the Stadium Course since he also shot 66 in the third round of the 1993 PLAYERS -- when he was 36 years old. He's only broken 70 four times in 31 rounds since.

That said, O'Meara has been extremely consistent on the Champions Tour this year. He hasn't finished lower than 14th in seven starts and opened the season with three straight top-10s.

On Thursday, though, O'Meara was giving up 40 yards on every drive to his playing partner, D.J. Trahan. Oh, and did we mention that O'Meara beat him by seven shots?

"Even when I went to dinner with Tiger last night, my wife Meredith ... said, 'How's Mark hitting it?'" O'Meara recalled with a grin. "He says, 'short.' Okay, yeah, I'm not 32 and strong, but I hit it far enough."

Sure, O'Meara was launching a driver and a rescue club into the wind at the fifth hole, a whopper of a par-4 at 470 yards. Players like Trahan were using 4-irons and 5-irons for their approaches.

That's where O'Meara's experience came in handy, though. He played within himself all day, and he was well-rewarded.

"All I'm trying to do on that hole is make a par," O'Meara said. "A birdie would be a bonus.But saying that, the golf course is 7,200 plus, right around there, and on the Champions Tour most of the average length courses are probably 7,000 to 7,100, so it's not like we play super short courses.

"I think physically0wise, I hit the ball as far now as I did when I played in my prime on the (PGA) TOUR to be honest with you. And I know equipment has something to do with it, but I'm still fairly strong. If I make a good swing and trust it, I can still get it out there, so I know I can still play."

O'Meara also putted extremely well, using just 24 to tie for first in that category among the 145 players in the star-studded field at the PGA TOUR's signature event. He understands that no one probably expected him to contend this week but at the same time he has his pride.

"When I played here two-and-a-half weeks ago from the back tees and shot that score, I said to myself, hey, I know no one expects me to play well, but you know what, there's no reason why I can't," O'Meara said. "... I don't take it lightly.

"When I won the Constellation Energy Championship up there at TPC Potomac knowing that that got me in here, I don't want to come here and not play well. I want to play well. And fortunately today I did, and hopefully I can keep it up."

And if he doesn't? O'Meara will certainly be disappointed. But at the same time, he's comfortable in his own skin.

"The best thing I have going for me is I kind of know where I belong," O'Meara said. "So there is pressure on me, but not quite the pressure it would be if I was 30 years old. I'm 54. I realize where I'm at in my life, and because of that I feel like at times I'm playing better golf."

O'Meara certainly did on Thursday. We'll see if he can keep it up.