Houston flooding ‘beyond belief,’ says golf Hall of Famer O’Meara

Thumbing through his phone for a video sent by his wife hours earlier, Mark O’Meara wants to show the damage in their neighbourhood that’s brought her to tears.

“The devastation there is really beyond belief,” said the PGA Tour Champions veteran, who calls hurricane Harvey-ravaged Houston his home.

“We live in Memorial, just 10 minutes west of the city, and we’ve been fortunate our house didn’t flood. Luckily, our house is 76 feet above sea level. But all around us the houses are flooded.

“It’s so sad. My wife has been home and she’s been breaking down just seeing the images we’ve seen. It’s heartbreaking and these people need our help right now.”

So O’Meara, like so many other high-profile Texans, is chipping in to do his part.

On Wednesday, while prepping for the Shaw Charity Classic at Canyon Meadows, he donated $10,000 to assist the American Red Cross with hurricane Harvey relief efforts by way of the PGA Tour’s charitable arm.

“I said I’d donate 10 per cent of everything I win for the rest of the year, too,” said the 60-year-old World Golf Hall of Fame member, who won the Masters and British Open in 1998 as part of a career that has netted him $23 million.

“If that can be a small way to help them find a better way, that’s important to me.

“It’s a small gesture to try to do something to help people who are a little less fortunate.”

No less than 30 members of the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Web.com Tour are Houstonarea residents.

O’Meara was stirred by regular tour player Chris Stroud, who made a similar pledge of $10,000.

“I saw what Chris Stroud did and, look, I wasn’t born and raised in Houston, but I’ve been a Houstonian the last nine years and what has transpired the last five, six days in Houston and southeast Texas has been devastating,” said O’Meara, who credits winning both majors in his 40s to his inspirational relationship with then-rising star and friend Tiger Woods.

“Texans, we all stand together and I know it will be a slow process, but we’ll do what we can to help them heal.”

You’d expect nothing less from the 16-time PGA Tour winner who is one of the real good guys in the game.

Personable, well-spoken and classy by all accounts, O’Meara is one of those old-school athletes who has always been accessible, humble, willing to give back and well aware of the world around him.

Case in point, while discussing the Houston-area flooding, O’Meara hearkened back to the floods in Calgary and southern Alberta that preceded the inaugural Shaw Classic in 2013.

He was paying attention to what Calgary was recovering from when he first got here.

“You know what happened here in Calgary when the Bow blew out and downtown and other places got flooded — the water is just so damaging,” said O’Meara, who will be part of the feature trio teeing off at 11:05 a.m. Friday with Fred Couples and Jerry Kelly.

“Especially in Texas with clay soil, there’s nowhere for it to go. It’s all so sad.”

You know what happened here in Calgary when the Bow blew out ... the water is just so damaging.