The 2024 PURE Insurance Championship marks the end of a Mark O’Meara’s professional playing career. Now 67 years old, the U.S. Amatuer, Masters and British Open champion will retire at Pebble Beach, after having won there five times in his career. Most notably, in 1990 with his father playing with him.

O’Meara was a playing editor for Golf Digest in the 1990’s, and within our archive lies a host of instruction and anecdotes from both himself and his coach, Hank Haney, and his close friend, Tiger Woods.

To celebrate O’Meara’s retirement, we took a dive into those archives and pulled out five great tips from the major champ that could help you play better, too.

A quick way to handle nerves in crucial moments

TIMOTHY A. CLARY

In 1998, O’Meara claimed his first major by winning the Masters over Fred Couples and David Duval. The win required sinking a 20-foot birdie putt on 18. Not a task for the faint of heart.

“I was about as nervous on the final green at Augusta as I had ever been anywhere,” O’Meara said in a 1999 Golf Digest instruction article. “But I knew the only way to make this putt was to get relaxed quick. So I took a couple of deep breaths and got focused.”

Taking those couple deep breaths allowed O’Meara to to escape the nerves and analyze the task at hand.

“I noticed how Fred Couples’ bunker shot broke, and then I thought about what Hank Haney and I worked on after my 74 on Thursday,” O’Meara said in the article. “He got my head centered over the ball, my eyes positioned above the target line, and my body square to the target but not locked in place. The last part is crucial. Yes, you want to be steady (any movement opens the clubface), but you also want your arms and shoulders to be free to swing the putter. In the end, I got relaxed, the putt went in and all those nerves went away.”

Sometimes you need to get a little technical

R&A Championships

In 1982, O’Meara was on the range of the ’82 Hall of Fame Championship, and in need of help.

“I was struggling, lost my confidence, couldn’t find my golf ball and was in just about desperate need of finding something to get back on track,” O’Meara said in a 1985 Golf Digest article.

He asked an instructor on the range what he thought of his swing. The young man got someone else to help, and that happened to be Hank Haney. It was the beginning of a long partnership.

Haney completely changed O’Meara’s swing.

“We have changed my swing plane a good foot and a half,” O’Meara explained in a 1985 Golf Digest article.

While working with Haney, O’Meara was talking a lot with Ben Hogan, too. Hogan shared with O’Meara that he, too, went through a major swing transformation while on tour.

“The model swing [Hogan] developed looked natural and correct, but he told me it was 100 percent mechanical and man-made, pieced together by trial and error,” O’Meara said in the 1985 article. “That tells me there’s hope for all—you can become a better ball striker by developing the right technique.”

It’s a good lesson: If you’re in a really difficult spot, so desperate for help that you’re asking random people on a range for advice, it might be time to link up with an instructor, get technical, and make some real changes.

MORE: To end his career, Mark O’Meara picked the place that’s been so magical in his life—Pebble Beach

Try this drill to get a feel for green speed

Augusta National

If you don’t have the right speed, you’re not making putts. It’s as simple as that. But speed can be difficult to learn, as it requires a lot of feel. And your feel needs to be able to adjust to different courses and conditions.

O’Meara has a simple drill that will help you get a good feel for green speed.

“Getting speed is all about developing a sixth sense, sort of coordinating your sense of the distance of a putt in your mind’s eye with the length of stroke you make. And you have to learn the speed all over again before every round you play,” O’Meara said in a 1999 Golf Digest article.

“My advice is to go to the practice green, take five balls and hit all five of them without looking up, trying to roll them all the same distance. Do it to 50, 30 and even 10 feet. By the time all five balls are always finishing up in the same area, you’ve got a pretty good handle on the right speed.”

The fairway bunker drill he and Tiger practiced together

David Cannon

In a 2003 article, Tiger talked about emulating O’Meara’s fairway bunker play. “It helps me hit it a bit thin,” Woods said in the 2003 article, “something great fairway bunker players like Jack Nicklaus and Mark O’Meara seem to do every time. They stay very level throughout the shot.”

Woods’ favorite fairway bunker drill involved O’Meara. It trains you to stand up tall, preventing you from digging into the sand. Instead, it promotes that thin contact O’Meara’s so good at.

“The best drill I’ve found to work on fairway bunker shots requires help from a friend,” Woods said in the 2003 article. “Mark O’Meara will hold the butt of a club under my chin when I’m at address. After I take it back and start the downswing, he takes his club away. It’s a great visual cue. It helps me stay tall.”

The swing change that added 15 yards

David Madison

In 1984, Golf Digest featured O’Meara as a player to watch. He’d been Rookie of the Year in 1981, and was still looking for his first win. In September of 1984, he finally got it at the Greater Milwaukee Open.

One of the reasons he looked so poised to claim his first win in 1984 was his driving distance. In 1981, he was ranked 135th on the PGA Tour in driving distance. In 1983, he was 19th. He’d added 15 yards to his tee ball.

“I’ve been working on keeping the clubhead shallower through impact,” he said in the 1984 article.

A more vertical, or V shaped swing, can lead to poor impact. Getting more shallow can result in increased clubhead speed and therefore, more distance.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com