“Age is nothing but a number, right?” he joked with the press, keen to remind them that August 3rd, his 49th birthday, is just a few weeks away.
To show you how long O’Neal has been at it, just know his first start on the Korn Ferry Tour came long before it was the Korn Ferry Tour.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal has spent the last few years bouncing among the secondary tours of pro golf — including a full season the PGA Tour Latinoamerica — doing most of his recent work on the Advocates Pro Golf Association Tour, a tour devoted to minorities in golf.
In total, 21 male and 12 female players were invited to take part in the John Shippen, ranging from O’Neal all the way down to Amari Avery, a 17-year-old amateur committed to play college golf at Southern California … once she graduates from high school.
The women’s event, a two-player team tournament, saw Shasta Averyhardt and Anita Uwadia win by two to earn a berth in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational later this month here in Michigan.
With the playoff win, via a birdie-par-par finish, Avery claimed the final exemption of the day, a solo spot in the Cognizant Founders Cup, played in October on the LPGA Tour.
When the Masters comes around, be sure to tune in to hear him and fellow staffers recount the most memorable tournaments in Augusta National history on A Pod Unlike Any Other.