PGA golfer finds a home in Mississauga

“Ladies and gentlemen, on the tee, from Austin, Texas and Mississauga, Ontario, Omar Uresti.”
What? Can’t be. Must be a mistake or someone is playing a joke.
But, it turns out it was no joke at all. The announcement made during the recent RBC Canadian Open golf championship at Glen Abbey was correct.
Omar Uresti, a real, live, honest-to-goodness member of the PGA Tour, does call Mississauga home. Well, at least for close to six months of the year he does.
The 40-year-old Uresti lives in the Erin Mills area with his wife and family, usually from May to September each year, and he spends time honing his game by either playing or practicing at RattleSnake Point Golf Club in Milton.
“I have to admit that Mississauga never crossed my mind when I was younger,” says Uresti, a graduate of the University of Texas who turned pro back in 1991. “I knew where Toronto was but I didn’t know anything about Mississauga. The funny thing is Mississauga has a bigger population than my home town (Austin).”
Uresti developed a sudden fondness for Mississauga, or perhaps more to the point a young lady from Mississauga, 10 years ago when he was playing in the 1998 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.
“I went to the Outback Steakhouse in Oakville for dinner one night and that’s when I first met her,” says Uresti of his wife, Anita Edmonds. “She was working behind the bar that night.”
Uresti says the two stayed in touch for the next couple of years while she studied at the University of Toronto and then he invited her to Greensboro, N.C. to see him play in a tournament in 2000. They got engaged and were married two years later.
“I really like it up here in Mississauga,” says Uresti, whose nickname on the PGA Tour is O-Man. “When we’re up here, we share a house with Anita’s sister and it’s great. And I’ve got a couple of buddies who work at Glen Abbey.”
Another reason why Mississauga is popular with Uresti is that he can get quick flights in and out of Pearson International Airport.
“This is one of the best places for travel to the Northeast and the Midwest,” he says.
Uresti and his family head back to Austin this week (week of Aug. 25), moving back into the house that he grew up in, and he’ll start preparing for his next event on the PGA Tour, the $3.6 million Viking Classic in Madison, Mississippi, Sept. 18-21. The Viking tournament is up against the Ryder Cup scheduled for the same week at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
“It’s tough not being able to travel with your family some times, but they treat us pretty well on Tour,” he says. “They spoil us quite a bit. There’s daycare for the families who travel regularly, we get breakfast and lunch every day, we get the use of a courtesy car for a week. It’s not bad at all.”
Oddly, Uresti has not won an event on the PGA Tour, but he’s made a lot of money being a pro golfer. He has a dozen top-10 finishes to his credit that have helped push his career earnings to close to $4 million and he’s made another $800,000 on the Nationwide Tour.

onlinenews@mississauga.net