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NEWPORT BEACH — It wasn’t hard to see who the fans were pulling for and for the first time in a long time, Mark O’Meara found himself as an underdog.

O’Meara, who grew up in nearby Mission Viejo and played many high school matches at Newport Beach Country Club, was trying to win his first Champions Tour event in 34 attempts back in Southern California.

It looked good after the second round. O’Meara was tied for the lead with Bernhard Langer and while Langer was faltering, O’Meara was fighting with his putter, but hanging on to the lead.

“I made a pretty good putt on 4, a bomb and I thought I hit a good putt on 6 that didn’t go in,” O’Meara said. “I had a decent putt on 8 that didn’t go in and the putt on 10 that missed.” That started an avalanche of missed putts that ended up costing O’Meara the tournament.

“On 10 and 11 I needed to make those birdie putts they were short enough, probably inside seven feet,” said O’Meara, who finished tied for second with Joey Sindelar behind champion Eduardo Romero. “The bogey on 12 hurt. It was frustrating.

Despite his putter betraying him, O’Meara was only three shots back and had a par five on 15 that a birdie could have pulled him to within two shots.

“I didn’t birdie the par five on 15 like I needed to and then missing the short putt on 16 really let [Romero] off the hook,” O’Meara said.

The putt on 16 was barely three feet and when O’Meara missed it, it gave Romero a two-shot lead with two holes to play.

“Eduardo played well on the back nine, made three birdies in a row and that kind of separated us,” said O’Meara, who finished at 10-under-par 203 to win $136,000. “He played smart out there.”

The crowd around the final group was one of the largest in recent memory and it was easy to tell who they were pulling for at Newport Beach Country Club.

“It’s nice to see,” O’Meara said of the fan support. “I saw so many people out there that I know and they are pulling for me. They were really pulling for me being a local guy and I can’t thank them enough.”

It also might have put a little more pressure on O’Meara. He wanted to win not only for himself, but for those who had come to see him, like his father-in-law. O’Meara’s son, Shaun, is a member of the UC Irvine men’s golf team, which is competing in Fresno.

“I haven’t been there in a while, but the nerves were out there,” O’Meara said. “I still drove the ball on every fairway and hit a lot of quality shots. I just didn’t make the putts.”

It was a finish that O’Meara has had before and was looking for a different result this time.

“The only disappointment is that I didn’t win,” O’Meara said. “At this stage of my life it’s nice to finish second, third or fourth, but it’s all about winning for me now. I want to win and I put a little more pressure on myself.”

The 35th chance for O’Meara to get his first Champions Tour victory begins Friday at Valencia Country Club.

And O’Meara said he will be ready.

“It’s tough when you haven’t been in the mix in a while, but I’ll learn from this,” O’Meara said. “Hopefully I’ll putt better next week and have a chance to win again.”