- Make 100 putts from 2 feet.

- Make 100 putts from 4 feet.

- Make 100 putts from 6 feet.

- Chip balls from four areas onto the green.

- Practice lag putting on the greens.

- Head to the driving range and hit balls to work on his swing for 30 to 45 minutes.

- Hit wedge shots or decide to play an 18-hole round.

“He’s a practice player,” Salado coach Bobby Peschel said of junior O’Rear. “He’s the type that if he is out there and he says he’s going to chip the ball in five times before he goes home, he’ll be there until he chips it in five times. That’s just the way he is.

“He’s a real easy kid to coach because his goals are so high. You can’t make him do anything that he doesn’t want to do already.”

And after O’Rear’s approximate four hours of practice time at Salado’s Mill Creek Golf Club, it’s time for some running and weightlifting at home.

When asked how he developed such a meticulous everyday practice regimen, O’Rear said before he was old enough to drive a car his parents would drop him off at the golf course. Instead of bearing 100-degree weather walking a full round, he spent most of his time chipping and putting around the practice greens.

“Hard work pays off,” said O’Rear, who has verbally committed to play golf at Baylor. “I’m not the longest of hitters. I’m not the best ball striker, but my short game usually keeps me in there.”

His rigorous preparation has been the basis to his successful high school career.

As a freshman in 2006, he tied for fourth place individually at the 2A state tournament and was the top Salado scorer on a team full of upperclassmen.

Last year, O’Rear shot rounds of 70 and 72 at Austin’s Jimmy Clay Golf Course to knock off defending champion Travis Klutts of Callisburg and capture the individual state title by two strokes.

He followed that performance by qualifying for the U.S. Amateur Championship at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, a feat he hopes to match in August.

If 2007 was memorable, O’Rear hopes 2008 is even better.

O’Rear seeks to defend his title when he and Salado’s boys and girls teams tee off Monday at the University Interscholastic League 2A State Tournament at Roy Kizer Golf Course in Austin.

While repeating ranks high on his agenda, O’Rear wants to atone for second- and fourth-place team finishes the last two years and make his third state appearance a clean sweep.

“It’s important and it’s definitely something I want to do,” O’Rear said about defending his title, “but I want the team to do well. The last two years have been hard because I felt like we had a really good shot both years to win a team title. Last year we just came up a bit short. So this year, I definitely want to focus on winning it as a team.”

O’Rear set a goal earlier in the year that he wanted Salado to win the District 25-2A Tournament, the Region IV Tournament and state. Using the team concept as a self-motivating tactic, he decided he needed to raise his performance and shoot under a 140 total for two rounds at each event.

“I felt that in order for us to do that I needed to shoot that score,” O’Rear said. “I needed to play the best I could. I felt that would give our team the best shot.”

O’Rear has taken care of two-thirds of his goal.

At district, he shot a 70 and a 67, his lowest round of the year, for a 137 total at Lago Vista Golf Club and Mill Creek to win the individual title. At the regional at San Marcos’ Quail Creek Golf Club, O’Rear went 69-70 for a 139 and another first-place finish, and the Eagles won both tournaments.

“I’ve been putting the ball really well this year,” O’Rear said. “I have a lot of confidence in the putter right now. I’ve just making a lot of putts.”

In seven events this year, O’Rear has won four and finished in the top three in all. Half of his 14 rounds have been shot at par or better and his scoring average is 72.25 and dropping.

Before each event, O’Rear stalks the practice green, rolling in six-footers while trying to read each possible angle.

That tedious attention to detail, the one he developed as a child, is the reason why his game continues to grow.

And if everything falls into place, he might add another state title and a second appearance at the U.S. Amateur to his rapidly growing résumé.

“He’s very competitive,” Peschel said. “That’s the type of kid that you know will put the work in to allow himself to go really low. He hasn’t gone as low as he is capable of, because he’s capable of going really low.”

cmeister@temple-telegram.com