What happened to golf star Blair O'Neal?

She was one of the most popular golfers of the 2000s and last decade, but she achieved fame not only for her skills on the green, but also for her talent on the catwalk. Let's find out what Blair O'Neal is doing today, retracing her career as a golfer and... in fashion!

Blair O'Neal was born in Macomb, Illinois, on May 14, 1981. She then moved with her family to Arizona, where she spent most of her childhood. At just 11 years old, her father enrolled her and her brother in a local junior golf school.

Despite her very young age, golf became her first great passion, pushing her to spend almost all her afternoons at the Dobson Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, according to her official website.

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She has earned many prestigious honors throughout her career, including selection to the US Junior Ryder Cup team in Valderrama, Spain, selection to the AJGA Cannon Cup team, second place in the Woman's Western tournament and the gold medal at 'AJGA Ping Phoenix Junior Championship.

Her talent was such that many universities offered her a scholarship to ensure her presence among their ranks. Her decision was made easy when a letter from Arizona State University arrived – it had been her dream school since she was a child.  She would go on to compete on the Sun Devil women's golf team for four years, as reported by Sports Illustrated.

O'Neal continued her career in professional golf, competing in various tournaments and gaining exposure in and beyond the sport. She would soon start finding numerous opportunities in the fashion industry as well.

She then briefly played in Asia, where she achieved some status on the LPGA Symetra Tour (then known as the LPGA Futures Tour). However financial instability and a broken foot forced her to make a difficult decision and put her golf career on hold.

All her attention, therefore, was turned to modeling to keep herself busy professionally.

Five years after her break from golf, a unique opportunity arose for O'Neal: taking part in the Golf Channel's reality show "Big Break".  The former champion accepted without hesitation.

In 2009 she competed on the Golf Channel's "Big Break: Prince Edward Island," placing second. Taking part in the competition inspired her to take up golf professionally once again.

The following year, she again participated in the next edition of "Big Break", this time in the Dominican Republic, which she managed to win.

In the following years, she would get her her pro golfing career back on track, regaining her full status on the LPGA Symetra Tour, which she had lost, and signing a sponsorship deal with Puma.

Credit: Instagram @blaironealgolf

In 2015, she began a slow retreat from professional golf to become more involved in the media world. Today, she is one of the most well-known faces of the Golf Channel.

Married to Jeff Keizer, in April 2020 she became the mother of Chrome, her first child. While in November 2022 her second child, Canon Green Keiser, was born.

For her, becoming a mother wasn't so simple. She told Golf Week about their fertility problems and difficult intrauterine insemination procedures.

"We had to accept that if it didn't work, that was OK," O'Neal said. “It was just the path we needed to follow. I feel like once we got to that point and were aware that it might not work perfectly, we calmed down.”

O'Neal managed to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother, also being able to perfectly reconcile motherhood with her new job at Golf Channel.