   
| O'Hair goes for it, pays the price and already has moved on  PGA TOUR Staff PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- He was trying to win THE PLAYERS Championship. Not finish second.  Sean O'Hair wasn't sure what happened on the decisive 17th hole until he heard the crowd groan. (Hunter Martin/WireImage)
So when Sean O'Hair stepped to 17th tee, there was no question in his mind. He was two down with two to play. He was going for it. With a 9-iron. No lob wedge to the middle of the green. No playing it safe, two-putting and going to the 18th tee in search of a miracle. He took it right at the pin. He posed. He thought it was the perfect shot on the most dye-abolical hole on the course. Then he heard the groan. "That's when I knew,'' he said, shaking his head. " ... It kicked my [rear].'' Not once, but twice. The second time from the drop area. It was painful to watch. You're-naked-and-standing-in-the-middle-of-a-busy-street-nightmare hard. "I was a little bit shocked and deflated,'' O'Hair said. Anyone else keep their eyes closed when he hit the third shot to the green? There was a collective sigh of relief around the world when the putt found the bottom of the cup for a quadruple-bogey 7. By then, the pundits were wondering aloud if the 24-year-old could put this behind him. What they didn't know, is he already had. This isn't your average kid. He's tough. He turned pro at 17. Cut his abusive father out of his life and moved on. Gut-wrenching stuff. But what he had to do. And the more we try to define him by his past, the more adamant he is to define himself by the present. And look toward his future. So what did he learn Sunday afternoon? What does he take away from this? "I think I'm good enough to win,'' he said. "I think I've proven myself. You know, I'm not ... you know, people can sit there on TV, I guess, and say ... and take it that I might have choked or I was scared. "But I felt like I wasn't scared of Phil, I wasn't scared of winning, and I gave it my best shot today. You know what, unfortunately, I just didn't have it.'' We see the $750,000 difference between second and a tie for 11th. We see one shot. A shot we could never hit in a bazillion years. A shot that would make us feel like crawling under a rock. He sees birdie putts at 15 and 16 that didn't fall. If they had, well, he'd have played it safe. Taken it to 18 and see who had what. But they didn't and he couldn't. "I mean, 15 and 16 fall right into my bag,'' O'Hair said. "That's my area where I can make putts, and I feel confident with the putter, and I hit perfect putts on 15 and 16. You know, unfortunately I just misread it, and I think that's what predicted ... that's what made me do what I did on 17. "You know, if I'm one shot back, I do not fire at that pin. I do what Phil did, take a little 9 or ... he took a wedge, I think, and it almost spun back on the bottom tier. But he just played it smart like he should have.'' And O'Hair? He did what he had to do. And, no, his caddie/father-in-law Steve Lucas didn't try to talk him out of it. Lucas knew O'Hair was dialed in on Friday. He pointed to the shots he was hitting. The way he was scoring. The absolute confidence he had. So when O'Hair pulled the 9-iron, Lucas agreed. "He's a competitor,'' Lucas said. "He's not going to back down. He made a very adult, competitive decision. It turned out to be a little too much club.'' O'Hair didn't have his best stuff Sunday. He was leaking shots to the left most of the day, but he was managing that. Scrambling when he had to, making the putts. He shared the lead, he lost it. He came back and lost it for good with a bogey at the 10th and fell two behind when Mickelson birdied the 11th. He never gave up. Walking down the 18th fairway, Lucas turned to him and said, "I'm proud of you. You did a great job.'' Jim Mackay, Mickelson's caddie, came over to him, too. O'Hair is a deliberate player, but a talented one. He goes for it like Mickelson and Tiger Woods. One day he'll play alongside them in a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. Yes, he's that tough. "You can't criticize someone for trying to win a golf tournament,'' Lucas said. "And he knows some people will. He's going to gain more than he loses.'' As the sun was slipping away Sunday night, O'Hair agreed. He'd like to think Tiger would have done the same thing given the circumstances. That he would have gone for it. Not played for second. The money didn't matter. He wanted the crystal. And he wasn't about to sugarcoat anything. "It sucks,'' he said. "Imagine working your [rear] off for 70 holes and all of a sudden it's taken away from you.'' He went for it. He paid for it. He knows it. What you should take away from this is that he's learned to put the bad things behind him. Much tougher, cut-you-to-the-core emotions. "I think I can learn from this, and this isn't going to dictate anything,'' he said. "I think I will win this tournament.'' And the 17th? He can't wait to get another crack at it. "It's a great hole; it's a great golf course,'' he said. "I'm going to kick its [rear] next year.'' Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
