O'Hair seeks to rise from solid to sensational
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- He'll be the first to tell you that he had his chances last year. One weekend, though, the putter would go cold. Another time, his driver would desert him.
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And then there were those two balls Sean O'Hair put in the water surrounding the green at the 71st hole of THE PLAYERS Championship.
OK. So Phil Mickelson ended up winning the PGA TOUR's showcase event that day. The 25-year-old O'Hair was there, though, in the final group on Sunday with a chance to capture his second PGA TOUR title -- and that has to count for something.
After all, you don't put together a year with a career-high 14 top-25 finishes, including five top-10s, without talent and tenacity, which O'Hair has in abundance. The key is how you respond. Do you look back and see the glass as half-empty or half-full?
O'Hair is definitely a half-full kind of guy. And with good reason.
"The thing I learned most last year was that if I keep putting myself in position to win, I will do it," he said. "I think I'm the kind of guy that once I learn how to do it, I'll take off. I had a lot of great experiences last year but unfortunately, I wasn't able to capitalize on some of the opportunities.
"I think it will help me have a better '08, though. I kind of know what to what to expect out of myself -- how to manage me and manage my game a little better. I think I learned more about myself and my game last year than any other year."
O'Hair was sitting in a rattan chair in the hallway at Waialae Country Club recently as he reflected on what he called a "year that could have been." And the benefit of perspective offered plenty of positives as he contemplated 2008.
Still stung by missing five of his first six cuts last year, O'Hair worked harder than he ever has during the offseason. He added a 900-square-foot practice facility just off the side of his house in Philadelphia. There's a net, video cameras and a putting green. Exercise equipment is next on the list. He's close enough, though, that he can still check in on his wife and two young children by walking down the hall.
"I've been in there five hours straight just beating balls, working on my swing, and then I'll go putt," O'Hair said. "Time flies pretty good. It's a nice secondary thing because where I live it's so cold and you don't want to go out where it's 40 degrees and blowing 30 mph. It's better to do that kind of work rather than sitting on your butt doing nothing."
O'Hair spoke with his teacher, Steve Dahlby, virtually every other day, then spent three days with him in Scottsdale before heading to Honolulu for the TOUR's first full-field event. The two concentrated most of their efforts on fine-tuning O'Hair's backswing.
"I kind of have the tendency to have my hands work away from me," he explained. "I get real high with my arms. I'm trying to take it back to where my hands stay fairly close to my body and my left arm gets more across my chest at the top of my swing.
"When I get off, it's because my arms are so high and my body is so quick, my hands drop dramatically on my backswing. Your timing has to be perfect, so I'm trying to get it to where it's just a more efficient, consistent swing."
When he got to Hawaii, O'Hair felt better about his game than he had starting out any of his three previous years on TOUR. He would have liked to do better than that tie for 50th, but O'Hair knows it will be a little while before he's tournament-tough.
"I just feel a little bit rusty with my mental approach, maybe my decision making," O'Hair admitted. "But all in all, I feel pretty good about where I am and where my game is."
He's comfortable on TOUR now, too.
Success came early to O'Hair when he won the 2005 John Deere Classic 18 tournaments into his rookie year and just six events after he finished second at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. The victory sent him scrambling to get a passport so he could make his major championship debut at the British Open at St. Andrews, where O'Hair tied for 15th.
This poised and unfailingly polite young man followed up his sensational rookie campaign with a solid sophomore season. O'Hair really proved his mettle last season, though, after that tenuous start that left him wondering if he'd be scrambling to keep his card. He only missed one cut in his next 22 starts and finished in the top 25 in all but seven events.
"I hung in there and worked hard and kind of got my game back and got some confidence back," O'Hair said. "Then I could have a great last half of the season."
THE PLAYERS Championship, notwithstanding.
O'Hair had taken a two-stroke lead into the final round of the tournament that brings together the strongest field in golf. When he came to Pete Dye's signature hole, though, the young pro was desperately trying to catch the No. 2 player in the game, Phil Mickelson.
In retrospect, O'Hair wishes he had aimed for the fat part of the green -- as both Tiger Woods and Steve Elkington later advised -- and trusted his putter. Who knows what might have happened at the 18th? But he didn't. He made a quadruple bogey and went on to tie for 11th.
"I was trying to win too hard," said O'Hair, who admitted to "hanging on for dear life" on the front nine. "You can't force winning. Winning just happens. Winning is the result of hard work, confidence and a good attitude. So I just put too much pressure on myself trying to win.
"I wasn't thinking about what would happen if I was to win. It was just that I wanted it so bad. I think you saw that with Tiger at the '06 Masters when his dad was sick and he wanted to win so bad for his dad, and you could tell.
"It's not the way to do it. You have to stay in the present. You can't really be concerned with whoever you're playing with or with the leaderboard. You just have to plug along, play the right shot at add them up at the end of the day."
The quadruple bogey on that evil, eviscerating par 3 robbed the thoughtful 25-year-old of a chance to begin to his transformation from a self-described "ordinary" player to "one of the best players on the PGA TOUR." There will be other opportunities, though.
O'Hair is a young man with an old soul. He's incredibly grounded and he's more than willing to put in the work necessary to excel. He wants to contend in majors. He wants to win again and make the Ryder Cup team. He's smart enough to realize he can gain from every experience -- good and bad.
"You don't really learn a whole lot when you win," O'Hair said. "I think you learn and become a better person from your losses. Unfortunately, it was just my time to lose. If I take that experience and learn from it rather than dreading it, I'll be a better person."
That's hard to imagine. The sky's the limit for the kind of player he can become, though.
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