It won’t go down as the most gracious of wins, but Sean O’Hair’s first victory in two years wasn’t any less deserved or emotional on a difficult day of scoring at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.

Perhaps it was appropriate O’Hair beat Kris Blanks with a bogey on the first hole of sudden death. The lead, after all, went backwards a stroke after Bo Van Pelt began the final round at 5 under and O’Hair and Blanks ended it tied at 4 under.

It wasn’t pretty with both O’Hair and Blanks both finding the rough off the tee and both coming up short of the 18th green in the playoff, and neither played very good third shots, either. But O’Hair managed to save bogey with a two-putt, while Blanks, whose chip from the fringe scooted a good 5 feet past the hole, wasn’t able to save his.

With the win, O’Hair not only gets his first victory since 2009, he earns 500 FedExCup points to move to 43rd. Blanks, meanwhile, moved up to 54th.

Kris Blanks is looking for his first career victory, while Sean O’Hair is looking for his first win. Here’s a play-by-play of their playoff:

18th hole: Neither Blanks or O’Hair found the fairway off the tee. As a result, neither one of them was able to hit the green on their second shots, either. On O’Hair’s third, he came up woefully short of the hole on his pitch shot. Meanwhile, Blanks sent his bunker shot sailing past the hole and off the green onto the fringe. O’Hair two-putted for bogey, but Blanks wasn’t able to get up-and-down and made double bogey to give O’Hair the win.

On another day of tough scoring, the lead went backwards a stroke with Kris Blanks and Sean O’Hair each finishing at 4 under. The two will now head to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff.

Blanks is trying to win for the first time in his career, while O’Hair is looking for his first victory since 2009. Neither has played in a playoff before.

Andres Romero had a chance to join the playoff, but he bogeyed the 18th hole after missing the fairway and then hitting it into a greenside bunker.

Kris Blanks posted two birdies and an eagle on his final eight holes early Thursday to take the round lead at the RBC Canadian Open. Blanks’ 3-under 67 held up as the day’s low round on a very tough Shaughnessy layout, but not without a few scares. Both Matt Kuchar (1 over) and Ben Martin (2 under) were tied with Blanks at one point but could not maintain their positions atop the leaderboard. Sean O’Hair briefly took the lead from Blanks, reaching 4 under after 14 holes, but he closed with three consecutive bogeys and posted a 1-under 69. Martin is part of a group of 11 players tied for second, one shot off Blanks’ pace. Among the others at 2 under are Kodak Challenge leader Bill Lunde, Canadian Matt McQuillan, Paul Goydos and Bo Van Plet. Ernie Els, who traveled to Canada as one of two players from last year’s TOUR Champisonhip by Coca Cola field currently outside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings, is also at 2 under. Defending RBC Canadian Open champion Carl Pettersson opened with a 4-over 74 and is tied for 90th.

It’s been two years since Sean O’Hair won, and it’s been nearly that long since he’s played well -- at least on a consistent basis.

O’Hair is starting to change that, however. He had a couple of top-20 finishes in May and through 14 holes at the RBC Canadian Open is 4 under and in the lead by himself.

Earlier this year O’Hair and longtime swing coach Sean Foley parted ways. The two remains close friends, but the “change” O’Hair needed, as he called it, seemed to spark some good golf at THE PLAYERS and the Crowne Plaza Invitational. Then he missed four of his next five cuts.

O’Hair is playing well in the opening round in Vancouver, however; at one point he made three straight birdies.

Can he keep it up? Follow the rest of his round here .

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- It’s safe to say Sean O’Hair chose the right sport. On Tuesday night, O’Hair, who is from nearby West Chester, Pa., was invited to throw out the first pitch at the Phillies-Red Sox game at Citizens Bank Park.

How’d it go?

“It was awful,” O’Hair joked. “I think I hit the camera guy right in the head. I think the worst thing about it, I didn't even ask how he was doing I was so nervous.

“But it was fun to be there. I had two of my kids there, and the whole experience was great. I wish I would have thrown a little bit better pitch, but it's not what I do for a living.”

What O’Hair does do for a living is play golf. It’s also something he’s struggled with this season.

In 15 starts, O’Hair has just three top 25s and in his last three starts he missed two cuts and tied for 63rd in another. He also parted ways with his swing coach, Sean Foley, earlier this year.

“This year I've definitely had a difficulty being comfortable on the golf course,” O’Hair admitted. “I think my game has turned around. I saw a lot of good things last week, and I think the fact that I'm comfortable this week with being home and in front of everybody is definitely going to help me out quite a bit.”

Unless the cut line moves a stroke, Ben Crane will be headed home early from TPC Four Seasons. At least it will be a short trip for Crane, who lives in nearby Westlake and finished his first two rounds at 2 over after a pair of 71s and one shot outside the number.

Crane isn’t the only notable player on the wrong of the number.

Anthony Kim is in the clubhouse at 3 over after a 71 Friday. So is Tommy Gainey. Charlie Wi, who lost in a playoff to David Toms last week, Justin Leonard and Sean O’Hair are all headed home early as well.

Among those fighting so stay inside the cut? PLAYERS winner K.J. Choi, who is 1 over for the week and even through three holes in the second round, and defending champion Jason Day, who is also 1 over after playing his first three holes in Round 2 at 1 under.

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

Sometimes change is good, or necessary, or both.

Enter Adam Scott, who split with longtime caddie Tony Navarro following last week’s PLAYERS Championship, where he missed the cut. Scott said he’s had a great relationship with Navarro through the years, but “the cliche, all good things come to an end.”

The move doesn’t seem to have impacted Scott, who is using Camilo Villegas’ now-former looper Michael Doran this week, negatively so far -- Scott is 4 under through 15 holes at Colonial and near the top of the leaderboard.

As for the decision to split, it was an amicable one.

"There were issues that had nothing to do with on the golf course or with us," Navarro, who lives in Moline, Ill., told the Quad City Times. "It's just a few things weren't going to work out. I told him I wouldn't quit, so he would have to fire me.

"It wouldn't have been any different had we won the Masters. It was an unavoidable circumstance in the middle of our relationship that we couldn't overcome."

Sometimes a change of scenery, like in other sports, is just good for a team, or in this case an individual. We saw the same thing last week, for example, with Sean O’Hair, who recently parted ways with swing coach Sean Foley and then had a season-best finish, a tie for 19th, at THE PLAYERS.

O’Hair and Foley remain close, much the way Navarro expects to with Scott.

By Ward Clayton, PGATOUR.COM

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- A start of 71-71 may not mean much to many in the field this week at THE PLAYERS Championship. But for Sean O’Hair, it’s a big success.

“I’m feeling better,” O’Hair said. “I’m still playing.”

The 28-year-old had missed five consecutives cuts and has no finishes better than a tie for 24 ^th this season. The biggest disconnect was that he had lost confidence in his swing. Therefore, he parted ways with swing coach Sean Foley and reconnected with original coach Steve Dahlby. He also brought back Steve Lucas, his father-in law and former caddie.

“My swing is feeling more natural,” O’Hair said. “I am hitting that cut out there and I like that. That’s the way I play. I was trying to hit a draw and that didn’t work. A lot of people were telling me they had never seen me hit it as bad as I had.”

FEDEXCUP: Standings | Who’s up, down? | April movers | Weekly Leaders | FEC 101 | More notes With his second victory of the 2011 season last week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Bubba Watson took his first career FedExCup lead. Mark Wilson, who also has won two events this season, led the standings for the previous 12 weeks, but fell to third – behind Watson and Luke Donald – following the Zurich Classic. Watson’s lead may not be safe, though. Seven of the top 10 in the standings are in the field at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship and any of them could unseat Watson with a victory at Quail Hollow. BEST WITHOUT A 2011 WIN: Matt Kuchar? Hunter Mahan? Steve Marino? Try Webb Simpson, who suffered a heartbreaking defeat at last week's Zurich Classic. With his second runner-up finish of the season, though, Simpson moved to No. 10 in the FedExCup standings, 63 points ahead of Matt Kuchar. Simpson has made eight cuts in 10 starts this year and has converted seven of those into top-25 finishes. His last seven starts dating back to the start of February: T8, T24, 2nd, cut, T16, T14 and P2. Not a bad stretch. A win this week could move Simpson atop the standings. BIGGEST MOVERS: George McNeill tied for sixth in New Orleans and moved up 57 spots to 115th in the standings. Tying with McNeill at the Zurich Classic was Matt Jones, who climbed from 142nd to 99th. Winner of the inaugural Winn-Dixie Jacksonville Open last year on the Nationwide Tour, David Mathis moved up 45 spots to 123rd with a tie for eighth last week. NOTABLE DROPS: Sean O’Hair missed his fifth consecutive cut last week and fell 11 spots to 161st in the standings. The 28-year-old three-time TOUR winner also parted ways with longtime swing coach Sean Foley this week. Taking the biggest tumble this week was Kris Blanks, who also missed the cut in New Orleans and dropped 12 spots to No. 153. MORE ON LAST WEEK’S WINNER: Watson moved atop the FedExCup standings for the first time in his career with his victory at the Zurich Classic. It was his third TOUR victory in the last 19 starts after he did not win the first 121 starts of his career. Watson has amassed 1,339 FedExCup points already this season. That total would have placed him at No. 12 in the standings at the close of the 2010 regular season. He didn’t reach that number last year until his final Regular Season start – a P2 at the PGA Championship – boosted him to a season total of 1,498 points.