Island Packet Verizon Heritage 2008 Coverage | Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC

By JUSTIN JARRETT
jjarrett@islandpacket.com
843-706-8120

Sean O’Hair was prepared for a pretty ho-hum spring. That all changed with one Sunday surge.

Since coming from four shots back to win the PODS Championship at Innisbrook last month, things have turned around dramatically for the 25-year-old. He leapt into the top 30 in the World Golf Rankings after earning his second PGA Tour victory and his first since winning the John Deere Classic in 2005, when he was the PGA Tour’s rookie of the year.
“It’s nice,” O’Hair said. “I think it’s a little bit sweeter this time than it was the first time. Obviously, it’s special winning for the first time, but you kind of think it’s going to happen every year, and it just doesn’t work that way.”

The win also earned him a spot in the World Golf Championships-CA Championship at Doral and his second trip to the Masters last week, where he tied for 14th and ensured a return trip for 2009.

“This is what you work hard for, but there’s nothing wrong appreciating it when it happens,” said O’Hair, a former Junior Heritage champion. “This isn’t the peak of where I want to end up. Obviously, I want to achieve a lot more, but I definitely need to kind of enjoy it.”

Enjoyment is something O’Hair admits he hasn’t allowed himself on the golf course the past couple of years. He says he put too much pressure on himself to win again, and was hard on himself when it didn’t happen. Even last year, when he had five top-10 finishes and finished 38th on the money list, O’Hair focused too much on his shortcomings.

But not anymore.

“Last year was probably my most consistent year, but in a way it felt like a failure that I didn’t win,” O’Hair said. “Each year, a goal of mine is to win at least once, so I definitely feel that it’s a relief that my hard work has paid off and that I think I’m working on the right things and my mind is in the right place.”

O’Hair came close to ending his drought several times last year, most notably at The Players Championship, where he took a one-shot lead into the final round before fading to 11th place with a 4-over-par 76 that included two shots dumped into the water at the famous par-3 17th.
But O’Hair says even that Sunday meltdown was part of getting to where he is now.

“I think you learn from all your past experiences,” O’Hair said. “There’s no better learning tool than experience.”

O’Hair has gained plenty of that over the years, and not all of it good.
He reportedly hasn’t spoken to his father, Marc, since his wedding in December 2002, the end of a bitter relationship between a talented son and an overbearing father.

At his father’s behest, O’Hair turned pro when he was 17 — before completing high school — and signed a contract pledging 10 percent of his professional earnings to his father. In a 60 Minutes II interview in 2002, Marc O’Hair compared his son to a business venture, saying, “I was in business for 20-plus years, and I know how to make a profit. You’ve got the same old thing: It’s material, labor and overhead. He’s pretty good labor.”

O’Hair has a healthier relationship with his father-in-law, Steve Lucas, who has become his mentor and father figure since O’Hair met his wife, Jackie. O’Hair and Lucas had an insightful talk before the PODS Championship, and Lucas’ words must have struck the right chord.

“The whole extent of it was that you know what to do, you’ve just got to go and do it and believe that you can do it and forget about what people want you to be,” O’Hair said. “Forget about trying to be somebody you’re not. Just do it, do what Sean O’Hair does. And he was right.”