THE MIDAS touch of Dr Bob Rotella is working for Sean O’Hair, if not quite – at this time – for Pádraig Harrington. Since remodelling his swing with coach Sean Foley and getting his head sorted out by Rotella, in-form American O’Hair has started to fulfil his unquestioned talent.
And, following his victory at the Quail Hollow Championship on Sunday, which moved him to a career high 12th in the official world rankings, he’ll believe there is some unfinished business to be completed in this week’s Players Championship at Sawgrass.
Two years ago, when he wasn’t the player he is now, O’Hair held the 54-hole lead in The Players only to dunk two balls into the water on the infamous 17th island hole in the final round to make it easier than it would otherwise have been for Phil Mickelson, the eventual champion.
Indeed, O’Hair showed a frailty under pressure as recently as the Bay Hill Invitational in March where he relinquished a five-stroke final-round lead to Tiger Woods. Yet, despite finishing with late bogeys at Quail Hollow, this latest win was vindication of O’Hair’s – joining Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia as the only twentysomethings on the US Tour with three tour wins – toughened mental state.
Of that loss to Woods that is still fresh in the memory bank, O’Hair recounted. “Losing (at Bay Hill) pretty much just sucked . . . . but, even though it is tough to lose like that, to lose a five-shot lead against Tiger, you still learn a lot from it. I think it’s just experience. If you look on it as a positive after the fact, you learn from it and it is just an experience that’s going to help you become a better player.
“I talked to my coach, I talked to my caddie and we just all said, ‘all I have to do is keep putting myself in those situations, and at some point I’m going to learn how to win’. And it’s just nice to obviously win as quickly as I did after Bay Hill.”
O’Hair turned professional at 17. “It feels like a lifetime ago, like a whole other life.”
His early years were spent on the mini-tours, and he recalled one occasion in 2004 on the Gateway Tour – which he travelled in a mini-van with his wife – when he had only $2,000 in the bank. “We didn’t have enough money to play in any tournaments in the summer. It was basically we were playing for a meal ticket for the next week. It was actually that tough.
“We constantly talk about that stuff and reminisce. I think that’s the stuff that makes this so sweet. It makes the hard work worth it, and it’s just really nice to enjoy it with her, especially from where we came from. It’s amazing, being 26, I have been through a lot of stuff in my life so far.”
O’Hair added: “My goals are to win major championships and win big tournaments. I feel like I’m finally on my way to getting there. I’m not quite there yet. I still have a lot of work to do. But Sean Foley has really changed my game around. I think he’s changed my life forever.”
While O’Hair will aim to kick on from his latest tour win in The Players, others will be seeking to find their game; among them world number one Woods, who hasn’t finished higher than 11th in The Players since his 2001 victory. Woods only hit 25 of 56 fairways and 46 of 72 greens in regulation in Quail Hollow and has admitted that his short game is better than his long game at the moment.
“I need to get more crisp with my driving and my long irons and get that dialled in,” he said.
Likewise, Harrington – who missed the cut at Quail Hollow and is without a top-10 finish in nine tournaments on the US Tour so far this season – will be seeking to cure a tendency to go left off the tee which has proven costly in recent months. Harrington is one of three Irish players in the field at Sawgrass, along with debutant Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. McIlroy didn’t play last week (instead heading to Las Vegas for the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight), while McDowell chose to put in some practice time for the Irish Open at Baltray, where he played practice rounds on Thursday and Friday, before heading to The Players.
Harrington has two runner-up finishes at Sawgrass (2003 and 2004) but has missed the cut in two of the last three years, while McDowell’s only previous experience at The Players saw him finish 40th in 2005.
Meanwhile, Thomas Bjorn, chairman of the European Tour’s players committee, has said they will discuss Colin Montgomerie’s request for an increase in captain’s “wild cards” for next year’s match in Wales when the committee meets at Baltray this day week.
“It’s one of these things that some captains prefer not to pick anybody and some would like to pick the whole team. Monty’s certainly not scared of wanting to do what he thinks is right.We will discuss it hard and the fortunate thing is we have a lot of ex-Ryder Cup players on the committee.
“Monty will want something and if he gets it he will be happy, but if he doesn’t he will accept it. I know that for a fact. I see both arguments, I really do,”said Bjorn.
