Touring with Sean O’Hair – Getting back to the top

Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – It’s been several years since Sean O’Hair contended in a PGA Tour event. In fact, O’Hair, the 2005 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and a four-time winner in 10 seasons, has struggled the past three years on Tour, posting just two top-10 finishes in that span, both in 2012.

After fighting to retain his card for the 2015 campaign, O’Hair has shown encouraging signs in the first three starts of the season. Although he withdrew from the Frys.com Open after making the cut in the first event, O’Hair bounced back with a tie for 63rd in Vegas and a tie for 17th last week in Georgia. In fact, O’Hair’s weekend total of 132 was his lowest weekend scoring since the 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational, where Tiger Woods curled in a lengthy putt on the final hole to clip him at the wire.

The signs look good for the father of four who resides in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and the key might be his new sticks, not to mention his new take on life, love, family and, of course … golf.

TaylorMade has built O’Hair a new set of RSi (R-Slotted Inserts) irons and it seems that he’s made great strides in a very short period of time. Not to mention that he’s the first PGA Tour player to put them in play.

“The first day was Tuesday (Oct. 21) when I got the irons,” O’Hair said. “I’m playing the RSi2, which is a little bit offset, little bigger head and bigger sole compared with the RSi1, which most Tour players will use. I saw them and I liked the way they looked. I played nine holes with them and I immediately felt the difference. I’ve struggled with some of the irons that TaylorMade has made the past few years and I’ve been talking with them with what I like design-wise. When I saw these irons, it got me fired up. The distance control that I saw with the irons was amazing. So basically, I put the irons immediately in play and had my best finish last week in a long while, so that was nice.”

Numbers don’t lie and O’Hair’s numbers on Tour this past season were subpar to say the least, as he ranked 131st in scoring, 132nd in greens in regulation and 167th in driving accuracy. The big question, can O’Hair get back to where he should be? In a word, more consistent.

“My goals are the things that are going to get me to that point,” added O’Hair. “I look at my stats over the last few years, my driving accuracy has been pitiful. I want to be over 60 percent in fairways hit, over 70 percent in greens hit and in three-putt avoidance, I want to be one of the best on the PGA Tour, and if I do those three things, I will do everything I want to do. I’ll be back playing majors, I’ll be winning majors, playing on Sunday in final groups and I’ll be achieving things I want to achieve.”

After winning the then, Quail Hollow Championship in 2009, O’Hair rose to No. 12 in the world, a far cry from where he stands today at 418. His slide from elite player status has been a humbling experience.

“It has been tough,” he said. “I’ve asked myself a lot of questions. I kind of lost who I was as a player. I asked way to many people for their opinion on my game. The intention was good and I’ve always tried to improve myself and was open to getting better, but there comes a time, when you don’t necessarily need to get better, but you need to do the things you do well, more often. I think the last three or four years I’ve listened to way to many people and their opinions, such as coaches and sports physiologists or even my friends, who give me their two cents and a lot of them don’t know what their talking about. They mean well and they’re only trying to help me, but you just have to stop listening to it.

“It’s looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, ‘You know what, I know what the hell I’m doing and I know what got me out here and I know I’m good at this and I’m going to do it and I’m going to stop listening to people and I’m just going to do what I do and I’m going to have that consistency.’ I think I’m starting to see results with that. I’ve worked with White Manor teaching pro John Dunigan and he’s got me to believe that what I do is good and we have to block out all the B.S.”

Becoming a professional as a teenager and then making the PGA Tour at the ripe old age of 22 certainly wasn’t very easy.

“I did it different then a lot of guys out there,” O’Hair said. “I turned pro at 17 and started from rock bottom and I got out there on the PGA Tour. There’s not a lot of guys that can say that. I know what it’s like to fight and struggle, but also figure it out. My whole life I’ve had to fight through it.

“When I got on Tour I had immediate success. 2011 was a bad year, but I won, and 2012 I made every cut but four, so I can’t say that was a bad year. (20)13 and ’14 were really my bad years on tour and it’s an eye-opening experience because I had taken certain things for granted, whether it be how I practice and gotten lazy in that regard. It reminds you, that you need to do what you do, not what other guys do. I’ve always compared myself to other players and I’ve think that’s hurt me, especially the last couple of years. The biggest thing is that I’ve just listened to too many people.”

Part of the people whom O’Hair is certainly listening to is his wife Jackie and their four children, Molly, Luke, Grady and Trevor.

“I’m at a weird time in my life with Jackie and the kids. Their school age now and I don’t feel like I’m ever around them,” O’Hair said. “So when you’re on the road, you wish you were home, ’cause you don’t feel like you’re doing your job and when you’re home, you feel like you should be practicing and playing. It’s been a bit of an inner-struggle.

“I don’t think that it’s anything that other players don’t deal with. I just think that I’m dealing with it at a younger age. My youngest is 3 now and they’re all in school, and Jackie and I are trying to figure it out. Schools aren’t too excited about you pulling them out for a week, but they need to spend time with dad. Molly and Luke, who are now 9 and 7, grew up traveling on the PGA Tour, every single week. Now they never travel, so it’s just kind of strange.

“The thing that people don’t see is that I had four kids before I was 28 and that’s when things kinda went south a little bit. You’ve got obligations and life starts getting more complicated. It’s not just about you anymore, it’s about your family and you start struggling and you start worrying about your family.

“Before the kids, I never cared about money and if it wasn’t for the kids, I wouldn’t have cared about money. Life got complicated and it’s still complicated and will get more complicated as they grow up. Thank God I have a wife that’s there for me and supports me and takes that responsibility and takes that burden.”

Only time and practice will tell if O’Hair can make it back to the status on the PGA Tour that he is accustomed, but he certainly seems to have his priorities in order and is on the right path.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind that my best golf is ahead of me,” O’Hair added. “It’s funny, but someone told me the other day, ‘I’m waiting for you to turn 36’ and when I asked him why, he said, ‘I think you’re going to be unstoppable at that age, like (Steve) Stricker.’ I hope so. That sounds awfully good. His point was, my life will be a little more in order, I’ll be a little more settled in. My life has been a bit upside-down the last few years, between moving a couple of times for school, the kids and for other things and life’s been complicated.

“For the first time, my game is simple right now and I’m starting to see results and starting to get my confidence back. You can’t go from the outhouse to the penthouse overnight. It takes a lot of work. I went from one of the best ball strikers on tour to basically the worst ball striker on tour. It’s made me rethink things a little bit. I’m not out of the water yet. I realize that I’m not going to win every year, but I’m capable of finishing in the top 25 in every event that I play in. I’ve put a lot of mental and physical work into it and my swing feels simple now.”

For seven consecutive seasons, O’Hair was ranked in the top 80 in the world, posting his four wins and earning millions of dollars, but that’s ancient history.

“I haven’t achieved any of the things I want to do in this game,” he continued. “I haven’t won a major. I haven’t been a top player for a long time. I want to be one of the top players in the game. I want to be player of the year. I want to be considered one of the best players of my time. I still think I can do that.”

Categorized in: PGA