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The post What it’s like playing in a Presidents Cup and partying alongside Michael Jordan appeared first on Golf.

Sean O’Hair never should’ve been in the position to represent his country in the Presidents Cup (or to party along some of his lifelong heroes, for that matter).

“There’s no way I should have made it. It’s hard enough to make it,” O’Hair said. “I didn’t necessarily feel comfortable with how I was putting. I was really struggling with that because I wasn’t scoring.”

But in 2009, he got the call to join the U.S. Team in the Presidents Cup at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, Calif. And as he told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz in this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, it was one of the best breaks he received in his PGA Tour career.

The story begins in the lead-up to the event, when O’Hair joined Michael Jordan — who was serving as an assistant on the U.S. side — for a practice round.

“Jordan was trying to say some words — the best thing that Jordan and I did was we played a practice round and afterwards we got hammered,” O’Hair said. “I think it was Lucas Glover, me, Couples and Jordan. It was cool. We had a good time. And then we were drinking scotch and he was just drinking me under the table.”

For O’Hair, who grew up in the early-90s in the heart of the Jordan-era Bulls, the round proved to be an out-of-body experience.

“It was just one of those Tiger moments. For Michael Jordan to do that for me and to take the time means a lot for me,” he said. “To me, sitting at a table basically at a table telling Michael Jordan he’s full of s—, because my car was faster than his. It was one of those moments like, holy s—, is this really happening?”

And of course, beyond Jordan, O’Hair was joined on that U.S. team by some of his golf heroes. Chief among them, Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson.

For O’Hair, what Jordan brought in competitive knowledge and star power, players like Mickelson matched in golf intuition.

“Phil is an interesting cat. I don’t know how to say if I like Phil or if I don’t like Phil,” O’Hair laughed. “For Phil to take me under his wing the way he did and to encourage me the way he did during some of those matches, that was really cool for me.”

To see the rest of O’Hair’s interview on Subpar, including his thoughts on why Anthony Kim is a misunderstood golfer, watch the full video below.

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The post GOLF’s Subpar: How Michael Jordan being an assistant coach impacted Sean O’Hair and the rest of the 2009 US Presidents Cup team appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: How Michael Jordan being an assistant coach impacted Sean O’Hair and the rest of the 2009 US Presidents Cup team appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair who explains the impact Michael Jordan had on him and his US teammates during their 2009 Presidents Cup victory.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: How Michael Jordan being an assistant coach impacted Sean O’Hair and the rest of the 2009 US Presidents Cup team appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair who explains what it was like playing with Anthony Kim, why AK seemed to embrace controversy, and why the Tour would be better off with him still active.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on playing with Anthony Kim and why he embraced controversy appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro reveals why he ‘crumbled’ battling Tiger Woods down the stretch appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro reveals why he ‘crumbled’ battling Tiger Woods down the stretch appeared first on Golf.

It’s no secret that Tiger Woods is a generational talent on the golf course. With 82 wins, 15 majors and a highlight reel the length of a feature-length movie, he is unquestionably the biggest star the sport has ever seen. And if you ask his contemporaries, they’ll likely tell you the same thing, although Sean O’Hair might have summed it up the most succinctly.

“That guy is good man,” O’Hair said on a recent episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “He is really really good.”

O’Hair knows a thing or two about Woods’ game, too. The two played on a Presidents Cup team together in 2009 and went out for occasional practice rounds while on Tour. O’Hair also got the rare opportunity to go head-to-head down the stretch with the legend at the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

O’Hair entered the final round of the event with a five-stroke lead over Woods, but that deficit was quickly erased after a sloppy opening nine and some timely birdies from Woods. By the time they made the turn, the lead was one and Woods was in full-on attack mode.

“I just crumbled,” O’Hair said. “It was nerves … I wasn’t ready for that environment.”

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The environment he alluded to was a hostile one. O’Hair was heckled and told he was going to choke all day long — something he’d never seen on the golf course before (or since). With O’Hair’s nerves combined with Tiger being Tiger, the outcome was never in doubt as Woods drained the winning putt on the final hole for his 66th career victory.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for O’Hair. A few weeks later, he lifted a trophy of his own as he won by a shot at Quail Hollow. And when he walked off the green, Woods was right there to congratulate him.

“It was definitely a highlight of my career, and something that I will remember,” O’Hair said. “It was cool for him to make that happen.”

Check out the entire episode of Subpar below as O’Hair discusses Anthony Kim, his Presidents Cup experience and more.  

The post Pro reveals why he ‘crumbled’ battling Tiger Woods down the stretch appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on what it was like battling Tiger Woods in the final round at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on what it was like battling Tiger Woods in the final round at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair who talks through his battles with Tiger Woods at Bay Hill and what it meant to him when he was congratulated by Tiger after winning at Quail Hollow.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Sean O’Hair on what it was like battling Tiger Woods in the final round at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair Interview: Battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Michael Jordan’s impact at the 2009 Presidents Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair Interview: Battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Michael Jordan’s impact at the 2009 Presidents Cup appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, 4-time PGA Tour winner Sean O’Hair joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio interview. The 2005 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year talks what it was like battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, how Michael Jordan impacted the 2009 Presidents Cup team as an assistant coach, and his experiences playing with Anthony Kim over the years.

The post Sean O’Hair Interview: Battling Tiger Woods at Bay Hill, Michael Jordan’s impact at the 2009 Presidents Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair headlines four-way tie for lead at Northern Trust; Tiger is five shots back appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair headlines four-way tie for lead at Northern Trust; Tiger is five shots back appeared first on Golf.

PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) — Tiger Woods failed to carry any momentum he had from his last tournament into the start of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Neither did Sean O’Hair.

That was only good news for one of them Thursday in The Northern Trust.

O’Hair missed the cut last week and saw his FedEx Cup standing slip to No. 121, meaning he has to play well this week or his season is over. His immediate goal is to advance to the third stage of events because the BMW Championship is at Aronimink outside Philadelphia, where O’Hair is a member.

He drilled a 3-wood from 284 yards to 6 feet for eagle on No. 3. He hammered another 3-wood on the par-5 17th to 10 feet, settling for a two-putt birdie. That carried O’Hair to a 5-under 66, giving him a share of the lead with Kevin Tway, Jamie Lovemark and Vaughn Taylor.

“I’m obviously very disappointed that I’m not in a better position, but I’m kind of in charge of my destiny,” O’Hair said. “If I play good golf I’m just going to work into the next week.”

Woods, playing for the first time since his runner-up finish at the PGA Championship, had a pair of birdies, a pair of bogeys, a lot of pars and a 71. He was five shots behind and in a tie for 60th. After a rough start off the tee, Woods wound up hitting nine of 14 fairways. He just never got it close enough for good looks at birdie.

“Just didn’t have the situations where I had the full club and I could go ahead and take a rip at it and start being aggressive and going after these flags,” Woods said. “I kept having to play a little defensive because I was taking more club, trying to shape it and take spin off. One of those days.”

Woods is back in the FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in five years, and it was his first time at Ridgewood Country Club since 2010. Thousands came to watch him play, and they heard plenty of cheers from the group behind him.

Dustin Johnson rimmed out a 6-iron on the par-3 sixth for one of his seven birdies to offset a triple bogey for a 67. U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka ran off four birdies and an eagle for his 67. FedEx Cup champion Justin Thomas had four birdies in his round of 69.

Johnson could tell his 6-iron was close to perfect from the flight of the shot, where it landed and the reaction of the fans behind the par-3 sixth green as the ball rolled around left edge of the cup.

Or were they cheering because Woods teed off on the hole ahead of them?

“I was kind of debating whether they were yelling for me or him,” Johnson said with a smile.

O’Hair isn’t alone in the urgency to play well. The top 100 advance to the second stage next week at the TPC Boston, with the top 70 going to the BMW Championship and the top 30 making it to East Lake in Atlanta for the Tour Championship.

Tway and Lovemark are in the mid-80s in the FedEx Cup, while Taylor is at No. 112.

Tway began his week playing in a charity event with good friend Morgan Hoffmann, who is coping with muscular dystrophy. Hoffmann is a reminder of how far players can go with the FedEx Cup points quadrupled in the playoffs.

“Morgan Hoffmann came in at 124 and went all the way to The Tour Championship,” Tway said, referring to 2014. “That’s kind of the plan, try to play as good as you can and go as far as you can.”

Johnson had no idea where his tee shots were going until late in his round, yet he still managed to pile up birdies. One wild drive cost him at the 17th, where the ball went so far left it wasn’t even worth searching for in the woods. Johnson made triple bogey.

“I hit that ball 70 yards left of where I was looking,” he said. “If I’m trying to hit a high cut, if anything I’m going to over- cut it to the right. And it came off low and hooked. So I just laughed. Wasn’t funny when I made triple, though.”

O’Hair doesn’t sound like he’s playing under a lot of pressure. He had knee surgery last year that kept him from most of the fall events, putting him behind. He decided to keep playing until he had his card locked up, and then he was runner-up at the Valero Texas Open.

“After that, I kind of just checked out mentally because I knew I was safe and kind of lost my drive a little bit,” he said.

He took off the month of June, which he had never done, and hasn’t played very well since then. But he’s back to work, first on his long game and late on his putter, and he found the right formula on a rain-softened course at Ridgewood.

It was a good start, nothing more. And while he would love to play on his home course in two weeks at Aronimink, he’s not obsessed with it. O’Hair said he came into the playoffs with one eye toward next year.

“It’s not like, ’Hey, I need to do this to play Aronimink,’” O’Hair said. “I’ll play Aronimink after the tournament. I think I’ve got a member-guest the following week.”

The post Sean O’Hair headlines four-way tie for lead at Northern Trust; Tiger is five shots back appeared first on Golf.

The post Expert Picks: Honda Classic appeared first on Golf.

The post Expert Picks: Honda Classic appeared first on Golf.

Sean Zak and Ryan Asselta offer their fantasy golf picks for this week’s Honda Classic.

Sean Zak and Ryan Asselta offer their fantasy golf picks for this week’s Honda Classic.

The post Expert Picks: Honda Classic appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair: How I Overcame My Swing Slump appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean O’Hair: How I Overcame My Swing Slump appeared first on Golf.

Sean O’Hair, 33, was Rookie of the Year and won four times in his 20s. But it took a brutal slump to teach him to be his own man. O’Hair sat down with GOLF Magazine to discuss his career, which has including many highs and lows, and explain how he picked himself up from a low point.

You’ve had plenty of ups and downs. After winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 and racking up several wins, you fell into a terrible slump, eventually dropping out of the top 500. Then you bounced back in 2015, almost winning the Valspar Championship. How did you reclaim your game?

It had to do with clearing my head. I was doing a lot of searching, a lot of nitpicking. It started with getting back to ball flight, and hitting shots and seeing shots—getting away from technique and just playing again.

Did fatigue contribute to your struggles? After all, you’ve been a pro golfer for half your life, since you were 17.

I don’t feel like that was ever a problem. I’ve always felt like an underachiever, like I have something to prove, so the energy’s always been there. Honestly, I just got away from what works for me. And I think people were trying to help. I don’t think it was a sabotage-type thing. But by trying to get better, you start asking people their opinion, and that might not be the best thing. I don’t play well when I get super, super technical. I got away from the things that made me good.

What kind of fundamentals did you lose sight of?

When I got on Tour, I was a shotmaker. I liked to hit it high, hit it low, hit left to right, hit right to left. But then I got too much into trying to have the perfect swing—and that’s a dark alley for me, because it either works or it’s awful. When it’s not working, you try to find new things. And at the end of the range session, it’s like, “What was I working on?” Your mind feels like a scrambled egg.

How bad did it get?

There was a point where I would stand over a shot and I wouldn’t know what to do, wouldn’t know what to think. How are you supposed to be confident playing that way? It was a tough two years.

Can you remember a turning point?

It was when I got my [Tour] card back. I played really well at the Web.com event [the 2014 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, where he finished T3]. People always ask, “What’s it like trying to win a tournament? It’s got to be stressful.” And I’m like, “No, that’s not stress. Stress is going out there and playing to keep your job. That’s stress.” I missed some cuts, and I even had a talk with my caddie. I said, “Look, you may need to find another job because I’m probably going to be playing on the Web.com Tour.” And then I ended up finishing third, a shot outside the lead, and I got my Tour card back.

You took that momentum into 2015. You got into a playoff at the Valspar with Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed. Spieth won, but it must have felt great to be in the hunt again.

The thing was, when I put myself in that position, I knew exactly what to do. It wasn’t like, “Oh my God, I haven’t been here in a while.” I felt comfortable, like, “This is where I should be.” And that’s what I was most proud of. Even if I had won the tournament, I still would have felt more proud about being in that situation and thinking, “This is where I belong.” That was a good feeling.

This season you’ve already notched three top 25s and a top 10. Do you have a new perspective on golf, or life?

I’ve been able to clear out all the junk and see life the way I want to see it, live it the way I want to live it—and not be sorry for it. I was never able to do that. Growing up, I wasn’t taught how to be a man. I was basically told what to do and told not to talk back. And I finally feel like I’m growing up a bit. I feel like I’m waking up and saying, “I’m going to do things my way.” And if I don’t perform the way I want to perform, it’s on me.

Do you regret turning pro so young? You were just a senior in high school.

No, because I’ve experienced so much. I wasn’t good enough to turn pro at 17, but it made me tough. I don’t think I would’ve come out of what happened the last two years if I didn’t have those experiences to look back on. You don’t learn from winning. You enjoy winning, sure, but you don’t learn from it. What you learn from are your failures. You learn what not to do, and what to do, and what you’re made of. Of course, it would be nice to have a few up times too, but that’s not what makes you stronger.

ONE THING I KNOW FOR SURE

“Golf is what I’m meant to do. The last two years, I questioned what I was doing for a living—like, is this the thing for me? But I’ve learned that yes, for sure, this is what I’m meant to do. I don’t know if that means I’m going to win multiple majors. I don’t know if that means I’m going to be a struggling professional on the PGA Tour. But I know this is what I’m meant to do. And that closure was big for me.”

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