With the set fading to black at Bay Hill in mid-March, Tiger Woods knocked out Sean O'Hair with one of his trademark big money putts on the 18th green. At Quail Hollow, O'Hair played the part of Manny Pacquiao leaving Woods resigned to the role of Ricky Hatton, dizzied and dropped to the canvas by a young player on the rise and a golf course in major championship form.
It was sweet revenge for O'Hair, who was quickly branded as the latest in a string of PGA Tour players to crumble under the weight of Woods' considerable legend after he flamed out at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"Losing sucked at Bay Hill," O'Hair told the media in Charlotte after his win. "Even though it is tough to lose like that, to lose a five-shot lead against Tiger, you still learn from it.
"It just gives you more and more experience if you look at it as a positive after the fact," he added. "Obviously in the media center after the round, it's kind of hard to look at the positive things of what happened. But after a couple days go by and you kind of dwell on it a little bit and you kind of think what happened, what could I have done differently, you learn from it, and it's just an experience that's going to help you become a better player.
"I talked to my coach, I talked to my caddie Paul, 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. It's just nice to win as quickly as I did after Bay Hill."
It's a big win for O'Hair in a number of ways. He becomes the first
American player under the age of 30 to win three PGA Tour events, moves
to third in the FedEx Cups standings and significantly climbs in the
President's Cup standings.
O'Hair and Woods started on level ground at 9-under-par Sunday, but the 26-year-old O'Hair took advantage of his birdie opportunities on the back nine, while Woods made uncharacteristic mistakes like a three-put par after driving the green on the short par-4 14th. Even with back-to-back bogeys on 17 and 18, O'Hair finished at 11-under, good enough for a one-shot victory over Bubba Watson and Lucas Glover.
Not to be out done, the golf course itself put on one hell of a show on Sunday. Watching the broadcast, it looked more like Augusta National out there than Quail Hollow. Players didn't make many medium-range birdie or eagle putts, instead they took a more cautious approach on the speedy greens and settled for converting short-range tap-ins.
The CBS crew of Faldo and Nantz referred to O'Hair's tee to green performance as Hoganesque, referencing his inability to convert a single putt of 10 feet or more for the duration of the tournament but somehow managing a victory.
"Yeah, I struck the ball phenomenally this week," said O'Hair. "I mean, yesterday was really nice. That was probably the best I've struck it ever. And today was pretty solid, especially coming down the stretch."
Zach Johnson managed to strike a tree relatively well during his misadventure on the par-3 2nd hole at Quail Hollow, where he had to settle for a 6 and effectively took himself out of the running for the championship.
If anyone is feeling like O'Hair felt after Bay Hill, it has to be the usually steady and stoic Johnson who unraveled before most of the national audience on CBS had to get up for a refill.
Johnson, who began the day at 11-under and wound up retreating to 7-under before all was said and done, blocked his tee shot well right off the tee. He then missed his target eight feet to the right on his second shot, smacking his recovery chip directly into a tree. It didn't get any better once he reached the putting surface, as the 2007 Masters champ three-putted his way to a triple bogey and one of the more maddening par 3 performances you'll ever see.
After that excitement, the rest of the tournament went downhill for me. Tiger wasn't really Tiger. The golf course forced players into a more conservative and plodding style, which didn't exactly translate into edge of your seat television. But I do like watching Bubba Waston play golf. I think his shot-making style is just as adventerous as Phil Mickelson's.
Overall, Quail Hollow was a great tournament with plenty of big names on the leaderboard. The more Tiger loses, the more interesting this season becomes. Congratulations to Sean O'Hair, hopefully this one will temper the sting of that tough loss in Orlando.