Golf: Tough competitors mates since juniors

Sean O'Hair and Hunter Mahan play in a US$2m tournament in NZ next month but are bonded by golf in a friendship that survived hardship and O'Hair's troubled relationship with a domineering father. Paul Lewis reports.

When they come to New Zealand next month for the Kiwi Challenge at Cape Kidnappers, top US golfers Sean O'Hair and Hunter Mahan will not only be facing off to win US$1m. They will also be maintaining a longtime friendship.

Part of the four-way US$2m challenge - also involving Colombia's Camilo Villegas and another US hotshot Anthony Kim - at the striking Cape Kidnappers course, O'Hair and Mahan, both 27, are examples of the different ways US golfers can unlock the riches of the US PGA Tour.

Mahan went the college scholarship route - studying at University of Southern California. He is ranked 25th in the world, has had one PGA Tour win, won the Kiwi Challenge last year and has earned US$10.6m since coming onto the tour in 2005.

O'Hair turned professional at 17, eschewing the college route and had some nightmare years as he battled to keep his head above water, also working through a relationship with a controlling father. He has three PGA Tour wins, is ranked 14th in the world and has earned US$12.2m since joining the tour in 2005.

They have ended up in much the same place - and have maintained a friendship forged when they were about 11.

"He grew up in the east side of Texas and I grew up in the west side of Texas. Basically we kind of met playing junior golf," says O'Hair. "I think our fathers got along well and we got along well. We were pretty much best friends out on the junior ranks for quite some time.

"Then we parted ways because Hunter went to college and I took a different route. I turned pro at 17. So we didn't see much of one another for quite some time, and then you know, when I got on tour in '05, he was already on tour.

"We kind of got back together. Hunter and I have always gotten along well. I don't know what it is; we just feel comfortable with one another. We practise together and have the same coach. I would say he's my best friend on tour, that's for sure."

Says Mahan: "That's why it's so much fun for us to play together in the Presidents Cup. Since we have a personal friendship, I look up to him quite a bit. I've seen him go from a kid to a man and have kids and be a great husband and father. It's special for me to see his maturation process."

"It was a fantastic experience being with him as a team on the first day of the Presidents Cup," says O'Hair. "Even though we lost, it was a great experience and something I'll never forget. We had been talking about that moment since we were 11, 12 years old and it was pretty cool that actually happened. It was a great experience and something I'll never forget."

That friendship has survived a great deal, including O'Hair's dark moments with his father, Marc, and what he calls "hard times" trying to bust into the successful ranks of the professionals (plenty don't make it).

His relationship with his hard-driving father has a tragic air and they have had little to do with each other since 2002.

According to reports from the time, Marc was 1.9m, 105kg of an intimidating figure wearing mirrored sunglasses. He cooked for his son in hotel rooms and made him run at 5am and lift weights, in a physical regime not out of place in the armed forces. He allegedly backhanded the boy more than once when Sean backtalked.

He claimed to have spent US$2m from a US$2.75m family business on Sean's golf career. He allegedly tried to protect himself by making Sean sign a contract at age 17 that called for the son to pay the father 10 per cent of his earnings for life. He made him sign it again when Sean was of legal age; 19.

Marc said on a 60 Minutes segment: "I was in business 20-plus years and I know how to make a profit. You've got the same old thing - it's material, labour and overhead. He's pretty good labour."

That was pretty much the breaking point for the two and the tragedy of it was that Marc O'Hair was right - his boy is a star - and yet there can be no doubt that it was good for Sean O'Hair to break away.

Now married and with three kids of his own, O'Hair is hugely talented and maybe needs only to improve his putting - he says he can be too inconsistent and when he is in a bad patch "it is really bad" - to win a major.

Asked if he made the right decision turning pro early rather than going the college route, O'Hair says: "I think I wouldn't recommend it if I was teaching a kid, or I wouldn't recommend it for my children.

"I know that basically everybody playing in this [Kiwi Challenge] event, except me, went to college and had experiences and basically have friends because of going to college. I think, socially, I missed out.

"But I learned a lot, too. I went through a lot of hard times on the mini tours and playing against guys twice my age, and a lot of very valuable learning lessons. Lessons you couldn't have in college.

"I think I felt I was better than I really was and I think my dad felt like I was better than I really was. In the long run, I think it helped my career and me as a person. So I think because of those hard times, I definitely appreciate where I am and enjoy where I am."

Where he is, is a good place - 14 in the world and US$12m better off. His 1.87m, slim frame propels the ball enormous distances. He hit the ball 412 yards off the tee this year but doesn't remember when it was. "It was probably Tucson, Arizona. It's very dry out there and I probably hit three or four sprinkler heads in the middle of the fairway. That's the only way I could figure I hit it 400 yards.'

Yeah, right. Mahan, Villegas and Kim will not be wanting him to hit those kind of lengths at the Kiwi Challenge on November 11 and 12 - even though all bar Villegas are rated as longer hitters.