Trailing eventual winner Phil Mickelson by two strokes standing on Sawgrass's 17th tee, O'Hair told his caddie he wasn't "playing for second" and went straight at the pin.

Two visits to the water, and a quadruple bogey seven later, O'Hair had gone from second to 11th place.

"I'll make plenty of money in my career, " he said later. "I want the crystal." Fighting talk, but the collapse still cost him $747,000.

THE EYES HAVE IT FOR ALL-TOO-HUMAN TIGER
Just a touch refreshing to be reminded Tiger Woods is not the automaton we sometimes think he is. Woods underwent laser eye surgery in late 1999, and he said last week that on the Monday after the Masters, he was back in the ophthalmologist's chair once again. "My vision started slipping. I was getting headaches from squinting all the time, " he explained.

So, if you take it that his vision was not as sharp as he would have liked, say during last season, and in the months before Augusta, you might also expect that his performances during that time would have suffered.

Not a bit of it. He still managed to win 12 events, including two major championships.

In the wake of Rory Sabbatini's suggestion after the Wachovia Championship that the world number one was "more beatable than ever", Woods pointed out:

"I've won three times this year, the same amount he [Sabbatini] has won in his career."

HEADFORT SERVICE MAKES PERFECT SENSE
With bar takings down at all clubhouses countrywide, and fewer idiots drinking and driving, the Headfort club have come up with an initiative which will be of interest to societies planning to play the 36hole county Meath venue.

Between Monday and Thursday from next month on, the club will provide a complimentary coach for all society outings consisting of 36 or more players which will both collect and transport the group home.