Lubbock PGA Tour pro Sean O'Hair wins hometown event with caddy T. Jay Fairlie

The golf tournament committee for the Lubbock Country Club Par Buster added an entry policy last year, requiring each two-man team to have at least one club member. Non-member teams had been dominating for several years.

The change didn't keep out a ringer this past week.

Lubbock native and PGA Tour pro Sean O'Hair and T. Jay Fairlie, his caddy on tour for three seasons, won the Par Buster by eight strokes Saturday. They finished 17 under par, shooting 67-66-66 in the three-day event.

O'Hair, 42, recently moved back to his hometown. Hey, he's a Lubbock Country Club member if anyone objects.

"The way I see it is if they don't want me playing in their tournaments, they can give me an honorary membership," O'Hair said, smiling but serious. "But if I'm paying those dues and I'm paying that initiation fee, damn straight I'll play in every tournament I can. That's the way I look at it.

"If somebody has a problem with it, play better golf. I'm a member just like anybody else, and I'm here to have a good time with a buddy of mine."

More: Sean O'Hair, T. Jay Fairlie win Lubbock Country Club Par Buster | Final results

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Sean O'Hair's solid play going unrewarded of late

Since turning pro in 1999, O'Hair has made more than $25 million on the PGA Tour and won nine times, four times on the PGA Tour. He's finished top 15 or better seven times in majors. Nine weeks ago, he shot 63, matching his PGA Tour best in the first round of the RBC Canadian Open.

With past champion status on the PGA Tour, he's split his time almost equally this year between the big tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.

The past couple of years, O'Hair said, he feels as if he's missed 20 cuts by one shot. In July, he didn't make the weekend at the John Deere Open after shooting 69-69 and missed the cut at the 3M Open with a 71-71.

Still, he's made six cuts in nine PGA Tour stops in 2024.

"He's hitting it really well," Fairlie said. "He's playing some of the most consistent golf of his career. The game's changed a lot in the last 20 years, and shooting 4- and 5-under and missing cuts is a very frustrating thing, you know?

"It's not like he's been playing bad golf out there. You're playing good golf and you're not contending, and it's just a weird feeling; like, what's wrong? There isn't really that much wrong. You've just got to get it in the hole a little faster sometimes."

O'Hair suffered a torn oblique in early 2019, requiring surgery and what in September 2020 he called "a really hard recovery."

"When I got hurt in '19," he said, "from there on it's just been a very difficult process because I haven't had a full season since my injury. I've had a lot of glimpses of some nice play, but I've got to play better.

"Body feels fine. I would say this year is the first year I've had in a long time where I actually feel like I'm a hundred percent. My speed with my swing's gotten better. I'm hitting it a lot further, which is good. It just comes down to score, though. Kind of just waiting for the putter to catch fire."

Sean O'Hair moves back home to Lubbock, saying he's wanted to for 10 years

Seeing an active PGA Tour player competing in Lubbock is a rarity. O'Hair moved back home shortly after Thanksgiving.

"I've been wanting to come back for about 10 years now," he said, "and it just wasn't in the cards for me. It was nice to move back, and my fiancee's from Lodi, California. She seems to love it. It reminds her of Lodi a lot, and so it feels like home for her, and obviously it's home for me. Lubbock's not the prettiest place in the world, but it's really hard to find better people."

O'Hair now spends most of his practice time at Lubbock Country Club and a little at Red Feather, the new course in south Lubbock. Compared to grinding on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, playing in the Par Buster was a mental break of sorts.

"It's just fun," he said. "It's nice to be around other members and meet other people. This is an opportunity for me — a rare opportunity for me — to meet new members. I'm never home. People who live here and get to enjoy the club all the time, they get to meet new members and stuff like that. So it's just a fun, fun event."

On Monday, it's back to real-world golf. Speaking of which, O'Hair, once No. 12 in the world rankings, now sits No. 529. He and Fairlie planned to be back on the road to Omaha, Nebraska, for this week's Pinnacle Bank Championship, a Korn Ferry Tour event.

On the road's how O'Hair's been traveling of late. Remember that 63 in the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open? As sixth alternate, O'Hair planned to go to Toronto just in case. Enough players withdrew that he was confirmed in the field by Tuesday of that week, but storms across Texas led to canceled flights.

O'Hair drove from Lubbock to Dallas and flew to Toronto, arriving Wednesday night before a tee time at 6:56 a.m. the next morning. Bleary-eyed, he played a bogey-free round with five birdies and an eagle.

That was nothing compared to his recent itinerary.

Two weeks ago, O'Hair and his fiancee, traveling with their two Labrador retrievers, drove from Lubbock to Truckee, California, for the PGA Tour Barracuda Championship. Fairlie then joined them for a 25-hour drive to Minneapolis and the 3M Open. Then they drove 16 hours from Minneapolis to Lubbock.

"We drove 61 hours in two weeks," O'Hair said. "It's not easy on the body, but he and I both like being on our own time and traveling in our cars makes it a lot easier."

"We've got our miles in," Fairlie said. "We're about to get 11 more on Monday, but we'll be all right."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock PGA Tour pro Sean O'Hair wins at home with caddy T. Jay Fairlie