Lefty makes dry run to title

Surrounded by water and filled with terror, the 17th hole at Sawgrass is a heartless patch of grass. On Sunday, it added Sean O’Hair to its list of victims in the final round of the Players Championship, where O’Hair hit not one, but two balls into the water and saw his chance disappear with one splash and then another.

O’Hair was only two shots behind Phil Mickelson when they reached the 132-yard, par-three hole with the island green. Mickelson put his tee shot in the center of the green, then O’Hair’s first shot, a nine-iron, found the water on the fly. And when he tried it again from the drop area, O’Hair bounced his next shot off the green and into the water.

Moments from finding a victory, O’Hair discovered desolation instead. His quadruple bogey seven all but handed Mickelson the $1.62-million winner’s check in what turned out to be a $9-million experience in watery chaos.

In only his third week of working with swing coach Butch Harmon, Mickelson closed out his 31st PGA Tour victory with a three-under-par 69 to finish at 11-under 277. He won by two shots over Sergio Garcia, who benefited from O’Hair’s misfortune to vault into second place almost an hour after he had finished his round of 66.

Even with O’Hair at 11 under as they made the turn, Mickelson went ahead when O’Hair missed the green at the 10th hole and had to settle for a bogey. Then Mickelson took a two-shot lead with a four-foot birdie putt at the par-five 11th.

“It was a stress-free type round,” Mickelson said.

But he worked hard at it. Mickelson spent six days analyzing and re-tooling his swing with Harmon, including 90 minutes on the range Sunday morning and another 45 minutes before Mickelson’s tee time.

“I’ve seen progression. It tells me I’m on the right path and what I’m doing is correct,” Mickelson said of fine-tuning his game for the U.S. Open next month at Oakmont Country Club. “If I keep working at these things and progressing, I should be ready to take on the ultimate tough challenge at Oakmont.”

And what made it easier was O’Hair’s misadventure at the 17th hole.

There were 94 balls hit into the water at the 17th during the week, 13 of them in the last round, but the two that O’Hair sent there Sunday were easily the most expensive.

O’Hair cost himself $747,000 with his quadruple bogey-bogey finish, falling from second place to 11th with a 76. He thought his shot at the 17th was right at the flag.

“When the crowd screamed, I thought it was going to be a cheer. It was a groan,” he said. “I was shocked.

“What can you say? I’m not going to let this bother me. I’m just going to move on with today.”

O’Hair said the two birdie putts he missed at the 15th and 16th forced him to be aggressive and he wasn’t going to aim safely for the middle of the green at the 17th.

“Unfortunately, it kicked me in the teeth,” he said.

O’Hair said the wind shifted slightly as he swung at the 17th tee, but he wasn’t concerned about the money those two balls in the water cost him.

“I’ll make plenty of money in my career,” he said.

Mickelson moved past $43 million in earnings in his career and to No. 2 in the rankings as a result of his victory, produced by rounds of 67-72-69-69.

Afterward, Harmon heaped praise on his new pupil.

“He’s got as much talent as anybody in the world other than maybe Tiger,” Harmon said. “And I think if we can get him to play out of the fairway, he can rival Tiger.”

Woods parted ways with Harmon after going winless in majors in 2003 and 2004, hooking up with Hank Haney. Mickelson started working with Harmon in April at the Byron Nelson and said the plan this week was to eliminate the right side of the fairway off the tee.

Garcia moved into contention when he played the back side in five under. His 66 was virtually spotless, although he fell into a mini-controversy when he took a drop from a drainage area on the second hole. Jerry Knapp, the caddie for playing partner Cliff Kresge, objected to the free drop. Garcia did not ask for a ruling and said he didn’t consider the drop a big deal.

Nevertheless, Garcia said he had trouble shaking off the accusation.

“I mean, they were calling me a cheater on that,” Garcia said. “You never like that. I’ve never cheated in my whole life.... It was one of those things that happen.”

After his 78 in the first round, Jose Maria Olazabal played the last 54 holes in 14 under and tied for third with Stewart Cink at eight-under 280, three shots behind Mickelson.

Olazabal made four birdies in a six-hole stretch on his way to a 67, finished tied for third and knew from the start of the day that he was fighting an uphill battle.

“Obviously I knew pretty much I didn’t have any chance to win because I thought those guys on the top were going to finish well under par,” he said.

Cink’s round of 66 had six birdies and no bogeys.

“I knew if I had that kind of gut check in me, I could pull something decent out,” Cink said.

Woods finally got untracked, too late to make a difference, and wound up tied for 37th, 11 shots behind Mickelson. But he shot a five-under 67 in a closing round that featured eight consecutive one-putt greens.

“Usually that works,” Woods said.

So did his eagle at the 16th, where he hit a driver and a six-iron to within 10 feet and made the putt. Not making enough putts is what bothered Woods, who said he counted 12 lip-outs from at least eight feet the last two rounds, eight of them Saturday. Woods had 117 putts in four rounds.

“I think I just need to keep fine-tuning it,” Woods said. “This week, I was a little bit loose at times.... I overall probably hit the ball better this week than I did last week, but I didn’t putt anywhere near as good.”

thomas.bonk@latimes.com