The Players Championship: The duellists killed each other with smiles, and firm handshakes, on the first tee. Sean O'Hair, a young player with an old history, shook hands with Phil Mickelson, a player who has learned the art of winning the tournaments that matter, at the start of yesterday's final round of The Players and, with that, they launched into contest where neither was willing to back off.

For O'Hair, this Players championship has brought a fulfilment of a talent that first manifested itself when he was a youngster. These days, though, O'Hair plays golf for fun. He doesn't speak to his father, nor his father to him. It is a rift that dates back to the time when the son was forced to undergo the equivalent to golfing bootcamp by his father, Marc.

The story goes that when O'Hair played poorly, he had to run, sometimes as much as eight miles, as punishment. When he turned professional in his late teens, while still in high school, he was brought from mini-tour to mini-tour and to tournament qualifying for the Nationwide Tour. He was verbally abused if he missed putts, or hit poor shots. His story was told in a 60 Minutes documentary on American television.

It's not a pleasant story. His father - who sold his business and moved the family to Florida so that the young Sean could attend the David Leadbetter academy - made him sign two separate contracts promising a return on what he claimed was around $2 million he spent on his son's early career.

Those days are in the past, now. O'Hair carried a one-stroke lead into yesterday's final round and, although Mickelson started off birdie-birdie to erase that gap, the two were stuck together until a bogey on the 10th, where O'Hair missed the green, and he fell one shot behind.

Mickelson's birdie-birdie start hinted at a good day for Lefty, who reached the turn in 33 without dropping a shot. O'Hair took 34 strokes to the turn, at which stage the pair were level on 11 under, only for the pretender to the crown to incur a bogey on the 10th.

On a calm but humid day, which contained the threat of thunderstorms, the newly revamped course was susceptible to aggressive golf, with Sweden's Robert Karlsson and past champion Adam Scott setting the clubhouse target.

Karlsson shot a final round 66 and Scott a 67, which put the pair in on 282, six under, which was later bettered by American Ryder Cup player Stewart Cink, who shot a bogey-free round 66 for 280, eight under.

"Mentally, I'm in a lot better place now that I was a short time ago," said Cink.

"I saw myself on the leaderboard at six under and in fourth place and that surprised me. So I just kept going. If you're in the fairway, you can attack the pins. If you're in the rough, forget about it.

"But it is the Sunday of the Players and it is not always easy to make those birdies, you have to be prepared for a rollercoaster ride."

Padraig Harrington, who finished a disappointing tournament with a final round 70 for 290, believes that the course changes have ended the days of a short hitter winning.

"This course is very well suited to Phil and Tiger. This course allows you to be creative, it has totally changed who is going to play well on it. You won't see Fred Funk winning."

Yet, for Tiger Woods, it proved to be a frustrating tournament.

In a classic case of delivering too late, Woods at least finished off with a final round 67, for level-par 288. In a way, his round was kick-started by a double-bogey on the fourth, which prompted a response from Woods that delivered five birdies and an eagle.

"I didn't play that much better (than the three previous rounds), I just made some putts," said Woods, who required just 27 putts compared to 32 on Saturday.

Now, Woods's thoughts have moved ahead to next month's US Open at Oakmont.

Of his game, he remarked: "I think I just need to keep fine-tuning it. This week, I was a little loose at times . . . but, then again, I've overall probably hit the ball better here than last week (when he won the Wachovia), but I didn't putt anywhere near as good."

Woods, who has won nine of his last 13 events on the US Tour, also confirmed that his old knee injury was causing him problems.

"It's just wear and tear. All you do is keep training through it, keep running, keep lifting (weights), keep busting your butt and it'll get better and stronger."

Luke Donald, the only British player within striking distance at the start of the day, never got his bid going as he made five birdies before dropping a shot at the par-four sixth.

Ian Poulter completed a reasonable week, shooting 69 for one-under 287. His long game was good as he hit all but one green in regulation and had reason to lament not shooting lower.