SILVIS, Ill. - With a near-flawless round and a trophy to go with it, this was the kind of day Sean O'Hair's father probably envisioned all those years he was pushing the teenager.

A day shy of his 23rd birthday and just 18 starts into his PGA Tour career, O'Hair was a winner. He earned $720,000 and a trip to the British Open with his one-stroke victory at the John Deere Classic.

And his father was nowhere to be found.

"I haven't really thought about that today, to be honest with you," O'Hair said after shooting a 6-under 65 on Sunday. "I'm just enjoying it with my family here, and hello to my mom back home."

There's more than a bit of irony that O'Hair won a tournament where all the early attention was on another teenage prodigy. Michelle Wie, 15, was on the brink of becoming the first woman in 60 years to make a cut on the PGA Tour before falling apart in her last four holes.

"I don't even think Tiger would come close to what she did this week," O'Hair said. "She's just so good at 15 years old. I just hope she keeps on doing what she's doing and doesn't put too much pressure on herself and just enjoys it. Because she's something special, and she should have fun with that."

O'Hair knows that better than most.

His father, Marc, pushed him relentlessly, seemingly more interested in raising a pro golfer than a son. O'Hair was up running every day at 5 a.m., and on the course from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. For every bogey on his scorecard, his father made him run a mile.

"What am I supposed to do - say, `Oh, Seany boy, you don't have to get up early today?' The military, they know how to build a champion," Marc O'Hair told The Orlando Sentinel in December. "Somebody who slacks off, that's a loser. The typical high school kid is hanging out at the mall. That's a loser."

He turned pro before he'd even graduated from high school.

"My turning pro, a lot of people wouldn't agree with it at 17. I don't even know if I agree with it, to be honest with you," O'Hair said. "Some of the experiences I've had have made my game better and, in other ways, they've made my game worse."

And one of those experiences changed his life.

O'Hair was 19 and had never been on a date when he met Jackie Lucas, a junior playing golf at Florida Atlantic. Their first date hardly had the makings of anything special; he sat on one end of the couch, she on the other, neither of them talking while they watched a movie.

But O'Hair found love with Jackie, and a life with her family.

"That was the best thing that ever happened to me," O'Hair said. "The great thing is, no matter what my situation is as far as career-wise would be, meeting them I would be happy as a clam."

He hasn't spoken to his father since Dec. 28, 2002, the day he married Jackie. But he doesn't seem as though he's missing anything - or anyone - in his life.

He and Jackie have a 5-month-old daughter, Molly, and they travel with him wherever he goes. So do his in-laws, Cathy and Steve Lucas, who have embraced O'Hair as if he was their own son. Steve Lucas even caddies for O'Hair.

"When I first met him, he was not like he is now, for obvious reasons," Steve Lucas said. "He's come a long way. He's mature. He's articulate. ... Everybody's expected him, from the time he was 15, to be the next Tiger Woods or whatever. That's a burden. That's a big burden to carry."

It's a burden O'Hair finally appears comfortable with, though.

Starting the day five strokes back, he climbed into contention quickly with three birdies on his first nine. He got to the top of the leaderboard with a 14-foot putt on No. 14, and his victory looked secure when he blasted out to within 2 feet for another birdie on 17.

But after being so steady all day, O'Hair made things interesting.

"(On) 18, especially a guy in my situation who never won before, you're definitely almost puking," he said, laughing.

He nearly put his second shot in the water, forcing him to scramble to make par. With his ball on the hazard line, O'Hair took a "baseball swing" with his 8-iron and chipped within 10 feet.

But with Hank Kuehne and J.L. Lewis still two groups behind him at 15 under, O'Hair had to wait. If either made birdie on 18, it was going to a playoff.

Lewis folded first, putting his second shot in the water. Kuehne's drove within 94 yards of the hole then flew the green on his second shot. But he could still make birdie with a 24-foot putt.

"Hank is the type of player that performs his best under pressure. Whenever you put something in front of Hank, he's pretty much going to do it," O'Hair said. "I was really sweating it out."

Kuehne left his putt 2 feet short, though, and O'Hair was the champion. He finished at 16-under 268 at the TPC at Deere Run.

Kuehne (68) and Robert Damron (67) finished one stroke behind O'Hair, and Lewis (72), defending champion Mark Hensby (64) and Wes Short (66) were another shot back.

"The main thing why I think I've succeeded so quickly, is that I'm in such a great situation with my family. I'm happy and I've got a great relationship with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, and my wife is my best friend," O'Hair said.

"I had a tough situation when I was a kid. That's the easiest way to put it," he added. "It just was not a happy situation, and there was a lot of pressure there. I just think now it's the exact opposite. How can you not succeed?"

Divots: O'Hair is the youngest Deere Classic

winner, beating 1975 champion Roger Maltbie, who was 24 years, 13 days old. ... Kuehne's finish matched his career best ... Matt Kuchar aced the par-3, 188-yard No. 7, putting the ball in the hole on the fly.