PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Against a backdrop of a few players on the PGA Tour who are massively long on attitude and shamefully short on gratitude, there are voices that offer sensible reflections to snap our attention away from the noise.

Sean O’Hair’s, for instance.

His is a perspective seasoned in a most admirable way – by riding the ups and down in life without ever looking to issue blame or scream for a bigger share. If he had to prove his golf talents in a most unheralded corner of the golf world, so be it.

Sean O’Hair and his wife, Jackie, loaded into their Fleetwood Discovery motorhome and drove throughout New England in the summer of ’04. From the rocky coastline of Maine to the sand and surf of their favorite Cape Cod spot, Nauset Beach, they were chasing minor-league money and major-league dreams.

Sean O'Hair knows what he has poured into his PGA Tour career and doesn't think the game owes him anything.

A lot of chicken and plenty of Hamburger Helper was crucial, but mostly the glue that held it all together for the then 22-year-olds was wife and caddie, Jackie. “She always believed that I would make it out here,” O’Hair once said.

Enveloped by success – his 17-plus seasons on the PGA Tour have reaped four wins and $24.5 million in prize money – Sean O’Hair clearly takes pride in the career he has forged. But best of all, he speaks like a man who remembers from where he came.

“The PGA Tour has given us a good living, a good lifestyle. I’ve been able to provide for my family because of it, and I’m very grateful. At the end of the day, I’m getting a chance to play golf for a living.”

O’Hair was standing on a parcel of property considered among the most beautiful in the golf world –the 18th hole at Pebble Beach – where his 390th PGA Tour tournament had left him in a share of 13th place at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

It’s the latest step in the right direction after being slowed for two years by surgery to repair an injury that he feared would be career-ending. He tore his oblique, something that happens to baseball players, but rarely to golfers. The recovery has been slow and O’Hair is still getting used to a new body and a new swing.

The prize for finishing joint 13th was $119,842 and O’Hair sees that as a sign that health is a positive right now – for him and “for our sport.”

But louder and more self-serving voices have suggested that it’s not the integral health of the PGA Tour that concerns them, it’s the abundance of wealth. They want a bigger piece of that pie – and they don’t mind accusing others of “greed” on one side of the world, while holding their hands out to others for free money on the other.

Confounding, these hypocrites.

“I understand it’s a business, that everyone is out here trying to make as much money as they possibly can,” said O’Hair. “But I think we all have to take a step back sometime and just look at the big picture.

“I think what some of these guys have lost sight of is, they have a brand because of  the PGA Tour. If they weren’t on the Tour doing what they do – and they’re great players – they wouldn’t have a brand to sell.”

O’Hair’s front-row seat to “the big picture” was part of a story that got told and re-told for years. He has never run and hid from the dynamics of what led him to turn pro at 17 and wander aimlessly for a few years before that summer in New England put him in a good place.

But neither has he ever refused to accept the raw challenges of his profession – shoot a number and prove you belong.

That task is more demanding than ever. You’ve probably heard that players are better and there are far more of them than ever before. Take it from O’Hair, it’s true, so as he maneuvers through this season with conditional status as a former champion, the challenge is to make the most out of his limited chances.

He accepts ownership of his lot. He is encouraged by “bits and pieces” of progress this season (three starts, three cuts made) and that has generated more confidence, which is essential. “When I’m confident, I play well.”

Sounds simple and O’Hair tries his best to maintain a firm grip on the center of his world. He and Jackie have four children ages 17 to 11 and while it’s hip to anchor down in Jupiter, Fla., with half the PGA Tour membership, the Philadelphia area suits his family just right.

“I’m not the most positive guy in the world,” laughs O’Hair, “but I think I’m down-to-earth. It’s how my mom raised me.”

Faced with the demands presented by Pebble Beach, Spyglass, and Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course this past week, O’Hair had enough on his plate. But he and so many of his peers certainly heard about suggestions from some players that life wasn’t good enough out on the PGA Tour.

It bothers him.

“A lot of good things are going on with our Tour. The pension plan is strong, title sponsorships are strong, purses are up. (But, yet) there’s a lot of negativity being shined on what we’re not getting rather than on what we are getting,” he said, shaking his head.

“There are certain ways to do things and certain ways not to do things.”

His is the admirable way.