Hunter Myles Mahan (born May 17, 1982) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is a winner of two World Golf Championship events, the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the 2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Mahan has spent 19 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4 on April 1, 2012, and in so doing became the highest ranked American golfer at the time.[2]

Hunter Mahan
Personal information
Full nameHunter Myles Mahan
Born (1982-05-17) May 17, 1982 (age 42)
Orange, California
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight175 lb (79 kg; 12.5 st)
Sporting nationality United States
ResidenceColleyville, Texas
Spouse
Kandi Harris
(m. 2011)
Children1
Career
CollegeUniversity of Southern California
Oklahoma State University
Turned professional2003
Current tour(s)PGA Tour
Professional wins9
Highest ranking4 (April 1, 2012)[1]
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour6
European Tour2
Other3
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentT8: 2010
PGA ChampionshipT7: 2014
U.S. OpenT4: 2013
The Open ChampionshipT6: 2007
Achievements and awards
Haskins Award2003
Ben Hogan Award2003

Amateur career

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Mahan was born in Orange, California. He had a successful amateur career, winning the 1999 5A Texas State High School Golf Championship while attending McKinney High School and the 1999 U.S. Junior Amateur. After high school, Mahan enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he was named Pacific-10 Conference Freshman of the Year. Mahan only played one year at USC before he transferred to Oklahoma State University, where he was a two-time Big 12 Conference Player of the Year and a two-time first-team All American. Mahan was the runner-up at the U.S. Amateur in 2002, in which he was defeated by Ricky Barnes 2 & 1. In 2003 he won the Haskins Award for outstanding collegiate golfer and was co-winner of the Ben Hogan Award.

Professional career

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Mahan turned professional in 2003 and made it through qualifying school to earn a PGA Tour card for the 2004 season. His first PGA Tour victory, which came at the 2007 Travelers Championship, lifted Mahan into the top 100 of the Official World Golf Rankings.[3] In August 2007, Mahan entered the top 50 in the world rankings, and in that year finished 15th in the FedEx Cup. His performances in 2007 saw U.S. Presidents Cup captain Jack Nicklaus choose Mahan as one of two captain's picks for the U.S. team. By March 2008 he had reached the top 30. On February 28, 2010, Mahan won his second PGA Tour event, beating fellow OSU golfer Rickie Fowler by one stroke at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.[4] On August 8, 2010, Mahan won his third PGA Tour title at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He beat Ryan Palmer by 2 strokes.[5]

Mahan won his second WGC tournament in February 2012 at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. He defeated Rory McIlroy, 2 and 1, in the final.[6] Mahan recorded his fifth career PGA Tour victory in April at the Shell Houston Open and moved to fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking, making him the highest-ranked American for the first time.[7] In defense of his title he won in 2012, Mahan reached the final of the 2013 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship but was beaten 2&1 by Matt Kuchar. In August 2014, Mahan won the first of the year's four FedEx Cup playoff events, The Barclays. He won by two strokes from Stuart Appleby, Jason Day and Cameron Tringale during a final round that saw six different players share the lead at some point. He birdied three of his last four holes to pull clear of the field. This was Mahan's first ever playoff victory and his sixth overall title on the PGA Tour.[8]

Mahan was selected by Tom Watson as one of his three captain's picks for the 2014 Ryder Cup team, finishing with a record of 1–2–1 in the four matches he participated in. This included a halved match against Justin Rose in the singles competition.[9] Mahan began struggling with his golf game as of the 2015–16 PGA Tour season, during the next four years, Mahan finished 183rd, 130th, 159th and 184th in the season-long FedEx Cup rankings and had to compete in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals on multiple occasions to try to keep his full tour card.[10] Between 2015–16 and 2020–21, Mahan had only one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour and 69 missed cuts.[11] As of April 1, 2021, Mahan had fallen to 1738th in the Official World Golf Ranking.[12]

Endorsements

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Mahan's official sponsors include Under Armour, Titleist, Ping, BioSteel Sports Supplements Inc., NetJets, FootJoy, Clubface Golf, RBC Golf Pigeon, and Ace Hardware.[13]

Personal life

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Mahan is one of four golfers in the PGA Tour boy band "Golf Boys" (with Rickie Fowler, Ben Crane, and Bubba Watson). The Golf Boys have a popular YouTube video for the song "Oh Oh Oh". Farmers Insurance donates $1,000 for every 100,000 views of the video. The charitable proceeds support both Farmers and Ben Crane charitable initiatives.[14]

Mahan married Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and Dallas Mavericks dancer Kandi Harris in 2011. On July 27, 2013, Mahan withdrew from the RBC Canadian Open before the third round after getting news that his wife had gone into labor. Mahan was the 36-hole leader at that point, taking a two-stroke advantage into the third round. A daughter, Zoe, was born early the next morning.[15] PING (one of his sponsors) created two gold-plated putters to celebrate her birth (the putters have her name, birthday, and vital statistics inscribed on them).[16]

Amateur wins

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Professional wins (9)

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PGA Tour wins (6)

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Legend
World Golf Championships (2)
FedEx Cup playoff events (1)
Other PGA Tour (3)
No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory
Runner-up
1 Jun 24, 2007 Travelers Championship −15 (62-71-67-65=265) Playoff   Jay Williamson
2 Feb 28, 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open −16 (68-70-65-65=268) 1 stroke   Rickie Fowler
3 Aug 8, 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational −12 (71-67-66-64=268) 2 strokes   Ryan Palmer
4 Feb 26, 2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship 2 and 1   Rory McIlroy
5 Apr 1, 2012 Shell Houston Open −16 (69-67-65-71=272) 1 stroke   Carl Pettersson
6 Aug 24, 2014 The Barclays −14 (66-71-68-65=270) 2 strokes   Stuart Appleby,   Jason Day,
  Cameron Tringale

PGA Tour playoff record (1–2)

No. Year Tournament Opponent(s) Result
1 2004 Reno–Tahoe Open   Stephen Allan,   Scott McCarron,
  Vaughn Taylor
Taylor won with birdie on first extra hole
2 2007 Travelers Championship   Jay Williamson Won with birdie on first extra hole
3 2011 Tour Championship   Bill Haas Lost to par on third extra hole

Other wins (3)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory
Runner(s)-up
1 Oct 28, 2008 Kiwi Challenge −7 (71-65=136) Playoff   Anthony Kim
2 Sep 1, 2010 Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge
(with   Cristie Kerr)
−10 (62) 2 strokes   Rickie Fowler and   Annika Sörenstam
3 Aug 30, 2011 Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge (2)
(with   Cristie Kerr)
−11 (61) 1 stroke   Rickie Fowler and   Annika Sörenstam

Other playoff record (1–0)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2008 Kiwi Challenge   Anthony Kim Won with par on second extra hole

Results in major championships

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Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Masters Tournament T28 CUT T10
U.S. Open CUT T13 T18 T6
The Open Championship T36 T26 T6 CUT CUT
PGA Championship CUT T18 CUT T16
Tournament 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Masters Tournament T8 CUT T12 CUT T26 T9 54
U.S. Open CUT CUT T38 T4 CUT CUT
The Open Championship T37 CUT T19 T9 T32 T49
PGA Championship T39 T19 CUT T57 T7 T43
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Summary

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Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 3 4 10 7
U.S. Open 0 0 0 1 2 4 10 5
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 2 3 11 8
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 4 10 7
Totals 0 0 0 1 8 15 41 27
  • Most consecutive cuts made – 4 (twice)
  • Longest streak of top-10s – 2 (three times)

Results in The Players Championship

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Tournament 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
The Players Championship T40 CUT WD T71 T17 T6 CUT T19 CUT CUT CUT
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place

World Golf Championships

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Wins (2)

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Year Championship 54 holes Winning score Margin Runner-up
2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 3 shot deficit −12 (71-67-66-64=268) 2 strokes   Ryan Palmer
2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship n/a 2 and 1   Rory McIlroy

Results timeline

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Results not in chronological order before 2015.

Tournament 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Championship T44 T53 T30 9 T24 T25 T9 65
Match Play R32 R32 R64 R16 1 2 R16 R16
Invitational T22 T10 T4 1 T37 T55 T15 72
Champions T21 T7 T28 T19
  Win
  Top 10
  Did not play

QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.

U.S. national team appearances

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Amateur

Professional

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 13 2012 Ending 1 Apr 2012" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  2. ^ "Official World Golf Ranking Advanced Statistics". Golfrankingstats.com. July 14, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  3. ^ "Week 25 - Hunter Mahan breaks into world top 100 with playoff win in the Travelers Championship". Official World Golf Ranking. June 25, 2007. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  4. ^ "Mahan Uses Late Surge to Win Phoenix Open". New York Times. Associated Press. February 28, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  5. ^ "Hunter Mahan wins Bridgestone Invitational victory". BBC Sport. August 8, 2010. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  6. ^ DiMeglio, Steve (February 6, 2012). "Mahan denies McIlroy in Match Play final". USA Today. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  7. ^ Duncan, Chris (April 1, 2012). "Hunter Mahan wins Houston Open". San Jose Mercury News. Associated Press. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  8. ^ "Hunter Mahan birdies his way to win". ESPN. August 25, 2014.
  9. ^ "Ryder Cup Golf Leaderboard". ESPN. September 28, 2014.
  10. ^ "Hunter Mahan Bio". Rotoworld. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  11. ^ "Hunter Mahan PGA Tour Profile". PGATour.com. April 2, 2021.
  12. ^ "Hunter Mahan". owgr.com. April 2, 2021. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
  13. ^ "Hunter Mahan's Sponsors". Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  14. ^ "Golf Boys - Oh Oh Oh (Official Video)". YouTube. June 13, 2011. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2011.
  15. ^ "Hunter Mahan leaves to be with wife". ESPN. July 31, 2013. Retrieved October 23, 2013.
  16. ^ "Golf's Fort Knox".
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