Hunter Myles Mahan (born May 17, 1982) is an American professional golfer who played 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.
Amateur career 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 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. 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. On August 8, 2010, Mahan won his third PGA Tour title at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He beat Ryan Palmer by 2 strokes.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. Between 2015–16 and 2020–21, Mahan had only one top-10 finish on the PGA Tour and 69 missed cuts. As of April 1, 2021, Mahan had fallen to 1738th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
After his final years on the PGA Tour, Mahan retired from professional golf and moved into coaching. In 2024, he began coaching the boys' golf team at Liberty Christian School in Argyle, Texas. Mahan later said that he did not intend to return to professional golf, citing the travel and time commitment required to compete at the professional level and his desire to spend more time with his family.
Personal life 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.
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. 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).
Amateur wins 1999 U.S. Junior Amateur, Western Junior
Professional wins (9) PGA Tour wins (6) Legend World Golf Championships (2)FedEx Cup playoff events (1) Other PGA Tour (3) No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin ofvictoryRunner-up1Jun 24, 2007Travelers Championship−15 (62-71-67-65=265)Playoff Jay Williamson2Feb 28, 2010Waste Management Phoenix Open−16 (68-70-65-65=268)1 stroke Rickie Fowler3Aug 8, 2010WGC-Bridgestone Invitational−12 (71-67-66-64=268)2 strokes Ryan Palmer4Feb 26, 2012 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship2 and 1 Rory McIlroy5Apr 1, 2012Shell Houston Open−16 (69-67-65-71=272)1 stroke Carl Pettersson6Aug 24, 2014The Barclays−14 (66-71-68-65=270)2 strokes Stuart Appleby, Jason Day, Cameron Tringale
PGA Tour playoff record (1–2) No.YearTournamentOpponent(s)Result12004Reno–Tahoe Open Stephen Allan, Scott McCarron, Vaughn TaylorTaylor won with birdie on first extra hole22007Travelers Championship Jay WilliamsonWon with birdie on first extra hole32011Tour Championship Bill HaasLost to par on third extra hole
Other wins (3) No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin ofvictoryRunner(s)-up1Oct 28, 2008Kiwi Challenge−7 (71-65=136)Playoff Anthony Kim2Sep 1, 2010Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge(with Cristie Kerr)−10 (62)2 strokes Rickie Fowler and Annika Sörenstam3Aug 30, 2011Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge (2)(with Cristie Kerr)−11 (61)1 stroke Rickie Fowler and Annika Sörenstam
Other playoff record (1–0) No.YearTournamentOpponentResult12008Kiwi Challenge Anthony KimWon with par on second extra hole
Results in major championships Tournament 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009Masters TournamentT28CUTT10U.S. OpenCUTT13T18T6The Open ChampionshipT36T26T6CUTCUTPGA ChampionshipCUTT18CUTT16 Tournament 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016Masters TournamentT8CUTT12CUTT26T954U.S. OpenCUTCUTT38T4CUTCUTThe Open ChampionshipT37CUTT19T9T32T49PGA ChampionshipT39T19CUTT57T7T43
CUT = missed the half-way cut "T" = tied
Summary Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts madeMasters Tournament 0 0 0 0 3 4 10 7U.S. Open 0 0 0 1 2 4 10 5The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 2 3 11 8PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 4 10 7Totals 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 Tournament200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016The Players ChampionshipT40CUTWDT71T17T6CUTT19CUTCUTCUT
CUT = missed the halfway cut WD = withdrew "T" indicates a tie for a place
World Golf Championships Wins (2) YearChampionship54 holesWinning scoreMarginRunner-up2010WGC-Bridgestone Invitational3 shot deficit−12 (71-67-66-64=268)2 strokes Ryan Palmer2012WGC-Accenture Match Play Championshipn/a2 and 1 Rory McIlroy
Results timeline Results not in chronological order before 2015. Tournament200720082009201020112012201320142015ChampionshipT44T53T309T24T25T965Match PlayR32R32R64R1612R16R16InvitationalT22T10T41T37T55T1572ChampionsT21T7T28T19
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 Amateur Junior Ryder Cup: 1999 Eisenhower Trophy: 2002 (winners) Palmer Cup: 2002 (winners)
Professional Presidents Cup: 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011 (winners), 2013 (winners) Ryder Cup: 2008 (winners), 2010, 2014
See also 2003 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates 2005 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates 2018 Web.com Tour Finals graduates
References
External links