A look at the 20 top players in the world of Golf today: Hunter Mahan
Hunter Mahan, an American born Golfer who looked up to David Duval, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods as role models, was born on May 17th 1982 in California.
Mahan, son to Monte who used to be an undercover cop and mother Cindy who was a manager at a Nordstrom store, moved to Texas in 1996. It was in Texas where Mahan attended McKinney High where he enrolled in USC and was ranked top junior golfer in the country.
Mahan was motivated by his father Monte who has been an integral part of his golfing career. His father would take him to driving ranges and public courses near their homed to practice with him until it was dark.
Father and son have not had the best relationship as a coach and student, and in most cases it never is when the parents get too involved in their child’s sport. The bright side although was that Monte realized that he had to give his son room to learn and
grow his game on his own, and moved back to California. Mahan turned out to be a great golfer possessing a stylish game with one of the best drives in golf, long and accurate. His putting stroke and golf swing is also been admired for its technical correctness.
Despite his accomplishments, Mahan's parents refer to their son as The Invisible Golfer because, in Monte's words, “you almost never see him on TV or read anything about him.” Monte knows this because of his son’s reserved personality, at the same time agreeing
with Hunter's assessment that “my dad is the kind of guy, when he walks into a room, you notice him.” Both men now admit that it was sometimes a difficult presence.
Early in his career as an amateur entering the Masters Hunter finished Tied 28th. After finishing 16th in the qualifying Tournament, Hunter earned his first tour card for 2004. Hunter was only 21 years old when he entered the 2004
season and was the youngest player on tour. He saw three top finishes. After qualifying for the 2006 season, Hunter made sure that he qualified for the PGA tour Money List by placing himself in the Top 10 for two events.
Hunter had a pretty strong season in 2007; Hunter won the PGA Tournament the Travelers Championship, and had 6 top 10 finishes. He moved up in the rankings on the Money List and also moved to 41 spot in the world rankings. Hunter got selected by President’s
cup team captain Jack Nicklaus to participate on the U.S. team.
Hunter saw some more success in 2008 with 6 top 10 finishes and also finished second place at the Travelers Championship. He held the 18th place in the final FedEx Cup standings and later tied for 18th at the U.S. Open. But the season’s
best came when Hunter won the 2008 Ryder Cup, beating the favorite European team by 5 points.
This led to even better start in the year 2009 when Hunter finished tied for the 10th at the Masters. He finished 6th at the US Open Championship. He also set a personal best for earning by recording 6 top 10 finishes.
2010 saw another bright start by claiming the Waste management Phoenix Open which was his 2nd career tour victory. He brought his 3rd career win at the World Golf Championships- Bridgestone Invitational. He was in the U.S. Ryder Cup
team for the 2nd straight time.
The last 11 to 12 months have not been the best for the Hunter as he lost the important Ryder Cup and had an emotional breakdown the post match conference He also divulged himself in some controversy by marrying a former Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader and joined
a boy band of PGA players and released a rather forgettable video. But Hunter seems to have realized the dip in form and will be working to get a hold of the situation and get better, he was also quoted as saying, “I feel like all the parts of my game are
good. I just haven’t really put them together yet. It’s not far off.” Let us hope that the future holds better for Hunter.
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