Hunter Mahan jumps from 22nd to 9th in world rankings
Hunter Mahan has surged to the 9th position from the 22nd in world golf rankings for the first time ever in his career after he won the Accenture Match Play Championship.
Throughout the six-day tournament in Arizona, he impressively defeated Zach Johnson, Y.E. Yang, Steve Stricker, Matt Kuchar, Mark Wilson and Rory McIlroy in round 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively.
The 29-year-old American professional golfer defeated the world famous Northern Irish Rory McIlroy.
Both players competed well for the winning position, but Mahan’s impressive scores helped him win the World Golf Championships event for the second time.
Mahan not only defeated McIlroy, but also stopped him from becoming the world’s No. 1 golfer.
It was expected before the mega event that if McIlroy won, he would definitely have snatched the top spot from the current world number one Luke Donald.
“Deep down, you wanted to postpone that crowning of the No. 1 player in the world for Rory,” Mahan said.
He added, “He’ll get there. I mean, he’s phenomenal. He’s really talented. He’ll be No. 1 eventually. But yeah, when you’re a player, and I listen to Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo and all those guys, they had him picked to win. And that’s what everybody was
talking about”.
The final round scores were 2&1 and now McIlroy again has to deliver his best in the upcoming major tournaments and also at PGA.
There are ample chances for the current world No. 2 to become the leader in the near future.
Mahan never achieved the top-10 positions, but defeating the Northern Irishman helped him boost his ranking.
Recording the first victory of the current season at the Match Play Championship is impressive and motivating for him.
“When you play a WGC event, it’s the best players in the world,” Mahan said. “So this feels pretty special. It’s hard to get lucky this week, because you’re going to play such great players every single round”.
Mahan played tremendously this year. He started the current season at the Farmers Insurance Open and played four tournaments so far.
He was in the top 25 in all the events and won a mega event as well. His earnings have swelled to $1,760,840. Now he has plenty of chances to further boost his position on the money list.
Tags: