Mahan played collegiately at Oklahoma State and is known for having one of the best golf swings of his generation.
Hunter Mahan is a six-time PGA Tour winner and former U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup player. He’s set to begin coaching the boys’ golf team at Liberty Christian, a private, college preparatory Christian school located in Argyle, Texas in the spring of 2024.
Mahan reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4 on April 1, 2012. That made him the highest-ranked American golfer at the time. But he last won in 2014 at The Barclays, a FedEx Cup Playoff event.
Born in California, Mahan played collegiately at Oklahoma State University and is known for having one of the best golf swings of his generation.
Mahan stepped away from the PGA Tour after the 2020-21 season – he still has limited status as a past champion.
Mahan mused that he could be the start of a trend of players enjoying shorter careers.
Starting next year, just call Hunter Mahan, “Coach.”
That’s because the 41-year-old former six-time PGA Tour winner and former U.S. Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup player is set to begin coaching the boys’ golf team at Liberty Christian, a private, college preparatory Christian school located in Argyle, Texas.
“I asked randomly about the head coaching golf position because I thought it could be fun and interesting and something completely out of my comfort zone but something I have a lot of knowledge in, and the coach was retiring so I threw my name in the hat,” said Mahan, who is taking over in the spring season. “When you talk about God’s path for you, it just became so clear for my wife and I. We plan on moving (to Argyle) next year from Dallas and for the kids to start attending school there.”
Mahan reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4 on April 1, 2012. That made him the highest-ranked American golfer at the time. But he last won in 2014 at The Barclays, a FedEx Cup Playoff event, and his game went into steep decline. Mahan’s longtime caddie John Wood and swing coach Sean Foley both are reluctant to say why Mahan lost his mojo, but agree that having three kids in diapers and enjoying being a stay-at-home dad factored into it.
“He had a lot going on besides golf for the first time in his life,” Wood said.
“When he was at the course, he wanted to be at home and when he was home he wanted to be at the course,” Foley said. “He kind of fell out of love with the game if he was in love with it in the first place.”
Despite having one of the best golf swings of his generation, Mahan attempted to make swing changes and they backfired. Mahan’s short game, which was never a strength, became problematic when his trademark fairways-and-greens game no longer was automatic. Mahan stepped away from the PGA Tour after the 2020-21 season – he still has limited status as a past champion – but said it was the right time for him.
“If you don’t love it on Tuesday, you can’t love it on Thursday. It’s just never going to work that way,” he said, noting it was everything before the competition that was a struggle for him. “It was actually a rather easy decision based on that. I have four kids at home and a family and it was clearly my time to do something else. I didn’t want to keep playing just to keep playing because I could.
“I didn’t want my kids on the road with me. I wanted them at home going to school and being with their friends. Uprooting them for my life didn’t feel right to me and it wasn’t right for them. I wasn’t going to ask them to do that. It just didn’t make sense.”
Hunter Mahan, left, and Zach Johnson during the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
He made just two cuts in his final 20 starts on Tour during the 2020-21 season and appeared in the last of his 453 career tournaments in July 2021 at the 3M Open.
With three girls and a boy ranging in age from three years old to 10, the former Oklahoma State Cowboy golfer has been happy handling car-pool duty. He has shown talent as a TV golf commentator, handling analyst duties for the world feed at the Ryder Cup in Rome this year, reprising a role he performed admirably in 2016 and 2021.
“When you listen to him speak, he’s fantastic, right?” Foley said. “The guy didn’t say anything to anyone for years but when Hunter talks it’s very well thought out.”
A larger role in TV will have to wait, at least for Mahan’s kids to grow older.
“It’s something I’ve thought about,” Mahan said. “But it requires too much travel that I’m not willing to do right now given the attention that I want to give to my family.”
Mahan mused that he could be the start of a trend of players enjoying shorter careers. Mahan earned more than $30 million in official money and despite never winning a major, he had nothing left to prove.
“When I joined the Tour, Vijay Singh, Kenny Perry and Jay Haas were in their 40s and having their best years. They were on Ryder Cup teams. I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore,” Mahan said. “The money is going up so much and the pipeline of new players coming through is so good, guys are going to be like, well, I’ve made so much money do I really want to grind at 45 and travel all the time? Golf is getting younger. The youth of golf is going to be at the forefront.”
Foley, for one, agrees that careers on the Tour will trend shorter.
“Ludvig Aberg isn’t going to be a unicorn. That’s going to be the norm. Every year there is going to be a kid coming out here and contending almost every week,” Foley said. “Is it going to be like other sports where he’s going to lose his advantage by not having as much time to work on his game once a guy settles down and has kids? There are 34-year-old defensive backs in the league that know everything about offenses, know how to run routes, their wisdom is amazing but they’ve lost too many steps to stay in the league. I think golf can be like that.”
Mahan says he plays occasionally but rarely hits balls and it’s not even a monthly thing he does anymore. None of his kids have the golf bug just yet, but he imagines that coaching a high school golf team will get him to play a bit more. Mahan won’t be the only former standout athlete coaching at Liberty Christian. Former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten is coaching his son on the football team and Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner was named the track and field coach in July.
“They take pride in their athletics and academics and also give the kids a lot of opportunities for a well-rounded education,” Mahan said.
Of the pending move to the tiny suburb of Argyle north of Fort Worth, Mahan said one of his daughters calls it “city-country.” It’s not too far from the Tour’s annual stops in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex but it might as well be a world away from his old life as a tour pro.
“I miss the people I spent so much time with but I don’t miss the grind, day to day. What it takes out there is so all-consuming and I don’t miss that,” he said. “It’s very taxing and I hit my limit and it was just time to go.”
John Wood is a lone wolf out on Tour in his main addiction these days — which is wolf watching.
John Wood was managing a bookstore in Sacramento when PGA Tour pro Kevin Sutherland asked him if he’d like to caddie for him during the 1997 season. Wood figured why not give it a try for a year or two?
Fast-forward 26 years later and he’s still part of the traveling circus, having made a seamless transition from caddie to on-course commentator.
“I’ve avoided getting a real job my entire life,” he says.
Wood always has stood out for his ability to communicate his thoughts about a golf course and the inner workings of a caddie-player relationship, including a stint as a Golfweek contributor.
“A good caddie has the answers to 10 questions that never get asked,” says the 53-year-old Wood, who caddied in 14 Cups – seven each of the Presidents and Ryder Cups and was an assistant at the 2018 Ryder Cup.
He has been on a winner’s bag 10 times at PGA Tour events, working primarily for Sutherland, Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar. (He came out of retirement for a one-week gig at the Fortinet Championship in September for Stewart Cink.) He joined NBC/Golf Channel in 2021, saying, “It was time for a new challenge,” and bringing a refreshing new voice and insight to the network’s coverage.
But it’s his off-course hobbies that may be the most interesting part of this Q&A. Wood is a music buff, who travels the Tour with a guitar, released his own album on SoundCloud and dragged his parents to an Elvis Presley concert in Tacoma, Washington, at age 7.
He’s also a passionate San Francisco Giants fan, but there are plenty of golfers and caddies who still rep the team that they grew up supporting. Wood is a lone wolf out on Tour in his main addiction these days, which is wolf watching. Wood makes frequent trips to Yellowstone to watch the wolves.
“Sometimes you see 50 wolves in a day and one is taking down an elk and other days you might see two or three jumping out of a bush, you never know,” he says. “I kind of feel like that’s my tribe now. I’ve become part of the community.”
Here’s more from Wood on the heartache of the 2017 British Open, why he thinks it’s time to roll back the ball, and more on wolf watching.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The PGA Tour is heading to PGA National this week for the Honda Classic.
One of the toughest tests on Tour, the Champion course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Matt Jones leads the field after the opening 18 holes following a first round 9-under 61. He sits three shots ahead of Aaron Wise and Russell Henley at 6 under in second. Four golfers including Steve Stricker are T-4 at 4 under. Six golfers including Shane Lowry sit T-9 at 3 under.
Check out the best and worst rounds of the day after the first round of the Honda Classic at PGA National.
Overshadowed by his more famous playing partner, Phil Mickelson, Lowry was one of the more consistent golfers Thursday, carding just one bogey and four birdies. Lowry, the reigning British Open champion, started on No. 10 and birded Nos. 16 and 18 with a bogey sandwiched in between. He added birdies at Nos. 2 and 3 before playing even-par the rest of the way. Soon, Lowry will just be a short drive away from PGA National. The Ireland native is building a house in Jupiter.
Hunter Mahan
38-39-77
A six-time winner on the PGA Tour, Mahan bogeyed his first two holes of the day, the start of an eventful day. Mahan, who started on No. 10, played the Bear Trap in 2 over thanks to a double-bogey on No. 15, where he hit his tee shot in the water. Mahan’s best hole of the day was No. 3 when he hit his second shot 259 yards, leaving a four-and-a-half-foot putt for eagle that he sunk. He bogeyed Nos. 4 and 5 to give those two shots right back and then hit into the water on No. 6, finishing with a double bogey. A bogey, birdie and par followed as he completed one of the crazier rounds of the day.
Adam Scott
35-34-69
After an opening bogey on No. 10, Scott’s second shot at 11 ended up on the edge of the water hazard, near the muck. The Australian then stripped off his shoes and threw on a jacket before stepping into the water and hitting the shot to within 12 feet of the hole and sinking the ensuing putt to save par. Scott took advantage of one of the easier holes of the day, the 18th, to card an eagle and make the turn at 1-under. Thanks to three birdies, a bogey and a double bogey, Scott played his final nine holes at even-par.
