Hunter Mahan - PGA Tour Golfer
66Hunetr Mahan - Professional Golfer
Hunter Mahan is a professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He was born on May 17th 1982 in Orange, California and was raised in McKinney, Texas. He had a highly successful amateur career winning some major amateur trophies while still in high school. The most notable of these achievements came in 1999, his senior year, when he won both the 5A Texas State High School Golf Championship and the U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship. He then enrolled at the University of Southern California as the top ranked junior golfer in the United States.
His outstanding progress continued at USC winning the Pacific-10 Freshman of the Year, 1st Team All-Conference, and 2nd Team All-American honors. After his freshman year he transferred to OklahomaStateUniversity where he played for a further two seasons winning many more awards, he was a two-time Big-12 Player of the Year, a two-time 1st team All-American, and a two-time member of the Palmer Cup Team, he also placed third in the 2002 NCAA Championships. In 2003, he won the Jack Nicklaus Award, the Fred Haskins Award, the Ben Hogan Award. Hunter finished off his junior year by being ranked as the number one amateur in the Golfweek Ratings.
The next year, 2003, Mahan entered his first Masters while still playing as an amateur and finished the tournament tied for 28th. That same year he decided to turn pro at the age of 20 and entered the 2004 PGA qualifying Tournament where he tied for 16th earning his 2004 tour card.
Mahan started the season as the second youngest player on the tour and had his best major finish in the British Open where he tied for 36th and also managed 3 top ten finishes. 2005 saw Hunter finish ninth in The Qualifying Tournament and ninth in the FBR Open at Scottsdale. In 2006 he had another highly successful season, finishing in a tie for 26th place at the British Open and also placed in the top ten in two further events. In the same year Mahan also made the breakthrough to PGA Tour Money List which he entered at number eighty three. In 2007 things kept getting better for Hunter as he reached number thirty two on the PGA Tour Money List and was also ranked forty first on the Official World Golf Rankings. These rankings came off the back of Mahan winning the Travelers Championship at River Highlands, his first PGA Tour win. He also finished in the top ten in six tournaments and had four strong finishes in prestigious events. Hunter tied for thirteenth in the U.S. Open, tied for sixth in the British Open, tied for 18th in the PGA Championship and finished fifth in the Tour Championship. His seasons performance earned him a place on Jack Nicklaus’ Presidents Cup team.
In 2008, Mahan’s form continued to improve taking six top ten finishes including a second place finish defending his Travelers Championship. He also tied for 18th at the U.S. Open. Hunter finished the 2008 season by competing and winning the Ryder Cup with the U.S. team, he won 3.5 of the American 16.5points total and played in all five possible matches.
2009 has gotten off to a great start for Hunter, finishing tied for tenth place in the Masters, a career best. Mahan has just tied for sixth in the U.S. Open alongside Tiger Woods and Soren Hansen
