Mahan rises from the ashes at Wyndham

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Friday’s second round of the Wyndham Championship, where Henrik Stenson shot 66 to take the lead at 12 under. Kevin Na shot 63 and a resurgent Hunter Mahan carded his second straight 65 to go into the weekend two shots back MAHAN BACK FROM THE ABYSS Hunter Mahan was the only player not to miss a FedExCup playoff event from its 2007 inception until he failed to make the 2015 TOUR Championship. He reached a career high of fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning The Barclays in 2014. He played in four Presidents Cups, two Ryder Cups, and racked up roughly $30 million in career earnings. No one would have looked twice if that Mahan had shot 65 at steamy Sedgefield, getting him to 10 under and just two off the lead at the Wyndham. But today, at 35 and the father of three kids age 4 and younger, Mahan is 197th in the FedExCup and 809th in the OWGR. His best result so far this season: a T17 at the Travelers Championship, where he got his first win in 2007. If his name on the leaderboard surprises you, well, yes—it should. “I’ve been on a little bit of a journey in the last year trying to figure out what kind of—what kind of golfer I am, what kind of swings I need to make,â€� Mahan said after making six birdies and one bogey. “It kind of starts from scratch. It feels a little better. I’m trying to get back to what I did when I was successful and my kind of fingerprints and what I do well and—it’s difficult.â€� What happened to Mahan? The short answer is: parenthood. He held a two-shot at the 2013 RBC Canadian Open, but withdrew to be home for the birth of his first child with wife Kandi. It’s too easy to call that the line of demarcation in his career, since he won The Barclays the season after that, but Hunter and Kandi had their second and third kids in quick succession. “I think it overwhelmed me,â€� he told the AP last year. “And I lost track of my swing a little bit.â€� Mahan took a new caddie. He changed coaches, hiring Dallas-based Chris O’Connell, and the two went on a deep dive in search of the stuff that made Mahan the winner of two World Golf Championships and six total PGA TOUR titles. The results at Sedgefield suggest they’re on the right track. Mahan especially liked the way he responded to bogeying the sixth hole Friday. Over the past few years, he said, he might have faltered. This time, the former Oklahoma State star flushed a 6-iron onto the green at the par-3 seventh hole, leading to an easy par. At the par-4 eighth, he split the fairway and stuck a wedge inside 16 feet, then made the birdie putt. Can he keep building on his success? Mahan admits he doesn’t know. Some fixes have helped him one day only to hurt him the next. “Sometimes the cure becomes the cancer,â€� he said. Stenson, who has played his way out of the golfing wilderness more than once, said one of the hardest things for a player in Mahan’s shoes is to keep taking the long view. “The tendency is to try to turn things around too quickly,â€� Stenson said. “When I’ve been down, the key for me has been committing to the long-term process. You’ve got to give yourself time, and once you get into that mindset you get a different calmness and you can kind of climb your way up. It’s good to see Hunter playing well again. Mahan says his life is “pretty good,â€� and adds that he has learned what he can and can’t control with three young children. He watches the big events like last week’s PGA Championship go on without him, and while that’s disappointing, he tells himself that he’s doing the right things. Like any parent, he tries to stay patient. He tries to appreciate the small victories even if they don’t necessarily translate on the scorecard. Peers like Sean O’Hair, with whom Mahan played junior golf and who himself is a parent of four, tell him to keep his head up, that it’ll turn around. “I feel excited to play,â€� Mahan said. “Excited to learn about what I can do to get better. I’m not tired of golf, not sick of playing tournaments. I’ve got keep learning about myself and what I do well and what ‘feels’ work for me.â€�

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