What has happened to Hunter Mahan?

You probably haven’t noticed because he’s not high profile like Tiger, but Hunter Mahan has dropped off the world ranking list.

He was once ranked 4 in the world and now he’s outside the top 200 (now 205). Previously, he’s had top 10’s in all of the majors (as recently as 2013) and nobody would have been surprised if he snagged one of those at some point. He beat Rory McIlroy in the final of the WGC Match Play Championship (2012)

He was a permanent fixture in Ryder and Presidents Cup teams (7 teams between 2007-2014). Don’t think he’d would make the local golf team at the moment.

I read here that he’s busy with family life and other commitments. I get that. I know what it’s like to have different focus and more responsibility. But what I saw at the Barbasol tournament a few weeks back was horrendous.

He was tight, stiff and just looked plain ugly. He was stuffing around looking backwards, working on a backswing drill. He didn’t look right and one of the few shots I saw was a massive block to the right (some would say half shank). It was painful to watch.

All this, to me, is a sign he’s not playing golf. He’s tweaking his swing too much and trying to find his game by adding more things. This invariably fails and it doesn’t take too long before this searching leads to ultimate failure – can you remember Ian Baker-Finch?

I was chatting to a tour player about him (who also hadn’t noticed Mahan has gone missing) and was interested in my thoughts.

“Seve Ballesteros tried to “fix” his swing in an attempt to hit the ball straighter and win the U.S. Open. That didn’t work too well for him.  Further, if the great Seve couldn’t tweak his swing and then spent years trying to find his game, I’m not sure there’s much chance for the rest of us.”

Hunter needs to get back to playing golf.  He needs to forget about all the bad stuff and focus on what he needs to do. Ultimately, this means playing HIS best shot at the right time.

Hunter needs to play HIS way. That’s the only way.

It’s simple advice but it sure is going to be better than what he’s dishing out at the moment.

Update: I just checked his results from the Travelers Championship and while he made the cut, he shot the worst score in the 3rd round and is last in that field.