Next year, you can call Hunter Mahan “Coach.”
The 41-year old former U.S. Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, and six-time PGA Tour champion is about to start coaching the boys’ team at Liberty Christian. Liberty Christian is a private Christian college prep school in Argyle.
Mahan will take over the spring season. “I asked random about the head-coaching golf position. I thought it would be interesting, fun, and completely out of my normal comfort zone, but I had a lot to offer. The coach was retiring, so I put my name into the hat,” said Mahan. When you talked about God’s plan for you, my wife and I were able to see it clearly. “We plan to move (to Argyle, Texas) from Dallas next year and have the children start school there.”
Mahan achieved a career high world ranking of No. On April 1, 2012, Mahan reached a career-high world ranking of No. At the time, he was the top-ranked American golfer. He last won at The Barclays in 2014, a FedEx Cup playoff event. Since then, his game has been on a steep decline. Mahan’s swing coach Sean Foley and his long-time caddie John Wood are both reluctant to give a reason why Mahan lost the mojo. However, they agree that Mahan was enjoying being a dad and having three children in diapers played a role.
Hunter Mahan in the past
Wood stated that “he had more going on than golf for the very first time in his lifetime.”
Foley stated that “when he was on the course, he longed to be home. And when he returned home, he yearned to be back at the golf course.” Foley said that he had fallen out of love with golf if it was something he loved in the beginning.
Mahan, who had one of the most powerful golf swings in his generation tried to change it with Chris O’Connell. The changes backfired. Mahan’s never-strengthening short game became problematic after his trademark fairways and greens game was no longer automatic. Mahan stepped down from the PGA Tour at the end of the 2020-21 season. He still holds a limited title as a former champion, but felt it was time.
If you don’t like it on Tuesday, then you won’t enjoy it on Thursday. “It’s never going to be that easy,” he said. He noted that everything before the contest was a struggle. It was a pretty easy decision to make based on this. It was time for me to move on. I have a family, four children at home. I didn’t just want to play because I can.
I didn’t want to take my children on the road. I didn’t want them to be on the road with me. It didn’t feel good to me or them to uproot them. I was not going to ask that of them. “It just didn’t seem to make any sense.”
Hunter Mahan and Zach Johnson at the 2014 Ryder Cup in Gleneagles.
In the final four53 tournaments of his career, he played in the 3M Open in July 2021. He only made two cuts out of 20 starts during the season 2020-21.
The former Oklahoma State Cowboy Golfer is happy to be handling carpool duties with three girls and one boy, ranging from 3 years old up to 10 years old. He is a talented TV golf commentator. This year he handled analyst duties at the Ryder Cup world feed in Rome, a role that he excelled in in 2016 and in 2021.
Foley replied, “When you hear him speak, isn’t he fantastic?” Hunter hasn’t spoken to anyone in years, but his words are very well-thought out.
Mahan will need to wait until his children are older before he can take on a larger role on TV.
Mahan replied, “It is something I have thought about.” It would require too much traveling, which I am not willing to do at this time given my desire to spend more time with my family.
Mahan suggested that he might be the beginning of a trend where players have shorter careers. Mahan had earned over $30 million in official income and, despite not having won a major championship, he felt he was done.
When I started the Tour, Vijay Singh was in his 40s, and Kenny Perry, Jay Haas, and other players were enjoying their best years. They were Ryder Cup players. Mahan said, “I don’t believe that will happen anymore.” The money is increasing so fast and the number of players is growing so rapidly that guys will be thinking, “I’ve earned so much, do I want to travel and grind all the time at 45?” Golf is getting younger. “The youth of golf will be at the forefront.”
Foley is one of the many who agree that career lengths on Tour are likely to decrease.
“Ludvig is not going to be an unicorn.” This is going to become the norm. Foley stated that there will be a child competing almost every week. Is it like other sports, where he loses his advantage because he doesn’t have as much time to improve his game when a man settles down and gets kids? The league has 34-year old defensive backs who know all about offenses and routes. Their wisdom is incredible, but they have lost too many steps in order to remain in the league. I think golf is like that.”
Mahan admits that he still plays golf, but he doesn’t do it very often. He says he no longer hits balls on a regular basis. He says that none of his children are golfers yet, but he thinks coaching a high-school golf team might encourage him to get back into the game. Mahan isn’t the only ex-star athlete who will be coaching at Liberty Christian. Former Dallas Cowboys tight-end Jason Witten coaches his son’s football team, and Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner became the track and field and track coach at Liberty Christian in July.
Mahan stated that the school takes pride in its academics as well as athletics. They also provide a wide range of educational opportunities to their students.
Mahan’s daughter called the small suburb of Argyle, north of Fort Worth “city-country”. It is not far from the Tour stops that are held in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex each year but it could be a whole world away from Mahan’s old life as a professional tour driver.
“I miss my friends, but not the daily grind.” “I don’t miss it,” he said. It’s a lot of work and I reached my limit. It was time to leave.
