Inside Hunter Mahan’s 62

Like I alluded to in Quality Start, Hunter Mahan’s 62 yesterday was arguably the most impressive round of golf I have ever seen in my life.  Consider the following:

• Again, this was at Congressional: Not some po-dunk bullshit course.  When asked about Mahan’s round, Tiger Woods said, “I don’t know what course he was playing.”  The pin positions were absurdly hard, and when you consider he made a WHOPPING 130+ feet worth of putts on THESE greens?  Shit son.
• The next lowest score shot on Sunday was 66: By Vijay CheatypantsMcFrauderson (copyright 2008…or 2009, I don’t remember but anyways, it’s copyright, clown).  Tiger, Brandt Snedeker, Tiger-killer Nick O’Hern and investment guru Joe Ogilvie all shot 67.  When Vijay and Tiger, who were both firing on all cylinders, can barely match Mahan’s score under par FOR THE BACK 9…well, that’s special.
• It was Sunday, not Thursday: Anthony Kim shot a sublime 62 on Thursday, but Thursday pin positions are MUCH easier to get to than the ones on Sunday.  I’d say Sunday’s pin placements brought twice as many hazards into play, especially in the final three holes.  Mahan was a balmy -4 through three rounds…-8 on Sunday alone.  That’s getting it done when you need it.
• He was chasing, and passing some big names: Tiger Woods and Anthony Kim.  Vijay Singh.  One of the best college players in recent history, Bryce Molder, a guy with a bright future ahead of him.  US Open champ Lucas Glover.  Jim Furyk.  Young guns Brandt Snedeker, Ryan Moore and Danny Lee.  There are majors with a less glamorous leaderboard than that.

Heady, heady stuff here…

Lets go into the round though.

Front 9: Absolutely effortless.  Shooting a 32 on THAT collection of holes is downright scary.  There are two elements you need in order to survive the front 9 at Congressional…accurate driving and distance control on your approach shots.  Mahan put on an absolute clinic on this side, not dropping a single shot and carding three birdies.

Accuracy off the tee is Mahan’s strength.  His swing is as technically flawless as it comes producing huge drives that often find the fairway.  There’s nothing wasted, nowhere to get out of position and, most importantly, generates massive amounts of power.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s video evidence!!!

But while Mahan’s driving was typically impressive, it was his distance control on his approach shots that set up this masterpiece.

A typical Mahan round is this…super long drive down the middle of the fairway followed by a laserlike iron to within 15 feet.  I’m not kidding you, that’s it.  For all the grief I give Tiger about being a robot, he plays golf like an artist, working shots from the left and right from varying heights.  Conversely, Mahan is a golf robot.  His swing is so simple and repeatable that it’s kind of a wonder he doesn’t go this low every tournament.  His drivers are as straight as possible considering the distance he covers and his irons are even straighter.

At Congressional, distance control is very important.  If you end up shorting yourself, you have to deal with cliffs and plateaus on the greens making birdie putts a rarity.  You have to get yourself on the right side and with a relatively flat, preferably uphill putt in order to score well.  Mahan did this with aplomb.

Notice earlier I said he made a relative mile worth of putts.  This doesn’t mean that his distance control was off, it means that he left himself with makeable putts.  Lets put it this way…on these greens, you’d rather have a 20 footer with a readable break that you can hit hard than a 5 footer back down a hill.  Mahan left himself in the best positions, and while he was incediary with his flatstick, it was all set up by approaches that left him with putts that he could give himself a chance to make.  This was every bit as important as the putts themselves.

Now the back 9 was a completely different story.  You’ll notice he shot a back 9 30, which in itself is incredible, but I want to focus on a stretch of three holes…14-16.  Mahan bogey’d 14, which isn’t a sin by any means seeing as next to nobody scored well on that hole all week, and followed that up with a textbook birdie at 15.  16 was the biggie tho…the card will read ‘par’ but it felt like a bogey.  A par 5 that was easy pickings for birdies, Mahan actually got on in 2 shots, an incredible feat by itself.  But he three-jacked it…like a fucking bitch.  Dude had a shot at 60 and he fucking three putts…on a day where he, literally, drilled everything in his sights.

I know I’m going a little crazy over a round of golf that didn’t even end in a victory, but this was as perfect of a round of golf as I can even remember.  This was better than Tiger’s final round 65 at the Memorial a month ago, better than Sergio’s final round at the 2008 Players, better than Tiger’s final round at the 2007 PGA Championship…it was flawless.

Golf fans who follow the game have long had incredibly high hopes for Mr. Mahan.  He’s one of the brightest stars in the golfing world right now, and after his Ryder Cup performance and his top 10’s at both majors so far this year, it seems that his game is maturing beautifully.  There was lofty praise for young guns like Anthony Kim towards the end of last year, and while he deservedly reaped the praise, there’s a lot more depth in the American stables these days with Mahan, Sean O’Hair, and Nick Watney all joining AK as ass kickers par excellence.  And couple that with Euros/Kiwi Rory McIlroy, Martin Kaymer and Danny Lee and there’s a crop of young players the likes of which we have rarely seen.

But this is about Mahan…and Mahan might just be the best of all of these guys.