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 Hunter Mahan (left) and Rickie Fowler finished 1-2 at the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open (FOWLER PHOTO: Eddie Meeks). Whenever young golfers — specifically those in their 20s — perform well on the PGA Tour, it’s often viewed as a portent of even more fantastic events to come. If they’re contending now, just wait what they’ll do tomorrow. Or next week. Or in 10 years. Whatever happened to savoring the moment? The moment Sunday during the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Arizona was certainly worth savoring. Orange native Hunter Mahan closed with his second-consecutive round of 65 to win the title by a stroke over Murrieta’s Rickie Fowler, garnering win No. 2 of his career and first since 2007. At the most well-attended tournament of the year, Mahan tantalized the crowds with superb ballstriking and a series of clutch putts down the stretch — including a birdie bid on the raucous par-3 16th and knee-knocking par saves on hole Nos. 17 and 18 — and the swashbuckling Fowler stayed close to his lead, even though he might be kicking himself a bit after deciding to lay up on the reachable par-5 15th hole. This will undoubtedly prompt onlookers to bask in the bright glow of the PGA Tour’s future. After all, why laud today’s achievements when there’s golf to be played tomorrow? Mahan is 27 and Fowler is 21. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to predict their best days are ahead of them — despite only a pair of wins in his portfolio, Mahan has established himself as one of the Tour’s most consistent performers with more than $8 million in earnings between 2007 and 2009, while Fowler has already contended for titles in three of his first nine PGA Tour events as a professional. But put yourself in the shoes of either player. They know they're good enough to win now. Mahan in particular knows the value of breaking back into the winner’s circle, substituting solid, lucrative play for a performance that was better than anyone else over a 72-hole stretch. That’s why he plays the game, isn’t it? You can’t get excited for tomorrow without rising to the occasion today. And even though Fowler’s spot in the Official World Golf Ranking is nowhere close to that of the sport’s more established players, an algorithm isn’t necessarily the best way to gauge his status at the moment. Without question, the most-recently anointed Next Big Thing in golf has lived up to the immense hype surrounding him, and it looks like he’s having a lot of fun doing it. After Fowler set himself for a makeable birdie putt to tie Mahan for the lead on the par-4 18th hole, he was giggling a bit with caddie Joe Skovron about the approach shot from the rough that was strong given the circumstances but not as strong as he could have engineered if he had a small bucket of balls to play with. There’s nothing wrong with lumping Mahan and Fowler into that vast pantheon of 20-somethings ready to challenge the game’s current elite. Just make sure such a categorization comes with a caveat — they are already part of golf’s elite. Eli Miller is the managing editor of Southland Golf. He hosts Miller Time Golf every Thursday at 3 p.m. PST. Reach him at emiller@churmmedia.com. ALSO SEE: Winners and losers from Southern California portion of PGA Tour's West Coast Swing |
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I bow down humbly in the prescnee of such greatness.
| Comment at 8/25/2011 |
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