Stellar scores on the weekend becoming normal for Mahan

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AKRON, Ohio -- Hunter Mahan has had a lot on his mind this year.

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He's been trying to improve his position in the FedExCup standings. He wanted to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team on his own merit, too. Then there's that January wedding to plan.

Oh, and on Sunday there was a tournament to win. A big one, too, the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club.

Once he did, coming from four strokes behind with a 64, Mahan took care of everything else. Except for the wedding plans, that is.

The victory was the third of the 28-year-old's PGA TOUR career, and his second of 2010. Mahan has come from behind in each victory and Sunday's bogey-free performance was flawless.

"Obviously to win any time on the PGA TOUR is great, but an event like this, 80 of the best players in the world, this definitely means it's something special," Mahan said. "This is a great, great tournament. Bridgestone does an incredible job. This course is immaculate. Every time we come here it's just like a major.

"... All the players all over the world come here to play, and it's definitely the best win of my career for sure. And it's probably the coolest trophy we get, too."

The tan-and-black Wedgewood Gary Player Cup will undoubtedly find a prominent place in Mahan's Texas home. Less tangible but just as important, though, is the momentum he gained heading the PGA Championship and the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup.

And there's the added bonus of the berth he earned -- that's the key word -- on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Not to say he didn't belong in 2008 -- or on the last two Presidents Cup teams, as well -- but he didn't want to be a Captain's Pick again.

"Any way you make the Ryder Cup team, it's great, it really is," Mahan said. "But I felt my game was good enough to make it on my own, and that was a goal of mine this year. ... I knew it was there. I knew I just had to keep going and keep trusting it.

"This weekend I definitely just kind of let everything go and just had some fun. There's a lot to think about right now with the FedExCup and Ryder Cup going on this week, but I'm pretty proud of how I played. I handled all the stuff that was going on inside my head on the outside."

Mahan opened with a 71 on the South Course but improved each day, closing with rounds of 66-64 to earn the victory. He seized the lead as he made the turn in 30 Sunday and held off a challenges from Ryan Palmer and Bo Van Pelt -- as well as from a bed of flowers at the 16th hole where he came up with a clutch par.

"He went out and did what I expected somebody to do and shot a low round," Palmer said. "I didn't lose the golf tournament. I'm proud of that. ... He definitely went out and seized the moment and won the golf tournament, so good for him."

Mahan did that earlier this year, too, when he closed with rounds of 65-65 on the weekend to come from four back and win the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February. Since that tournament, though, he'd only had one top-10 so Sunday's performance was a big confidence boost. He's even missed six cuts in 19 starts after cashing checks in all 25 starts last year.

Mahan, who ranks first on TOUR in total driving and 26th in greens in regulation, will be the first to admit that his swing got a little out of whack. His putter could be uncooperative, too -- Mahan ranked 158th in putting and 177th in putts per round entering the Bridgestone Invitational, where he ended up tied for fourth in that category.

Off the course, Mahan had some other important things on his mind. He proposed to his girlfriend, Kandi Harris, on the Saturday before the U.S. Open after something of a whirlwind courtship that began in December.

"There was a lot going on in a good way with getting engaged and kind of having a serious, serious girlfriend and everything," Mahan said. "It was all good, it was all positive, it was all fun. We were having a great time, but it was energy going another place.

"I've only worried about golf for the past 27 years of my life, and to think about somebody else and what kind of their feelings and stuff was just different. It's an adjustment period. I think like anyone knows, when you get married or anything, it's an adjustment period, and that's kind of what we went through. But she's only been for the better....

"I don't know how this game works, I'm just trying to figure it out as I go."

Mahan appears to have things pretty well in order now, though, as he prepares for next week's PGA Championship as Whistling Straits.

"A major is always different," Mahan said. "... Right now I'm going to enjoy this and then make sure I forget it and I don't want to talk about this week after Monday and get working because it's a heck of a challenge next week."