James Hahn rebounds from snowman to make the cut

LAS VEGAS – James Hahn was thinking about an early plane ride home after he seemingly ruined a promising return from injury at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open with a quintuple bogey eight.

After all, he’d just dropped from 7 under at TPC Summerlin to 2 under with just four holes left in the second round, three back of the cut line.

Add to this that it was the two-time PGA TOUR winner's first start since February, thanks to a partially torn triceps tendon in his right arm.

Surely, his tournament was done.

Think again.

In an incredible show of resilience, Hahn rebounded by finishing birdie – birdie – par – eagle to reach 6 under and secure a weekend tee time.

How?

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“I practice scenarios like that a lot and I’ve also put myself in bad situations before and I’ve been able to pull it off,” Hahn said post-round.

“This is one I can take to the memory bank and know just never give up – all these holes are gettable. Guys are shooting 8 under and (playing partner) Joel Dahmen was 9 under through 10, so seeing that fed a lot of momentum even though I was coming off the eight.

“I just thought 'okay, let’s go, let’s go get it.' Before that, I was playing cautious and conservative, but this is a golf course where if you are aggressive, you get rewarded for it, and I hit a lot of good shots coming in.”

While there were some great shots coming in, highlighted by a 236-yard approach shot to inside 10 feet to set up the closing eagle, Hahn had some terrible ones during his diabolical snowman.

Playing the par-3 5th, his 14th hole of the round, Hahn dumped a 7-iron into the desert. He then proceeded to hit his second almost backwards and his third came out so hot it cleared the green and went into some more bushes against a retaining wall. Following a drop, he dumped a flop shot short of the green.

“it was a big blur,” he confessed.

“At that point, I just needed a timeout. I was just tired. I had hit too many shots and I was like 'I don’t know what’s going on.' I could end up making a 20 if I wasn’t smart.

“But I chipped it down there and hit a good putt, but still made an eight. It’s like the old Seve saying… how did you make an eight? Well, I missed the putt for seven and tapped in for eight.”

Incredibly, Hahn finished his first round with five birdies in his last six holes on Thursday.

“I know there is greatness in me… I’m still not 100 percent, but there are flashes of greatness and that’s good to see,” he said.

Playing on a major medical exemption, Hahn has 17 starts to make 305 FedExCup points to retain full playing rights. He has returned despite the fact the injury still causes issues.

“It is getting better, I feel stronger, but I just don’t have my speed back,” he explained.

“Every day I am in the hotel room icing and doing some stem, doing some rehab, doing basically everything to reduce the inflammation. Some days it is good, some days it is bad. Swing speed goes down because I don’t really trust my arm, but hopefully I can have a good weekend.”