American Express – Wrestle is Actual for Hunter Mahan

Hunter Mahan was as soon as a world-class golfer on the PGA Tour. On Thursday on the American Express, he proved that these days are lengthy gone.

Mahan has six PGA Tour victories, although none since 2014. He was a member of 4 Presidents Cup groups (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013) and three Ryder Cup sides (2008, 2010, 2014).

However the veteran has run upon very arduous occasions in recent times. Within the final six seasons on tour, over the course of 129 begins, Mahan has only one Prime 10 end. That got here in 2018 when he tied for seventh on the Barbasol Championship.

Since that point, he has made simply 11 cuts in 36 begins. And his battle continued on Thursday in his native California.

His struggles have been summed up by his entrance 9 in his first spherical Thursday. Mahan opened with a bogey on the par-Four first gap. He adopted that with one other bogey on the par-Four second. Two holes, two over par already.

Mahan did par the par-Three third gap. Nevertheless, he adopted that with one other bogey, this one on the par-Four fourth gap.

He additionally bogeyed the par-Four fifth gap to slide to 4-over par by 5. He appeared to bounce again, at the least a bit of, with pars on the sixth and seventh holes.

Then got here the par-Three eighth gap, the place Mahan’s hope of creating the reduce slipped fully away.

His tee shot landed within the water. His third shot, from the drop zone, acquired him to the inexperienced and he two-putted for a double-bogey 5. He was 6-over par by eight holes.

After a par to shut his entrance 9 with a 42, Mahan bogeyed the 10th gap to drop to 7-over par. Nevertheless, he did birdie the 11th and 12th holes to get again to 5-over on his spherical.

Mahan would birdie the 15th gap as nicely and would end with a 4-over par 76. On the time he completed, he was forward of solely three gamers within the 156-player subject.

Sadly for Mahan, it was a lot of the identical on Thursday. As he has needed to do many occasions in recent times, he’ll want an enormous spherical simply to make the reduce on Friday.