PGA Tour winner Hunter Mahan is retiring from the circuit to begin a coaching career at a high school in Texas.
The 41-year-old, who turned professional in 2003, racked up six victories on the tour between 2007 and 2014, and reached a career-high of World No.4 in 2012.
However, following a run of less successful years since his peak, next year Mahan will embark on a new career, which he discussed in an exclusive interview with Golfweek’s Adam Schupak.
The Dallas-based star has landed a position coaching the boys’ golf team at Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas, and he explained to Schupak why he had chosen to pursue the position.
He said: “I asked randomly about the head coaching golf position because I thought it could be fun and interesting and something completely out of my comfort zone but something I have a lot of knowledge in, and the coach was retiring so I threw my name in the hat.
“When you talk about God’s path for you, it just became so clear for my wife and I. We plan on moving next year from Dallas and for the kids to start attending school there.”
As well as Mahan’s run of PGA Tour victories, his other achievements in the professional game included four winning appearances for Team USA at the Presidents Cup and three Ryder Cup outings, helping his country to victory in the 2008 match at Valhalla. He also had eight top-10 finishes in Majors, with at least one in each of them.
However, his form began to decline after he and his wife started a family, which soon took priority, and, without an appearance on the PGA Tour since the 3M Open in July 2021, he has decided the time is right to seek a new challenge.
He continued: “If you don’t love it on Tuesday, you can’t love it on Thursday. It’s just never going to work that way. It was actually a rather easy decision based on that. I have four kids at home and a family and it was clearly my time to do something else. I didn’t want to keep playing just to keep playing because I could.”
Despite his most recent PGA Tour appearance coming over two years ago, Mahan has remained in the headlines, including recently, when he expressed confidence that Jon Rahm would not join LIV Golf.
He has also won plaudits for his talent behind the microphone, which he demonstrated most recently for the world feed broadcast at the Ryder Cup, which saw Team Europe claim victory at Marco Simone.
However, with his family in mind, Mahan has chosen not to pursue a commentary career, at least for the time being. He continued: “It’s something I’ve thought about. But it requires too much travel that I’m not willing to do right now given the attention that I want to give to my family.”
Instead, Mahan will begin his new career in the small Texan city in time for the spring season.
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