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HUMBLE, Texas—Golf’s champions are so often made on the back nine. No one played the inward loop at the Shell Houston Open better than Hunter Mahan, and because of it the 30-year-old from Colleyville held off Sweden’s Carl Pettersson to become the PGA Tour’s first two-time winner this season.
Mahan overcame a two-shot deficit with a final round 71 to finish at 16-under-par 272 for the championship. He beat Pettersson, a four-time winner on tour, by a single shot. Mahan, who two years ago broke down and cried after losing the final U.S. point at the 2010 Ryder Cup, is now the best American golfer in the game. He moved up to No. 4 in the World Golf Rankings—the highest spot held by a U.S. player—and leads the FedExCup points race, too.
For the week, Mahan, who also won the Wolf Golf Championships Accenture Match Play in February, tore through the final nine holes on The Tournament Course at Redstone Golf Club at 11-under par. He suffered only one bogey on the back nine all week and had just two for the tournament.
So once the former Oklahoma State All-American seized his first lead with a five-foot birdie on the ninth hole Sunday—after hitting 3-iron in tight on the 238-yard par 3—he had to feel good about his chances to notch his fifth career tour victory.
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