Mahan: Putting let me down

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  • September 26, 2011

Hunter Mahan knows that if it had not been for his putting, the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup might have been his.

Hunter Mahan knows that if it had not been for his putting, the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup might have been his.

Mahan lost to Bill Haas on the third playoff hole at East Lake on Sunday, but he knows that it’s not his play from tee to green that cost him the win.

“I couldn’t have been happier with the way I played,” said Mahan, who shared the lead overnight. “I just can’t make a putt. I didn’t have my first birdie until 15 and I had a ton of looks. They were close, too.

“Just didn’t make a putt.”

The stats back up Mahan’s words. He hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens in regulation in his one-over 71 on Sunday, but needed 33 putts over the 18 holes, a putting stat that left him 27th in a 30-man field.

Mahan missed four putts inside 10 feet in regulation on the day. Had he made just one of those, he would have won without the need for a playoff.

“I feel like I hit good putts,” Mahan said. “I didn’t feel like they were bad strokes. They were just kind of misreads. Some were too high, some were too low and I could never get any kind of momentum going the right way.”

Despite the defeat at the death on Sunday, Mahan is still taking a lot of positives from his year so far.

“If I’ve learned anything, I can’t be really disappointed,” Mahan said. “I can’t be mad or disappointed or angry about the day. That’s not what it’s about.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be in that position again, but it was fun.”

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