Monday Backspin: Relaxed Mahan wins; Fowler's future

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By all accounts, Hunter Mahan has had a pretty good couple of years. He's played in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, recorded 11 top-10s, made more than $5 million and is dating a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

All that was missing was a win.

"Frustrating," Mahan said of the last two seasons. "I've had a lot of success. I just haven't been able to win."

Until Sunday, of course, when he closed with his second-straight 65 to win by one at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

At just 25 years old when he got his first victory -- the 2007 Travelers Championship -- it looked like Mahan was on the path to stardom. With the first win out of the way, more were expected to follow for the former Oklahoma State star.

Champion's Replay

Want to hear what Hunter Mahan said about his win at the Waste Management Phoenix Open? Click here Shot Tracker Replay Mahan's final round MORE PLAYERS • Final-round highlights • Shot of the Day • Final wrap-up • Complete tourney coverage

It didn't exactly work out that way, though, and Mahan started to slip down the list of best 20-somethings on the PGA TOUR, which was fair and unfair. Fair because he hadn't been able to win the last two seasons. Unfair because he was still consistently good and continued to be a stalwart in international team competition.

Still, Mahan was pressing. "You just try to be perfect very round, every practice round," Mahan said earlier this year. "I was trying way too hard."

It all came together in Phoenix, though, where Mahan, after a low-key offseason and more relaxed approach, was the only player without a bogey on the weekend. And remember, he's still just 27 years old.

By the way, Mahan, who was one of the players who had been using the pre-1990 PingEye 2 wedges, did not have them in the bag at TPC Scottsdale. He took them out the week before.

Stock up

Rickie Fowler: A tie for fifth and a runner-up in two of his last four events. It's pretty apparent that Fowler is the real deal. It won't be long before he wins. FedExCup rank: 13 (61 last week) Y.E. Yang: How good was Yang's 65 on Sunday? Well, consider that late Saturday night he was contemplating withdrawing because he was under the weather. That's now four top-20 finishes in five events for Yang this year. FedExCup rank: 17 (40 last week) Ryan Moore: If not for a third-round 74, Moore would have been in contention Sunday. Still, he tied for 14th, giving him his third top-15 finish of the season in six events. FedExCup rank: 34 (36 last week)

Stock down

Phil Mickelson: It's a little early to sound the alarm, but a tie for 24th in Arizona leaves Lefty with just one top-15 this season (a tie for eighth at Pebble Beach). The driver continues to be the main culprit -- Mickelson is hitting less than 52 percent of his fairways. FedExCup rank: 43 (48 last week) Boo Weekley: Whether it's nagging injuries or just poor play, Weekley has flat-out struggled this year. He missed the cut in Arizona and hasn't had a top-25 since last year's British Open. FedExCup rank: 131 (119 last week) Lucas Glover: Not exactly a stellar couple of weeks for the U.S. Open champion. Since his tie for ninth in San Diego, Glover lost in the first round of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship and missed the cut in Scottsdale. FedExCup rank: 65 (56 last week)

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. If the first month of the season wasn't evidence that Rickie Fowler is going to be a very, very good player, I don't know what is. The rookie leaves the West Coast with a pair of top-5s and plenty of confidence. That's why he won't think too much about not going for the green in two on the par-5 15th Sunday -- he knows there will be more opportunities.

2. The only thing Fowler is going to have to get better at is his play on par 3s. He's 10 over on them this season -- compared to 25 under on the par 5s.

3. Interesting stat pointed out by a reader: Players in contention this year who laid up on par 5s coming down the stretch on Sunday are 0-for-3, including Fowler, Bubba Watson and Michael Sim. All were in varying situations, but it does tell you something about their nerves or thought process.

4. Speaking of thought process, Camilo Villegas' has certainly changed. Last year was a building year focused on managing the season on and off the course. This year is a performance year. Now the only question is whether we'll see the results. Villegas was in contention for three rounds before fading on Sunday.

5. By building, I mean it was about managing a lot of events and a lot of off-the-course stuff for Villegas. This year, Villegas will cut back on both and try to play with a nothing-to-lose mentality. The hope is that it will help his putting and the FedExCup and world ranking points will take care of themselves.

6. Has a final-round leader ever disappeared faster than Brandt Snedeker did on Sunday? Three bogeys in the first seven holes and a 78 will do that.

7. It was a good weekend to be a Cowboy. An Oklahoma State Cowboy that is. Not only did Mahan and Fowler finish 1-2 in Scottsdale, OSU upset top-ranked Kansas in men's basketball.

8. Brandel Chamblee nailed it when he said that Anthony Kim's final round was a "professional" 67. In the past, Kim might have mailed it in after a third-round 76. Only twice last season, in fact, did Kim improve in the final round when shooting 70 or higher in the third round and one of those was only by a stroke, while the other came after a third-round 78.

9. I'm not certain, but this weekend may have featured the loudest collection of sports venues ever in a two-day span between TPC Scottsdale's 16th hole, Syracuse's Carrier Dome and its NCAA record crowd of 34,616 for a men's basketball game on campus and the USA-Canada gold medal hockey game in Vancouver, where Canada nearly blew the roof off after winning in overtime.

FROM THE MAILBAG (Click here to submit your question)

Which major do you think will suit Rickie Fowler best and why? -- Cliff Jones

If we're talking about this year, the British Open at St. Andrews. I could see Fowler having real success there for some of the same reasons Tiger Woods has. Fowler is long off the tee and good on the green. Fowler also has that really flat swing that should play well in the wind. The greens at Augusta are tough for a first-timer, and Fowler's penchant for being somewhat wild with the driver would hurt him at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

This week's Kodak Challenge hole

HOLE: The par-4, 434-yard 16th at PGA National's Champion Course THIS WEEK: This dogleg right is the toughest par-4 of all of PGA National's 90 holes. Off the tee, everything slopes toward the water on the right, but a bunker was added to catch balls that roll too far right. Those who bail out left are faced with a 220-yard second shot over water, into the wind. Click here to tour the 16th | Current Kodak Challenge standings

The Forward Spin

The TOUR heads into its Florida Swing for the next month, beginning at this week's Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. After bouncing around to four different courses in a 10-year span, this tournament has found a home in PGA National, where Y.E. Yang got his first career win a year ago. Could the same thing happen for Rory McIlroy this week? He'll certainly be one of the favorites.