Here at Athlon Sports, we were getting a little nervous. We had anointed Hunter Mahan as a player to watch in 2010, ranking him 10th in our 2010 annual golf edition (on newsstands now) only to see him finish no higher than T27 in his first four starts.

No worries. Mahan dispelled any lingering doubts about his ability to win on the PGA Tour, capturing his second career title at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with a final-round charge up a noteworthy leaderboard. More importantly, he also provided Athlon with some sweet vindication.

Mahan erased what at one point was a four-stroke deficit, draining an eagle and a pair of birdies over a late four-hole stretch to win by a single shot over fellow Oklahoma State Cowboy Rickie Fowler.

“Obviously it feels great to win,” Mahan said. “I haven’t won since 2007, but I’ve had a couple really good years, so I thought it was important for me to get at least one win this year. And it’s kind of been not the best West Coast for me, but I felt the game was pretty good, and it feels great to get a W here. This is a great tournament, and I always enjoy coming here.”

The next time he comes, he’ll carry the label of defending champion.

Desert Swarm

There is no spectacle in golf quite like the 16th at TPC Scottsdale. The massive frat party/tailgate/Mardi Gras parade obliterates the stereotype of the reserved golf fan and affords patrons the unique opportunity for behavior normally reserved for a football game -- like, say, drunken booing, taunting and general boorishness. The fans at 16 even booed hometown hero Phil Mickelson when he missed a short birdie. It was good-natured booing, and Lefty took it well, but still…

Taken in the right spirit, though, 16 can actually be fun for the players. It was especially fun on Sunday for Mahan, who made what turned out to be a tournament-clinching birdie, to the delight of the boisterous mob.

“16 is a fun, exciting hole, it really is,” Mahan said. “The people want to see great shots. I thought we had a pretty good number. My caddie John Wood did a great job. I thought it was just a good 8, and he’s like, no, it’s a 9. I trusted him, made a good swing at it, left myself right up the hill. The putt didn’t do much, it was uphill, breaking like two balls to the right, and you just had to have good speed, and I did.”

Mahan enjoyed the moment but didn’t let it distract him from his primary task of winning the tournament.

“I mean, you still have a tournament to win, you can’t really worry about the people,” he said. “You just kind of have to block it out, but at the same time kind of enjoy it because you don’t have that opportunity too much to have so many people watching you on one hole.”

Oh, Rickie

The head-scratching decision of the weekend belonged to Fowler. On 15, the final par 5 at TPC Scottsdale, Fowler bombed his drive but chose to lay up on his second shot, ultimately missing a critical birdie putt.

Rickie the Rookie defended his decision afterwards.

“I was a little farther out than I would have liked to have been to go for it.,” he said. “You know, I told them, obviously if I was a couple back in that position and feeling that I needed to make a few birdies coming in, I would have gone for it. But being that I was at the time, I think, just one back, putting a wedge in my hand from 80 yards, a lot of times I do make birdie there. I played 16 well all week. I had a look at birdie there. With 17 being a short hole, there’s a birdie chance.

“So I felt that instead of bringing trouble into play, in a way which a lot of times I don’t play, I took the safe route, easy lay-up, and like I said, I had an easy wedge shot with soft greens. I just hit it a little soft.”

Fowler, who now has two top-5s in his last four appearances, seems to be on the fast track toward his breakthrough win and may soon start popping up in pre-majors chatter.

“Ultimately what I wanted was to have a chance coming down the last few holes. That’s what I did, and like I said, just missed a couple putts,” he said.

WM Notebook

• It’s quickly becoming a cliché, but the future of American golf continues to brighten on the strength of a stellar group of youngsters. Mahan becomes the eighth twenty-something on Tour with multiple victories, joining Dustin Johnson, J.B. Holmes, D.J. Trahan, Sean O’Hair, Anthony Kim, Nick Watney and Charles Howell III.

• Mahan, who was the only player in the field to post a bogey-free weekend, discovered a crack in his driver early in his final round. Fortunately, he had a spare driver in his trunk, and he dispatched his girlfriend to retrieve it before his next tee shot.

• Third-round leader Brandt Snedeker shot himself out of contention with three front-nine bogeys, then added insult to an injurious round with closing double bogeys on 17 and 18 for a final-round 78. Snedeker finished tied for 43rd, his first finish of the season outside the top 21. It was only his second over-par round in 21 total rounds this season.

Major Predictor

PGATour.com points out an interesting statistical tidbit about this week’s Honda Classic. Two players in the last six years have won the Honda for their first career win, then gone on to win a major later in the year: 2004 champ Todd Hamilton, who went on to capture that year’s British Open; and Y.E. Yang, who broke through at last year’s Honda before staring down Tiger Woods at the PGA. Another nine winners of the tournament have used Honda victories as precursors to major championship wins, including 2005 winner Padraig Harrington, while another eight Honda winners already had majors on their resumes.

Not bad for a tournament that once had a lowly, nomadic identity, both in location and spot on the schedule. It’s established itself as a prestigious stop on Tour, thanks in large part to the participation of Jack Nicklaus, who toughened up the host Champion Course and serves as unofficial host of the event.