'I'm Not Willing To Pay That Price' - Six-Time PGA Tour Winner Rules Out Return

Hunter Mahan retired from professional golf at the age of 39 after an illustrious career that featured six PGA Tour wins, three Ryder Cup appearances and over $30m in prize money.

The Californian, based in Texas, decided to switch careers to become a high school coach, where he now teaches teenagers of varying abilities near his hometown. He does that all the while getting to sleep in his own bed and focus on family life with four children vs travelling around the globe grinding on his game.

"Having to travel and do all the other things that if you want to be a professional golfer you have to do, I do not miss any of that," he told Golf Monthly.

"I do like waking up in the same place every day and sort of being domesticated and being with my kids and wife. Just doing something that's very centered around them and doing the best that I can for them is where my life kind of led me and very happy to be doing what I'm doing every single day."

Mahan has no regrets with his decision to hang up the clubs but admits that he misses some of his friends and the close relationships he built out on tour. He also acknowledged the work it takes to play elite golf and paid homage to the likes of Rickie Fowler and Keegan Bradley for 'climbing the mountain' again whilst having a young family.

"No, I don't have any [plans to return]," Mahan said before discussing the possibility of taking up eligibility on the PGA Tour Champions when he turns 50.

"Yeah, I mean in accordance of the rules today yes [on whether he would have status as a player with more than four PGA Tour wins]. It's a long time from now. And it's maybe something I can do. I have four small kids. I don't really have the desire. I know what it takes, right?

"Once you're out there and know what being a professional golfer takes day in and day out, what these guys do every day and how hard they work. I'm not willing to pay that price, it's a big price to pay. You've got to put a lot of work. And it's much harder to climb the mountain twice than it is once, right?

"It's been great to see Rickie Fowler and Keegan [Bradley] sort of battle back up top. It's really hard to do with the family and kids and doing all those things. It's really hard.

"It's much easier to do that when you're a young person and you are the center of the universe and it's the only thing you think about all the time. How am I going to get better? Training and practicing and playing, there's no what are you going to do when you go home? Nothing. Play, practice. And those guys, man, to rival that energy It's hard.

"But like I said, I just had my turn. I had my run and I enjoyed the heck out of it and I had felt as lucky as anybody to have the career that I had and that's just not on my periphery right now.

"It's fun to see the game from a different perspective and sort of commentate on it, like I did for the Ryder Cups and did it for [Sirius] XM a few times. It's fun to see guys doing what they do and not being in awe of it and not being jealous or angry about it."

Mahan is currently the golf coach at Liberty Christian in Argyle, Texas. He's enjoying his new life of being a leader and helping the next generation in their golf journeys.

"I enjoy it, it's just you never know what's around the corner and trying to be a leader amongst kids and trying to identify kids to be leaders, what I like about it is it’s just super challenging and it's just doing something I've never done before," he said with a smile.

"It's challenging to create a culture in high school and I said just to get these kids excited about golf and to take a kid who might have shot in the 90s and is getting a little bit better and a little bit better that's really neat and that's really really interesting to see and to sort of be a part of it in their golfing journey.

"Everyone comes at you from different sort of walks of life and some have been doing a long time, some have been doing it less than a year and so you're just seeing the game from a very different perspective and that's really fun. And then I get to watch golf from a different perspective as well."

Mahan also discussed the issue of Ryder Cup pay as well as his idea for college golfers to earn PGA Tour cards faster.