Pacesetter Hahn keeps crowd amused
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — James Hahn has settled down a lot since his wild days at the University of California led to the end of his college career. He still knows how to have a good time.
That was on display again Friday at the golf party known as the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where Hahn took the lead with a bogey-free 6-under 65 in breezy conditions.
“I’m having fun out there,” Hahn said.
He wasn’t alone at TPC Scottsdale. An estimated 160,415 fans, not counting a large bobcat that sauntered between the first and second holes in the afternoon, packed the grounds. The crowd broke the Friday record of 123,674 set in 2014 and was the 10th-largest figure for any day in tournament history.
Hahn became an internet sensation in 2013 when he celebrated a birdie on the rowdy par-3 16th with a Gangnam Style dance.
“It’s the one week out of the year where you’re allowed to do anything you want and not get fined,” Hahn said. “It’s good for golf, good for the game, good for the fans that come out here. They support the golf tournament, so might as well give them a show.”
On Friday, he did 10 pushups after teeing off on the stadium 16th. “They came out to watch the gun show, so I popped them out right there on the tee box,” Hahn said.
Hahn had a 10-under 132 total on the Stadium Course to enter the weekend a stroke ahead of Rickie Fowler and Danny Lee. Fowler birdied his final hole for a 68, and Lee had a 66.
Hahn opened with a chip-in birdie on the par-4 10th and birdied the two back-nine par fives, making a 30-footer on the 13th and hitting a wedge to seven feet on the 15th. On his final nine, he hit a wedge to three feet to set up a birdie on the par-4 second, chipped to three feet for another birdie on the par-5 third, and took the outright lead with a 10-footer on the par-4 sixth.
“I’m sleeping in my own bed this week, I live about 10 minutes away,” Hahn said. “I have played this course a hundred times. The only thing different about the course today, as any other day, is the greens are better.”
Fowler rebounded from a three-putt bogey on the par-4 17th with the birdie on the par-4 18th. A day after driving into the leftside water, he hammered a fairway wood down the middle and — with music thumping in the background — hit his approach to four feet.
“It wasn’t playing easy,” Fowler said. “The wind was blowing from an awkward position. I just tried to stay patient, fight through it.”
The top-ranked player in the field at No. 4, Fowler has four worldwide victories in the last nine months. He missed the cut last week at Torrey Pines after winning in Abu Dhabi the previous week.
Lee birdied five of his first eight holes, highlighted by a 20footer on 16. The South Koreanborn New Zealander won the Greenbrier Classic last year for his first tour title.
“The wind was definitely in play today,” Lee said.