HUMBLE —With his man having done it, with Hunter Mahan heading back out onto the 18th green to become the first player to accept two trophies this season, caddie John Wood calls it like he sees it.

"Sean Foley is the best teacher in the game," Wood says of his fellow Canadian.

It's hard to argue with Foley's recent success. He's the coach of the last two winners on Tour. He now guides the fourth-ranked golfer in the world (Mahan) and oh yeah, some guy named Tiger Woods. This is why Mahan's win at the Shell Houston Open isn't just big for the Texas-reared champ and his former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader wife. This W does more than further validate the Shell as a big-time tournament (the better your champion the more respected a tourney is and the Houston Open's on quite a star power roll with Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson and now Mahan taking home the crystal trophy the last three years).

In the larger picture, this win sends another salvo in the swing coach wars. One that will resonate all the way to Augusta National.

For even as Tiger Woods' old swing coach Hank Haney relentlessly promotes his new book on the most interesting athlete in the world — the book that has traditionalists howling over the trust Haney supposedly breached with Tiger — the pupils of Woods' new coach keep winning.

First, Justin Rose at Doral in early March. Then, Tiger himself last week at Bay Hill. Now, Mahan in Houston. All Foley students. All winning big.

"Hunter's really locked into what Sean's teaching,'' John Wood, the caddie, says.

When Mahan steps up to the 18th tee box, knowing he needs to par what he'll later call "one of more challenging finishing holes in golf" to hold off Carl Pettersson, his caddie offers a last thought. "You're the best driver of the golf ball in the world," John Wood tells Mahan as the two men stare down all the water.

It doesn't matter if anyone else believes that. It only matters that Mahan himself does in this moment.

Two perfect shots later — a drive that dissects the fairway and a 7-iron the lands softly right on the spot of the green he wants to be, above the hole — proves that Mahan does. There will be no 72nd hole drama. Just a routine two putt for a $1,080,000 first-place check and a sweet charter flight to Georgia ahead.

"We've got to go pack," Kandi Mahan says, the wife, who helped bring a sense of peace to a golfer who's always carried a surplus of talent, flashing a cheerleader worthy smile.

Hunter Mahan is not just bringing a hot game to The Masters. He's bringing the Foley noise too. Golf is at its most fascinating when it's ripe with subplots worthy of Game of Thrones and boy are they there heading into Augusta.

It's doubtful any golfer in history has felt the need to stick it to his ex-swing coach the way Tiger does with Haney.

And there's Mahan in Houston using the Foley way to turn back a field full of Masters players (31 in all).

Mahan credits playing with Tiger in Bay Hill with helping him see the light too.

"I kind of wasn't reaching my potential in a way," Mahan says. "I think great players, when you see them, their heads are always up. They never seem to get down. They might get upset over a shot, but they don't get down on themselves over a shot. It just never seems to bother them.

'You watch Tiger when he plays — and I played with him last week — the guy, he's just got that confidence and that swagger back. If he hits a bad shot, he's still got his head up and his chest out. He's ready to get after it.

"You got to be positive in this game. It's too hard of a game to beat yourself up too."

Tiger's bud?

One gets the idea that Mahan could soon become one of Tiger's rare friends in the game — through both men's association with Foley. The only thing that could complicate that? Mahan might become too good for the ultra-competitive Woods to befriend.

After all Mahan — not Woods — is now the top-ranked American in golf. He's definitely a threat to Tiger winning another green jacket.

Mahan's always had the ability to go crazy, low. But now he's showing the mental game to grind out a come-from-behind win on a day when he only carded a one-under 71. When the 65 never comes, Mahan does not panic or press.

He just finds a way to still play better than anyone else.

It's enough to push the guy who chooses to live in Colleyville (by Grapevine in Dallas' shadow) to heights he wondered if he'd ever achieve.

"Shoot, I'd be lying to you if I said I doesn't feel awesome to be ranked No. 4 in the world," Mahan says. "That's a pretty surreal thing to think about. You know, I felt like I could be a good player in this game, but to win twice this year and be fourth . . ."

Phil Mickelson wants everyone to believe that he's as confident as ever about his own game. And even after a rather pedestrian 70-71 weekend as the defending Shell Houston Open champ, Mickelson acts like a man who's feeling fine.

After his round —one that leaves him tied for fourth with three other players, but never really gives him a chance to win — Mickelson spends a good 45 minutes signing autographs for the fans crowded around the barricades near the scorer's tent. That's far longer than any other player in the field lingers for the fans.

Forget baseball beginning anew this week. For Mickelson, it's The Masters that makes this the most beautiful time of the year.

"Augusta is by far my favorite week of the year," he says. "It's the one I look forward to all offseason. I can't believe it's finally here.

"Three more days and we're teeing it up for real . . ."

It's not that the Houston Open isn't for real. The heat relented (a little) and the breeze picked up, making Sunday by far the most pleasant day of H-Town's PGA Tour stop. But when it's over, thoughts quickly turn to the charter flight waiting to bring the Masters-bound players to Georgia.

The plane will be in the air before the SHO champ even has time to completely digest his win. And that's all right with Hunter Mahan and his wife.

"We're not changing our plans," Kandi Mahan says when someone asks if the win might require a longer Houston stay to celebrate.

It's all about staying the course — another Foley lesson. Everyone's swinging to Augusta. Golf's coaching drama deserves a seat on that plane too. Right next to the trophy.