Hunter Mahan seems to be finding his groove at the Match Play

If we've learned anything from watching the NCAA Tournament over the years, it's that even the most suspect teams can catch lighting in a bottle for a couple of weeks and make a deep run.

If Hunter Mahan were a tournament team, he'd almost certainly be the suspect squad. A guy with a ton of talent and one of the best swings in golf, Mahan made waves in 2010, winning twice on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career and setting the stage for a breakout 2011.

But a funny thing happened last year. Like most suspect teams, Mahan never lived up to the hype. He failed to post and win and took two steps back. It left a lot of people wondering if the 29-year-old was a legit contender or a pretender.

While this appears to only be a brief snapshot, Mahan seems to be coming into his own this week at the Accenture Match Play. Playing some of the best golf of his career in Marana, Ariz., he's now only one win away from heading to Sunday's final, after he steamrolled fellow American Matt Kuchar in Saturday's morning quarterfinal match, 6 and 5.

Just a day after Mahan produced 9 birdies in a win over Steve Stricker, Mahan went conservative, parring Kuchar to death to setup a semifinal matchup with Mark Wilson.

With the unpredictability of match play, it's impossible to say one way or the other if Mahan will come out firing this afternoon or watch his game completely go south. But the way he's striking the ball at the moment, you have to believe the confidence he has in his game at the moment should give him a distinct advantage.

We haven't see this kind swagger from Mahan in some time, but the way he's been going along recently -- posting three top-25 finishes in his first three starts -- there's a chance this could be the start of something special.