Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., won the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia, Monday morning, finishing his four rounds at 17-under before beating four other golfers in a three-hole playoff.
Hughes is just the 13th Canadian to win on the PGA Tour and the first rookie to win a tournament wire-to-wire in 20 years. He’s now exempt for the next two seasons and is guaranteed an appearance in The PGA Championship, the Players Championship, the 2017 Tournament of Champions, and a little tournament of some acclaim called the Masters. He also won $1.08 million in prize money, if you’re into massive cheques and stuff.
Background
Hughes is a two-time Canadian amateur champion who was playing in just his ninth PGA Tour event this weekend. He golfed at Kent State University before turning professional in 2012 and playing on the eGolf Professional Tour. In 2013 he won his first pro tournament at PGA Tour Canada’s Cape Breton Celtic Classic, and shortly after that he earned a Web.com Tour card for 2014 after winning PGA Tour Canada’s Order of Merit.
This past August, Hughes won the Price Cutter Charity Championship which helped him finish 17th on Web.com Tour’s money list, giving him a berth in the PGA Tour. He made the cut at three of his first four events as a full-time tour member before Monday’s victory.
Hughes began 2016 ranked No. 1,063 in the world and dropped to 1,262 by June. But in the five months since he’s passed nearly 1,000 golfers and came into the RSM Classic ranked No. 287. His standing is sure to improve even further after his dramatic victory.
Navigating the RSM Classic
Hughes avoided bogeys through his first two rounds of this past weekend’s tournament, firing a 61 on Thursday and a 67 on Friday to get out to an early lead. Then on Saturday Hughes nearly blew it, shooting a triple-bogey on the par-4 11th hole. But he rebounded by birdying three of the next five holes to salvage a 68 on the day and head into Sunday with a one-stroke lead.
In the final round, Hughes bogeyed twice on the front nine but was able to mitigate the damage with a subsequent birdie each time. He then began the back nine with a birdie on 10 to give himself a two-shot cushion. But Hughes bogeyed that troublesome 11th hole as his competition narrowed the gap into a four-way tie atop the leaderboard. Hughes had an opportunity to pull ahead on 15 but his birdie putt rolled just off the lip of the hole.
A close call
By the end of the fourth round, Hughes and four others were tied for the lead and entered a playoff. One was eliminated on the first playoff hole, and on the second Hughes’s three competitors all missed birdie putts, leaving the Canadian with a gift of an opportunity to win the tournament if he could sink a 10-foot putt.
But it was past 6:00 p.m. and the sun had already set, leaving Hughes with a near impossible read in the dark. Hughes’s shot looked good but broke left just as it approached the cup, rolling just past the hole and ending up mere centimetres from falling. Hughes put his hand over his mouth and looked up at the dark sky in disbelief. Play was suspended due to the darkness immediately after Hughes’s putt, delaying the four-way playoff until Monday morning.
“It was a long day. It was quite a fight out there. I didn’t have my best stuff by any means,” Hughes said on PGA Tour Radio after the missed putt. “I thought I’d made that putt there at the end. But I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Finishing the job
At 8 a.m. Monday morning, Hughes returned to the course along with Blayne Barber, Camilo Villegas and Henrik Norlander to try to reach a conclusion on the par-3 17th hole. In five-degree weather, Hughes watched as his three competitors all reached the green within two shots, setting up par putts from 10 feet or closer.
But Hughes enjoys a challenge. He missed with his tee shot and then had to pitch up a slope, ultimately leaving his ball just off the green about 18 feet from the hole. Bogeying wasn’t an option.
The green ran quickly downhill from where Hughes was shooting, adding an extra degree of difficulty. Put the 25-year-old nailed the par putt, fist pumping twice as the ball fell in the hole. He then watched as Barber, Norlander and Villegas each missed much easier putts to give Hughes the victory.
When Vilelgas missed, Hughes dropped his putter, took his hat off his head and ran his hands through his hair showing the same look of disbelief he had when he triple bogeyed on Saturday.
“If I don’t make that putt I’m probably done. But I tried to flip that around and say, everyone’s got work left for par. So, if I can put mine in first it makes everyone’s jobs harder,” Hughes said. “As soon as I hit it, I knew it was on a good line. And I gave it some pace because I knew if I didn’t make it I was probably going to be out. About a foot from the hole I knew it was right in the heart. It was such a good feeling to see it go in.”
Learning from the best
Hughes played his first tournament as a full-time PGA Tour member just last month, at the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif. He made the cut after the first two rounds, and then found out he would be playing his third with legendary left-hander Phil Mickelson. Hughes went shot-for-shot with the World Golf Hall of Famer, meaning they would play together again in the final round, before the massive crowds Mickelson draws wherever he goes.
Hughes ended up finishing tied for 13th in the tournament, taking away around $120,000. But the experience of playing with Mickelson was worth much more.
“It was huge. Just being in that atmosphere with those galleries. It prepared me to deal with what I was dealing with yesterday and today,” Hughes said on PGA Tour Radio, referring to the pressure he felt at the RSM Classic. “You couldn’t buy that experience. Playing with him was a real treat.”