Canadian Mackenzie Hughes wins Sanderson, as globe-trotting players dominate

We name Mississippi’s solely PGA Tour match the Sanderson Farms Championship. This previous week, it’d as nicely have been renamed the World Open.

The leaders had been from everywhere in the planet. Mackenzie Hughes, a 31-year-old Canadian, gained the Sanderson rooster trophy and the $1,422,000 examine that got here with it. Sepp Straka completed second, shedding on the second gap of a sudden-death playoff. Straka, from Vienna, has the excellence of being the primary Austrian to first qualify for the PGA Tour after which win on it.

Lefty Garrick Higgo completed third. He’s from South Africa. Dean Burmester, one other South African, was fourth on their lonesome. Emiliano Grillo, from Argentina, led a bunch in a tie for fifth.

The Sanderson Farms Championship was performed one week after the Presidents Cup matches, through which a workforce of Individuals gained simply over a workforce of worldwide golfers. It appeared clear Sunday the worldwide workforce might have used Hughes and some extra of the globetrotters who obtained rather a lot richer at Nation Membership of Jackson.

Hughes, from Hamilton, Ontario, shot rounds of 71, 63, 68 and 69 for a 72-hole complete of 17-under par 271. He started Sunday one shot off the lead of American Mark Hubbard, who completed with a 74 and wound up within the fifth place tie.

“I’m over the moon,” Hughes stated afterward. “I had some moments in the present day the place I used to be examined and was in a position to pull by. It’s sort of my M.O. to scramble and avoid wasting pars. I had to try this a little bit bit in the present day on the again 9.”

Really, he needed to do it rather a lot. Hughes missed the inexperienced 24 instances within the 72-hole match. He scrambled for par efficiently on 22 of the 24. None was extra essential than the all-universe par he made on the 72nd gap of regulation to drive the playoff.

The 18th gap at CCJ is a 480-yard par-4 with an uphill shot to the inexperienced. Enjoying in lengthy shadows with the solar setting, fantastically, behind the clubhouse, Hughes pulled his drive left into the tough after which needed to hit a low shot, beneath the limbs of a pine tree, into the inexperienced. His shot skittered over the inexperienced and again to inside a pair ft of a luxurious suite. He confronted a 34-yard shot again to the outlet, and selected to putt.

“You don’t observe putts that lengthy,” Hughes would say. “I simply instructed myself I used to be going to by some means two-putt that gap.”

His strategy putt, from over 100 ft away, was completely judged distance-wise and left him a two-footer to get into the playoff. He tapped it proper into the middle of the cup.

The sudden demise playoff was pre-arranged to start out on No. 18. Each parred the 18th, Hughes once more scrambling from a bunker fronting the inexperienced. So, they performed the 18th once more and, for Hughes, the third time in a 45-minute span was a allure. He hit an ideal drive, then a 165-yard strategy shot to inside eight ft of the cup. After Straka missed his 18-footer for birdie, Hughes poured his into the middle of the cup. He was already celebrating because the ball approached the outlet.

“I knew when it was a foot away, it was going proper within the center,” Hughes stated. “That’s the very best feeling on this planet.”

That greatest feeling on this planet grew to become even higher when his pregnant spouse and two younger sons headed onto the inexperienced to have a good time with him.

“That was the good a part of the entire deal,” Hughes stated. “Phrases can’t describe how good that feels as a result of I like them a lot.”

Mackenzie Hughes and his spouse, Jenna Shaw, had been newlyweds in October of 2016 when Hughes, a rookie nonetheless in his first month on the PGA Tour, gained the RSM Traditional and the primary place prize of early 1,000,000 bucks. If Hughes thought it could all the time be that straightforward, he was badly flawed. He had not gained once more till Sunday, and there’s a narrative there.

“My oldest son Kenton (quickly to be 5) has seen all my trophies however he had by no means seen me win one,” Hughes stated. “He’s sufficiently old to grasp it a little bit bit now and he’s all the time asking when I’m going to win one other trophy and when does he get to have a trophy. So this one might need to remain in his room for some time.”

Mississippi’s PGA Tour match, which started in Hattiesburg 54 years in the past, has been performed previously throughout April floods, in brutal July warmth and was no less than as soon as interrupted by a twister. This yr’s sun-kissed occasion was performed beneath cloudless skies in immaculate autumn climate on what many golfers stated are a number of the greatest placing greens on this planet.

Nonetheless, the match faces an indefinite future due to the lately accomplished sale of Sanderson Farms. New possession apparently has not introduced a choice on whether or not or to not proceed because the title sponsor.

Don’t inform that to Mackenzie Hughes, a Canadian who has realized to adore central Mississippi and the state’s capital metropolis.

“I like this golf course,” Hughes stated. “I’ll be again for a lot of, many extra years.”