RUNNER-UP FINISH PUTS HUGHES BACK ON TRACK
In the middle of a dismal stretch of tournaments, Mackenzie Hughes said his game “was close.”
His results suggested anything but. It was a sunny afternoon five weeks ago on the California coast at stunning Torrey Pines. The type of day that makes it hard not to be optimistic. But when a golfer who had made just two cuts on the season and finished no better than tied for 55th tells you his game is close, you have to take it with a grain of salt.
Hughes left the Farmers Insurance Open that week looking thoroughly frustrated after missing the cut by a single stroke. If you were looking for a sign that a few tournaments later at the Honda Classic, he would finish solo runner-up on one of the hardest courses on the PGA Tour, it wasn’t there — or it was very well hidden.
“It had nothing to do with his golf swing — he was hitting it unreal,” Hughes’ swing coach Derek Ingram said of that week at Torrey Pines. “It had nothing to do with his putting or his short game. It really just had a little bit to do with the mental game and focusing a little to much on the outcome, wanting it too much, wanting it too bad.”
It’s hard to blame Hughes if he was squeezing the club a little tighter. After an extended off-season break that included a family trip to Italy, a slow start could be expected. But when it’s six months into the PGA Tour’s wraparound season and you’ve earned just US$30,000, the outcomes become hard to ignore.
Publicly saying that your game is close is par for the course. What was much more important for Hughes is that he and his team truly believed it.
“We don’t BS each other, if it’s terrible I’ll tell him,” Ingram told Postmedia by phone. “But I won’t have to tell him because he’ll say, ‘Derek, it’s terrible.’ We never once in that stretch said that.”
Ingram gives Hughes great credit for staying the course through the tough stretch when many players would let frustration lead them into unnecessary swing changes.
“We can’t BS ourselves but we also can’t search for stuff when it’s really not that bad,” Ingram added.
One week the putter would be a little off, the next week it might be the short game, then maybe the full swing or a mental lapse. Week after week, missed cut after missed cut, Hughes worked hard to stay positive. He and Ingram recently have worked on trying to eliminate the left side of the golf course by focusing on hitting fades as much as possible.
“I’ve had a very tough season so far and don’t feel like I’ve played poorly,” Hughes said on Sunday after finishing runner-up to winner Sungjae Im. “I’ve missed a lot of cuts by two, three shots, and I’ve had my chances to play the weekend, but things just were falling short there at the end. I never felt like I was far away from being in a spot like this.”
Staying positive on the golf course is something the 29-yearold Canadian has struggled with at times. During our conversation before the season he called negativity a “red flag” for him. One addition to his team this year has been caddy Jace Walker, whose positive reinforcements could be heard all afternoon on Sunday as he battled Korean star-in-themaking Im right down to the 72nd hole at the Honda Classic.
“When things aren’t going good, Mac can get a little bit quiet,” Ingram said. “I think Jace is super positive and a great fit. He is quite vocal and Mac likes that.”
Standing in the fairway on the par-5 18th hole on Sunday, Hughes had a 3-wood in his hands. Needing a birdie or eagle to keep hopes of winning alive and with water to the right, the situation called for the exact cut shot he has been working on.
Or at least something sort of straight.
Instead of a fade Hughes hit a vicious hook that started left, went left, and ended up deep in the grandstand. He would go on to make par and finish the week at 5-under par, one shot behind Im, pocketing a $763,000 runner-up cheque. Hughes also jumped from 223rd in the Fedex Cup standings to 66th.
“It sucks to come up one short, to fight that hard all day,” Hughes said. “I just kind of thought I was going to do it. But still proud of the way I fought this week.”
The doublecross 3-wood on the final hole is exactly the type of shot you don’t want to hit when you’re under the gun. But if we’ve learned one thing about Hughes, it’s that he’s not going to overreact.