USA TODAY International Edition
Rookies take aim at making finale
LAKE FOREST, ILL. Mackenzie Hughes and Xander Schauffele have been in the same boat this season during their maiden voyage on the PGA Tour.
The rookies have had to learn to maneuver around courses they had never seen while playing against the best in the world. Figure out the best places to stay and eat in destinations they’d never visited. Face, at times, erratic schedules that had them on the road for long periods.
“Everyone knows what it’s like for rookies,” Hughes said.
But the two have more than held their own. Each won their first Tour title: Hughes in the RSM Classic last fall, Schauffele in the Greenbrier Classic in July. Each has won more than $2.3 million. Each has seven top-20 finishes in the 2016-17 wraparound season.
And both are one good week from cashing big time at next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Heading into Thursday’s start of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms Golf Cub — the third event of the four in the FedExCup Playoffs — Hughes is No. 31 and Schauffele No. 32 in the standings. Only the top 30 after this weekend head to East Lake and have a shot at winning the $10 million bonus.
That alone turns up the pressure this week. Now add what comes with making it to East Lake — the perks. Among other things, the top 30 in the standings each receive one-year exemptions into the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and Players Championship.
Hughes just smiled when realizing what he’s playing for. “You’d be lying to say you weren’t thinking about it,” Hughes said Tuesday. “But at the end of the day, it’s just golf. Once I start playing, I won’t be thinking about the Masters, the U.S. Open and all that stuff . ... My glass is half-full. There’s pressure, but it’s a great place to be. I’m a bubble guy this week, but it’s a lot better than being No. 70 or not being here.”
The priority this year for Hughes, 31, was to secure his playing status for next season. Then he won the RSM Classic in a five-man playoff, and his focus changed. While he said he’s had a so-so year where he’s played well at times but been inconsistent for the most part, his spirits remain high.
Schauffele already is exempt into the Masters and the U.S. Open. His win in the Greenbrier got him into the 2018 Masters; his tie for fifth in the U.S. Open got him into next year’s U.S. Open. But all those other perks have his attention.
“It’s huge, in terms of setting up a schedule and knowing where I’m going next year,” said Schauffele, 32. “As a rookie and before that, you’d show up at events not knowing if you’d get in or not. And you’ll get to play in the best events in the world playing against the best players in the world, and that’s what you dream of.”
In many ways Schauffele’s year turned around at the U.S. Open. Unknown to most every golf fan that week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, Schauffele stood up to the course, the field and the pressure and tied for fifth.
“It changed my belief on the course,” he said.