With designated-event status in 2023, the Travelers Championship tournament directors didn’t have to worry about any post-US Open WDs from players who were coming back from the West Coast. That said, if anybody ever had an excuse to pull out, it was Mackenzie Hughes.

Hughes, who tied for 49th at LACC last week, did try to give it a go at TPC River Highlands, shooting a first-round 76. But he withdrew immediately after, which can often lead to fans making all kinds of assumptions as to the reason why. Turns out, the reason was not only legitimate, it was downright necessary for his health.

As Hughes revealed Thursday evening on Twitter, he began feeling discomfort in his lower right back on the plane ride from LA to Connecticut. That discomfort only worsened as the ride continued, with Hughes trying to lay down on the floor of the plane in an attempt to quell it.

Update on my WD from The Travelers pic.twitter.com/YA8zbb8dr6

— Mackenzie Hughes (@MacHughesGolf) June 22, 2023

“I went to the front of the plane and laid down on the floor, but nothing was helping,” Hughes wrote. “The pain was so bad I felt nauseous and I started to throw up.”

The 32-year-old remained on the floor for the duration of the five-hour flight, all while having no idea why he was ill. Upon landing and hopping in an ambulance to get to the hospital, he soon found out the harrowing reason.

“After a CT scan it turned out that I had kidney stones, which explains the intense pain I was having,” Hughes said. “I had a 4mm stone which the doctor said would likely pass, so it was just pain meds and rest the last few days as I tried to pass it.

“Unfortunately I haven’t passed it yet and I’m still dealing with lots of discomfort. I hate to WD from one of my favourite tournaments of the year, but I look forward to getting healthy and getting back soon.”

The fact Hughes even attempted to play is not only admirable, it’s borderline insane. Then again, he’s a big hockey guy, and hockey guys are built different.

The original reason given for Hughes WD was an “illness,” but not that we know what it was, illness was putting it lightly. Here’s hoping that thing passes and Hughes can get back on the course, feeling good, as soon as possible.

The post Mackenzie Hughes who withdrew from Travelers with ‘illness’ reveals the real, harrowing reason why appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At The Ascendent LPGA in Texas, Charley Hull beat Xiyu Lin by a shot at Old American Golf Club. It was Hull’s second LPGA title — she has won on the Ladies European Tour since — but her first since the 2016 CME Tour Championship. And the 26-year-old from England shared her accomplishment with friends on the 18th green.

Hours later at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi, Mackenzie Hughes outlasted Sepp Straka in a playoff at Country Club of Jackson. It was Hughes’ second career title, but his first since the 2016 RSM Classic. And the 31-year-old from Canada shared his accomplishment with family on the 18th green:

"It was bar none the best part of the day was them running on the green."

The moment @MacHughesGolf had been waiting for pic.twitter.com/a9f8IrVvBp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 3, 2022

Given both hadn’t won since 2016, it’s no surprise you’d want to find out specifically how long it has been for Hull and Hughes? A little research shows that Hull closed out her first victory on Sunday, November 20, 2016 in what was the LPGA’s season finale.

Amazingly, that was also when the final round of the 2016 RSM Classic was held. However, when the tournament wound up having a five-man playoff, darkness forced the finish to Monday morning, when Hughes closed out what was a wire-to-wire win. So technically Hull had the longer drought, 2,142 days to Hughes’ 2,141.

The fact that Hull needed 2,142 days to grab win No. 2 on the LPGA was a surprise to many who followed the early days of her pro career. Before earning a Tour card at Q-School in late 2014, Hull had become the youngest player to compete in the Solheim Cup (17 at the 2013 event in Colorado) and was coming off leading the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit in 2014.

“I’ve had some good results this year. Had a very similar season to my 2016 season, so I’m actually happy I’ve got a couple events left as well, because I felt like in the 2016 season if I had a few more I could have pushed on,” Hull said after the win.

Hull then hinted that there was another odd potential predictor to her victory. “Strange thing happened in 2016 when I won,” she noted in her post-round press conference. “My best mate, James, he won the Wellingborough Golf Club Championship, and this year he’s won his second club championship and he was like: ‘This is your year, because you’re going to win. You win every year I win.’ I went out and won so hopefully he wins the club champs next year.”

Our guess is that Hughes hopes for the same thing.

You may also like:
Golf Digest Middle East presents Oktoberfest 2020
LET set for an Aramco showdown
Dubai’s McKee all set for Aramco Team Series bow
Cam Smith ready for return to action in Asia
Rory comes up short at St Andrews yet again
Viya Golfs adds to the club
UAE golfer heads to the Masters
Chiara Noja secures LET card for 2023
Laklalech becomes first Arab to win on LET
Rory open to LIV Golf ranking points — if they meet criteria
Henderson and Maguire sign up for Aramco Team Series in New York
Newton to play Dunhill pro-am
Reed withdraws from Dunhill links — thanks to dodgy bed
LIV Golf Bangkok field revealed
Poulter rages at dumping of Stenson
True or False: Presidents Cup takeaways
Charlie Woods shoots career low with dad Tiger on the bag

The post This backstory to Charley Hull and Mackenzie Hughes ending winless streaks on the same day borders on spooky appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Tod Leonard
These days, it usually takes going exceptionally low to win on the PGA Tour, and it’s apparently no different in qualifying for the US Open.

In the first final qualifier played in North America on Monday at two courses in Dallas, 11-under for 36 holes was the number to be the medallist — and there were four players who achieved that — while seven-under was the score that got players into next month’s major at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

In a qualifier that featured numerous PGA Tour pros, the top 13 out of 98 entrants advanced, and a six-man playoff was required for the final two spots. Those positions went to Davis Shore and Roger Sloan, while Adam Hadwin and Austin Cook were the first and second alternates, respectively.

The day’s low score was a 62 fashioned by Matthew NeSmith, who made nine birdies in the morning round at Royal Oaks Country Club. NeSmith, a third-year PGA Tour player who has competed in only one major, shot 69 in the second round at Lakewood Country Club and joined Americans Kurt Kitayama (65-66) and Sean Crocker (64-67), and Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma (68-63) at 11-under.

Among the notables not advancing were 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Aaron Baddeley, Rory Sabbatini and James Hahn.

The other more recognisable names to advance were Canadians Mackenzie Hughes (nine-under) and Nick Taylor (nine-under) and American Scott Stallings, who was solo 11th at eight-under.

There was one amateur who reached from this final: University of Texas junior Travis Vick, who shot nine-under. Vick was a semi-finalist at last year’s US Amateur at Oakmont.

The remaining nine final qualifiers — eight in the US and one in Canada — will be contested on Monday, June 6.

You might also like:
Here is everyone who has qualified for the US Open so far
The most infamous 72nd hole major collapses
Rory and the PGA have a major problem
18 takeaways from the PGA Championship
Justin has a drive to win
Mito the surprise leader at PGA Championship
Tiger withdraws ahead of PGA Championship final round
Zalatoris putting things right
McIlroy misses big chance at PGA Championship
Rory McIlroy swing analysis
Is Tiger’s style holding him back?
Rory leads the way at Southern Hills
Forget Dubai, check out the prices for drinks at PGA Championship
Dubai golfer Amelia McKee going pro

The post US Open 2022: These scores were ridiculously low, even in a US Open qualifier appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Mackenzie Hughes was in terrific position as he stepped on the par-3 11th tee at Torrey Pines. Playing in the final group of a major for the very first time, the Canadian had overcome a shaky start and sat at four under total, just two back of the lead in a tie for second. He then made perhaps his worst swing of the day, a pull-hook way left.

What happened next was the stuff of nightmares.

Welp. That’s a ball in a tree. #FromManyOne | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/U9lVvoVGFM

— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 20, 2021

Hughes ball clipped a tree, bounced off a cart path and then flew back up into that same tree … and never came down. Fans immediately pointed to something lodged in between two branches, and NBC’s cameras quickly confirmed the worst possible scenario. Hughes’ ball did indeed stay there, forcing him to take an unplayable lie and try to get up-and-down for bogey.

He couldn’t do it, and the double-bogey saw him tumble down a crowded leader board and essentially end his chances of winning the U.S. Open. In normal cases, you really can’t complain about the result of a poor shot. But this was not a normal case, and we’ll forgive Hughes if he harbours some ill will toward those damned branches. Just a brutal, brutal scene all around.

The post Mackenzie Hughes’ ball gets stuck in tree, leads to round-killing double bogey appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
My first time seeing Sergio Garcia play golf was at the 1998 U.S. Amateur at Oak Hill. Earlier in the summer the then-18-year-old Spaniard had won the British Amateur, and he arrived in upstate New York with the hope of becoming just the fifth player to win both titles in the same calendar year. After beating defending champion Matt Kuchar in the quarterfinals, Garcia’s bid ended at the hands of 44-year-old Tom McKnight in the semis.

Nineteen years later, I was at Augusta National when he won the Masters, capturing the major title that had eluded him during the professional career.

In between, I was there for Long Island boo-birds counting waggles at Bethpage, his blaming the golf gods at Carnoustie and the resignation that a major was likely never to come.

I say all this as a way of acknowledging that Sergio Garcia has been a golfer of considerable note for more than two decades, a window of time that neatly, and coincidentally, overlapped with my days at Golf Digest. In good times and bad, Garcia’s been a constant. So it was, then, that this bit of information hit me harder than I thought when it was revealed this morning.

For the first time since the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2011, Garcia found himself outside the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking, sitting at 51st.

This is so because Garcia, ranked No. 48 in the World Ranking last week, didn’t play in either the PGA Tour or European Tour event and was passed by Mackenzie Hughes, Jason Kokrak and Matt Wallace when the numbers were crunched Sunday night into Monday morning. This is also so because since that Masters win in 2017, Garcia’s trademark consistency has waned; this past August, for the first time since its creation in 2007, Garcia failed to reach the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup postseason.

It’s pretty amazing to think that Garcia has been in the top 50 that long (although Phil Mickelson and his 26-year streak dwarfs it). One of social media’s foremost experts on the World Rankings, Nosferatu (@VC606) noted that the streak actually could be longer.

?NEWSFLASH

Sergio Garcia has been in the top 50 in the world for ~21 years (Aug 1999) with the only exception of ~1 year slump (2010-2011). He is one of only 5 players to spend more than 1000 weeks in top 50 #OWGR.

Next week he will drop to #51 for the first time in ~9 years.

— Nosferatu (@VC606) September 27, 2020

Garcia’s fall from the top 50 comes after similar tumbles recently from other notables: Mickelson last October (first time since 1993), Jordan Spieth in January (first time since 2013) and Jason Day in June (first time since 2009). As my colleague, Shane Ryan, noted, the symbiotic relationship between the World Ranking and exemptions into golf’s premier events makes jumping back into the top 50 a tougher climb than falling out; only Day has managed to get back inside the number.

Garcia, of course, could do the same. He fell as low as 82nd during his fallow period in early 2011 before bouncing back inside the top 50 with back-to-back European Tour wins. And he’s playing this week at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Here’s hoping this was all just a one-week blip.

The post Sergio Garcia just did something he hasn’t done in almost a decade (and, no, he won’t be happy) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
If you turned the TV off when Hudson Swafford took a three-shot lead into the back nine on Sunday at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, then saw that he won by a stroke on the 18th hole, you’d probably think it was a pretty ho-hum finish. Well, the joke’s on you then. (And how dare you turn off a tour event before it’s over, even if this is NFL season. You call yourself a golf fan?!?)

Swafford stumbled down the stretch, but somehow impressively rallied, and there was excitement right until the very last putt fell.

Don’t worry, we’ll help fill you in on what you missed. Without further delay, here are our four takeaways from Sunday’s final round in the Dominican Republic.

Hudson Swafford’s got guts
Unlike his Georgia Bulldogs football team against Arkansas a day earlier, Hudson Swafford got out to a fast start at Corales Golf Club Sunday. He effectively stepped on everyone’s neck, shooting a front-nine 31 to give him a seemingly insurmountable three-shot lead heading into the back nine., one he even stretched to four shots with six holes to go.

But no lead on the PGA Tour is insurmountable, especially when you throw shots away like Swafford did down the stretch. A double-bogey on the 13th and a bogey at the 15th saw his four-shot lead vanish, and he found himself in a three-way tie at 17 under on the par-3 17th tee. Not only did he let the field back in it, he was in danger of losing outright.

RELATED: The clubs that Hudson Swafford used to win the Corales Puntacana Championship

Instead of wilting, Swafford dialled up his favourite shot—a flighted 6-iron that settled eight feet from the hole. He made the birdie putt, his only birdie of the week at the difficult 210-yard par 3, to take back the lead.

“It was kind of like the shot on 17 at PGA West when I won [the 2017 Desert Classic)],” Swafford said. “I actually hit two great shots on 16, hit a great putt. Was kind of bummed out [it didn’t fall for birdie], and I was just like, ‘Man, you’ve got to just step up and hit a good flighted 6-iron.’ I’ve done it a 100,000 times, I love hitting that golf shot. Man, it was a good one, and an even better putt.”

The hard work was just beginning for Swafford, though. First, was something he couldn’t control, sweating out Mackenzie Hughes, who was tied with Tyler McCumber at 17 under, making birdie in the group ahead of him on the 18th hole. Then, he needed to make a par of his own on 18 to close it out. After Hughes bogeyed, Swafford hit his approach well short, leaving him with a testy two-putt. His first was 10 feet short, setting up a much longer par putt to win than he would have wanted. He poured it right in the heart, just like his birdie putt at 17, to capture his second career tour win.

“Just hit it solid,” Swafford told himself before the winning putt. “I’ve been putting beautifully all week, hitting a lot of good putts. Obviously a couple on the back nine that just burned the edges, but I putted great on the front, putted well all week. Kyle [Bradley, Swafford’s caddie] just said ‘just hit one last solid putt,’ and you never know. The first one I thought I hit it pretty hard but it started bouncing like some of my chips on the back nine and it just hit and stopped. But it was a solid putt and went right in.”

This win could not have come at a better time for the 33-year-old Florida native. Swafford had still been playing on a major medical extension and needed all the FedEx Cup points he could accumulate to get off of it. Now, he’s set for the next two seasons on tour, and he’s earned an invitation to the 2021 Masters, which will be just his second appearance in the event. If last year’s fall swing is any indication, Swafford may be a lock for East Lake next August. This past season, eight of the 10 winners of the fall events made it to the Tour Championship.

“Man, it’s amazing,” he said afterwards. “Words can’t really describe it. Last two years have been tough. Not family-wise though. Me and my wife had our first son, so, life’s great. Golf is really hard. To do this, it’s fun, this is why I get up and grind.”

• • •

Andy Lyons

Have a Sunday, Tyler McCumber
As nice as a win would have been, a solo second could be just as valuable for a player like Tyler McCumber. The 29-year-old failed to finish inside the top 125 of the FedEx Cup standings a year ago, but still has status thanks to finishing in the top 50 on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2019. On Sunday in the Dominican Republic, while everyone was faltering down the stretch, McCumber shot up the leader board. A bogey-free 66, which included a long birdie putt at the 72nd hole, put him at 17 under, enough for the runner-up after Hughes’ bogey at the 18th. It jumped him 108 spots in the 2020-’21 FedEx Cup standings, where he now sits at fifth. It’s not a three-year exemption or a spot in the Masters, but McCumber, son of former PGA Tour pro Mark McCumber, relieved himself of some serious pressure for the rest of the year. It will only take one or two more good weeks to lock up a spot in the playoffs.

• • •

Andy Lyons

Much respect to Mackenzie Hughes
PGA Tour players don’t pay much attention to their odds, but these days it’s almost impossible to not even hear about them in passing. That’s especially true for tournament favourites, which Mackenzie Hughes was this week prior to Thursday’s opening round.

Well, he was actually a co-favourite along with Will Zalatoris and fellow Canadian Corey Conners, but you could argue he was most primed for a victory out of the three. Hughes was runner-up in this event a year ago and had collected four top-10s finishes since February. Much of his success was due to a hot putter, which isn’t always the most sustainable game plan.

Because of that, and because of the pressure of being the betting favourite (whether Hughes knew about it or not), he seemed primed for a letdown. Instead, he damn near won the thing and didn’t back down coming down the stretch. Hughes made a gutsy par save at the 17th and then gave his birdie putt at the 18th a great roll. A bogey dropped him to solo third, giving him his third third-place or better finish since March 1. If the putter stays hot, the 2016 RSM Classic winner could nab a second trophy soon.

• • •

Andy Lyons

Will Zalatoris is COMING
Zalatoris, the other betting favorite based off his U.S. Open performance, did seem to be having a come down from Winged Foot after three days. Then, the 24-year-old threw up a Sunday 65 to tie for eighth. Has the dude shown us enough of his talent over these last 14 days? Just to repeat: Zalatoris, a Korn Ferry Tour player, was favored to win a PGA Tour event this week. That is absolutely unheard of. He may not be a KFT player for long, though. The top 10 at Puntacana secured him a start in next week’s Sanderson Farms Championship. And he’s now earned 185 FedEx Cup points with his finish Sunday and at the U.S. Open, which puts him 103 points away from earning special temporary membership on the big tour. Can we bet on that happening? I’ll take whatever odds you got.

The post Hudson Swafford shows serious guts to claim the Corales Puntacana Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Shane Ryan
We’re seven tournaments deep in version 2.0 of the 2020 PGA Tour season, and seven different winners have emerged. From the unlikely Michael Thompson to juggernauts like Dustin Johnson, the champs have run the gamut, but the common factor has been low, low scoring. Five of the seven winning scores have been 19 under or lower, and the Memorial is the only tournament that held everyone below double digits.

That means the best players on tour have been firing at will, which makes this an ideal time to drill down into the tourney-by-tourney stats. Within each event, there are statistical feats that might escape the casual fan’s notice, and that’s a shame; they’re mighty impressive. Let’s count down the seven best.

7. Keegan Bradley dominates SG/Approach, Workday Charity Open

One of the reasons I like the strokes gained stats so much is that it can highlight both strengths and weaknesses of a player’s game, and put a whole tournament performance into context. (For those who aren’t in the know, SG represents how many shots better or worse a player is than the field average.) At the Workday Charity Open three weeks ago, Bradley managed a field best 10.752 strokes gained on his approach shots through four rounds, and it’s the second-best total for any player since the restart (behind only Abe Ancer at the RBC Heritage). However, Bradley finished in a tie for 39th. Why? Because of awful putting, where he finished almost last (66th) among players who made the cut. Still, his iron play was terrific, putting him in the top 10 of approach shots every single day.

Sam Greenwood

• • •

6. Mackenzie Hughes, the Scramble King of Connecticut

Of all the strokes gained categories, “around the green” is probably the least influential just because it’s not applicable on every single hole. Players often go from fairway to green without stopping for a pleasant scramble. That’s reflected by the fact that the rankings for best scramblers jive the least with the actual leader board. But Hughes, in his T-3 finish at the Travelers, clearly relied on his around-the-green prowess to save his bacon, as he accumulated 7.3 strokes gained for the week, best of any player in any tournament so far, and best at the Travelers by more than two strokes. He was particularly great on Sunday, with an 18-foot par save from off the green on No. 9, and a 43-footer for a birdie from off the green at the 18th, along with several up-and-downs throughout the round. Those skills, on that day alone, earned him about $200,000 more than he would have made otherwise.

• • •

5. Abe Ancer and Daniel Berger’s almost completely clean cards at the RBC Heritage

Granted, this stat is a slight novelty since going low matters more than being bogey-free, but with Ancer and Berger both making just two bogeys over 72 holes, they deserve recognition for being nearly flawless in Hilton Head. Neither of them won (hat tip, Webb Simpson), but they flirted with a kind of perfection. (Troy Merritt actually made just one bogey at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, but he also made a double, so I’m putting him below his peers.)

• • •

4. Collin Morikawa’s merciless destruction of the fifth hole, Workday Charity Open

A look at the best performances on a single hole by any winner over the course of an event yields a fun nugget: Morikawa absolutely annihilated the poor fifth hole at Muirfield Village, accumulating 4.24 strokes gained over four days. That’s by far the best of that category. And hey, when you go eagle-birdie-birdie-eagle on a hole that isn’t that easy, the numbers do get kind of gaudy. Think of it this way: If you took Morikawa scores on that hole and had him make pars on every other hole for the tournament, he’d have finished T-30. In fact, his play on No. 5 was responsible for almost one-third (!) of his 19-under winning score. Having eagle putts of 3’6” and 3’1” helps. Here’s Sunday’s eagle.

Last two approaches for @Collin_Morikawa …
202 yards 1 foot ?
231 yards 3 feet ?

-4 in his last 4 holes and tied for the lead.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/B9kL7u6BEJ

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 12, 2020

Amazingly, his run on the hole was almost even better—he nearly holed a 55-footer for eagle on Friday.

• • •

3. DJ reigns as the Proximity King, Travelers

Erick W. Rasco /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Among all the winners since the tour restart, Dustin Johnson had the best proximity to the hole, hitting his average approach shot 25’8” from the pin. That may not seem impressive until you realize that it accounts for every single hole, including ones where he missed the green. Taken that way, it’s just this side of staggering. He did his best work on the 12th, where he averaged 13’5” from the hole on his four approach shots.

• • •

2. Tyrrell Hatton putts the lights out, RBC Heritage

Keyur Khamar

Of all the tournaments played so far, you could argue that the poor, defenseless Heritage was the most like a putting contest. Watching Hatton and Webb Simpson square off that Sunday, it became clear that whoever buried the most mid-to-long-range putts would win, and in fact Simpson seized the opportunity at the right time. But Hatton was the one who putted best for the entire weekend, and it wasn’t close—with 9.256 strokes gained on the green, he was almost three strokes better than Simpson, who was second best for the week. It’s an astounding total, and also the best of the seven tournaments since the restart. A huge chunk of it came with his ridiculous 3.9 strokes gained on Saturday, where a closer look reveals just how strong he was. It’s not just that he shot a 63; it’s that he hit putts of 40 feet, 10 feet, 12 feet, 13 feet, 9 feet and 24 feet, while missing almost nothing inside 10 feet. It’s about as close to perfect putting as anyone can achieve over 18 holes.

• • •

1. Bryson DeChambeau’s driver turns lethal, Colonial

Tom Pennington

DeChambeau is one of the tour’s seven winners, but he actually had his best statistical week off the tee in his first tournament at the Charles Schwab Challenge, where he accumulated a whopping +7.321 strokes gained in four days. That’s an enormous total, and he’s the only one to break the 7.0 threshold since the tour returned. Even more impressive is the fact that the second-best player in that category, Xander Schauffele, amassed just 4.96. That’s a huge discrepancy that shows exactly how superlative DeChambeau was from the tee box at Colonial. After the tournament, he claimed he would have won with better putting, but when you look at those numbers, it’s tempting to go further: he should have won, and even finishing T-2 looks like a pretty big missed opportunity. Which, of course, he remedied a few weeks later at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he also led the field from the tee. The revolution is real.

The post The most impressive statistical feats since the PGA Tour restart appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
There was a brief moment yesterday when, if we’re being honest, panic may have gotten the better of us. News dropped that additional players were withdrawing from the Travelers Championship due to COVID-19 concerns, and the Tour called an impromptu press conference with commissioner Jay Monahan, and the whole thing had a very Players-like feeling for a second there. The word “cancel” floated around the social media sphere.

Alas, the show did indeed go on—despite those withdrawals, the Travelers Championship began as scheduled on Thursday morning at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. An unlikely name sits atop the leader board after a nearly historic round, with a bunch more familiar ones also near the top after yet another torrid day of scoring on Tour. These guys are good, someone said once or twice.

Mackenzie Hughes comes four feet short of history
As far as candidates to shoot 59 go, you’re forgiven if Mackenzie Hughes slipped your radar. The Canadian, currently ranked No. 158 in the World Ranking, missed the cut at Colonial and shot 78 on Sunday at the Heritage, a good 10 shots above the field scoring average that day.

But that was then, and this is now, and there was no time quite like the present for Hughes on Thursday. He started on the back nine and was “just” one under through four before ripping off five straight birdies to make the turn in six-under 29. The round stalled a bit toward the middle section, as he managed just one birdie in his first five holes on the back nine, before Hughes kicked it into turbo-drive and made an admirable push toward history. He birdied 6 and 7 before canning a 30-footer for birdie at 8 to get to 10 under for the day, meaning he needed a birdie at the last to shoot just the 11th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history.

It wasn’t to be. Hughes pulled his drive into the left rough, could only get his wedge approach to 40 feet, then left the putt for glory a good four feet short. It wasn’t exactly a putt you’re thinking about making, but leaving a putt for 59 short cannot leave a good taste in one’s mouth.

“For a personal milestone, it would have been really, really neat,” Hughes told reporters after the round. “You just don’t get very many chances in your life to do it. But it was—you’d take 60 every day and run, and just excited for the rest of the week.”

He wasn’t the only one to take it low

The scoring in the first two events since the PGA Tour’s restart has been nothing short of sensational. Last week at the Heritage, 51 players finished the week 10 under or better, and there were six rounds of 63 on Saturday alone. It’s looking like another shootout is in the cards this week—the forecast is good, the greens are pure, and the rough isn’t as gnarly as it has been in the past.

Rory McIlroy opened with a seven-under 63 despite making only 65 feet of putts on the day. Viktor Hovland matched him with a 63 of his own, the lowest round of his young PGA Tour career. Xander Schauffele putted the lights out en route to a 63 of his own. Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen are a shot further back at six-under 64, and Bryson DeChambeau is part of a group at five under.

While Hughes couldn’t quite get it done, a sub-60 score is still absolutely in the cards this week. Keep in mind that this is the course that saw the only 58 in PGA Tour history when Jim Furyk did it in the final round just four years ago. Don’t be surprised if we see another 59 watch or two tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that.

Collin Morikawa’s cut streak is in danger

Rob Carr

Collin Morikawa does not know what it’s like to miss a cut on the PGA Tour. It’s a wild sentence to type, but it’s true—the 23-year-old has made the cut in each of the first 23 starts of his career. That streak is very much in jeopardy after he opened with two-over 72, leaving him well outside the top 100 heading into tomorrow. He’ll need something in the mid-60s to have any chance tomorrow. The good news for him is he won’t have to muse on that for too long, as he was in the afternoon wave on Thursday and tees off at 7:25 a.m. local time on Friday.

Patrick Cantlay returns with 66
The top seven players in the current world rankings each played in both the Charles Schwab Challenge and the RBC Heritage. Patrick Cantlay, true to form, hung in the background and opted to sit them out. The laconic Californian decided to return this week at TPC River Highlands, where he shot 60 as an amateur in 2011. He made five birdies and a lone bogey to re-start his season with a four-under 66.

The post Mackenzie Hughes falls just short of history, and three other takeaways from Day 1 of the Travelers Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Brian Wacker
Mackenzie Hughes came into this week’s Honda Classic riding a wave of momentum—he had missed the cut in each of his last five starts.

After an up-and-down first two days, the 29-year-old Canadian was headed toward another weekend off, until he stuck his approach to two feet on the par-4 eighth hole on Friday—his 17th of the day—to set up an easy birdie to make the cut on the number.

It turned out he was just getting started.

On Saturday, Hughes shot four-under 66, which given the challenging conditions at PGA National vaulted him from T-59 to T-8. On Sunday, he kept it going, making three birdies in his first 11 holes. Then he holed a bunker shot on the par-4 13th for another birdie to tie for the lead.

But after a vicious lip out that resulted in a bogey on the 16th and a push-fanned tee shot on the par-3 17th that left him 53 feet from the hole, a chance for a second career victory appeared to have slipped away.

Except Hughes made the putt, fist-pumping as the ball fell into the cup, to again tie for the lead with playing partner Sungjae Im.

“I said to my caddie, ‘Let’s just try and make Sungjae’s putt a little harder,’” he said. “That’s a huge bonus that that ball would drop in. I haven’t been that excited on the golf course in a long time.”

Unfortunately for the 2016 RSM Classic champion, it wouldn’t last.

A moment later, Im made his eight-footer for birdie to jump back to a one-shot lead going to the par-5 18th.

Hughes found the fairway off the tee but badly hooked his second shot into the grandstands. After getting a free drop 70 yards from the flag, he pitched to just 25 feet and ran his birdie attempt by. Im, who had laid up with his second shot after driving into a bunker, again found the sand with his third but got up-and-down to save par and secure a one-shot victory.

“It’s been a really tough season so far for me,” said Hughes, who prior to this week had just one finish in the top 50 in his last 15 starts dating back to the middle of last summer. “I knew I was never really that far off, but it’s all results, and the results weren’t good so far this year. I always believed I could do it, but until you do it and get yourself back in there, there was always that bit of doubt.”

The post Mackenzie Hughes stops the bleeding, and a weekend surge nearly won him the tournament appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By day’s end, it was the most experienced of the trio, Graeme McDowell, who outpaced Chris Stroud and Mackenzie Hughes. The former U.S. Open champion shot a closing 69 to finish with an 18-under 280 total and take the title by two strokes over his rivals.

The victory was the fourth of McDowell’s PGA Tour career, but his first since taking the title at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in November 2015.

“This is big,” said the 39-year-old from Northern Ireland. “This is big for those who stood by me the last few years because it’s been a rough few years. It’s been a grind. My whole family, my wife and kids at home.”

McDowell started the day with a one-stroke advantage and looked determined not to let anybody catch him, making birdies on four of his first seven holes. But Stroud, a 12-year tour veteran with just one win to show for it, matched McDowell’s pace on the front side, then passed him with birdies on the 14th and 15th holes.

The turning point came on the par-3 17th. Stroud fanned his tee ball 10 yards right of the green while McDowell laces a 6-iron to seven feet. When Stroud couldn’t get up and down to save par, and McDowell rolled in his putt, the bogey-birdie exchange gave McDowell back the lead.

“I was standing on 16 green and I said to myself you’ve got to do something that’s tournament winning,” McDowell said, “and that shot to17 was tournament-winning level.”

Ahead of McDowell and Stroud, Hughes was seven under on his round to get to 18 under, but a poor approach on the 18th led to his first bogey of the day and cleared the way for the final group.

The jitters looked like they were getting to McDowell and Stroud as well on the 72nd hole. Both hit mediocre second shots on the par-4 home hole, but when Stroud three-putt from 60 feet, it allowed McDowell to also post a bogey yet still win by one.

No. 257 in the World Ranking entering the week, McDowell had been playing a hodgepodge schedule. While looking forward to competing in U.S. Open in June at Pebble Beach, site of his 2010 triumph, the major he desperately wants to get into is the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in his home country. He still has work to do to qualify, but his game looks to be coming around to where the dream is no longer a long shot.

The post Graeme McDowell grabs first PGA Tour title since 2015 with one-stroke win at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.