PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Mackenzie Hughes was hanging out with his wife Friday evening after finishing his second round at The Players Championship when…
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Mackenzie Hughes was hanging out with his wife Friday evening after finishing his second round at The Players Championship when he started crunching the numbers.
Hughes, a 27-year-old PGA Tour pro from Canada who’s in the midst of a brutal season that has included 13 missed cuts in 16 tournaments, and Tiger Woods were 1-under par and had finished their respective rounds around the same time.
That meant there was a chance Hughes would be paired with Woods for Saturday’s third round at TPC Sawgrass.
The mere prospect had his heart pounding.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I got that tee time [Friday] night, but I was really hoping I was going to get it,’’ Hughes said Saturday “I knew it was a 50-50 chance I was gonna get it. I was really excited. He’s someone I’ve looked up to my whole life.’’
When the pairings were announced around dinner time Friday, Hughes got his wish: He and Woods would tee off together at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Woods proceeded to take off like a rocket ship early in the round with birdies on four of the first five holes en route to a 7-under-par 65 and Hughes, who was 1-over through the first five, found himself hanging on for dear life.
This was going to be quite a ride — perhaps even more intense than the only PGA Tour event Hughes has won so far, the 2017 RSM Classic.
“In the beginning,’’ Hughes said, “I was out of my routine a little bit.’’
The Woods vortex will do that to the most seasoned of veteran players, let alone someone like Hughes — who not only had never played with Woods but never met him.
The closest Hughes had come to meeting Woods was at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March.
“I was sitting next to him in the player locker room. We were both eating lunch,’’ Hughes recalled. “He was five feet from me and I had no valid excuse to say, ‘Hey, I’m Mackenzie Hughes.’ I just sat there quietly and listened in and was a fly on the wall.’’
Though he had the best seat in the house Saturday morning as Woods carved up the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, Hughes was more than a fly on the wall. After the shaky start, he gathered himself, birdied the last three holes of the front nine to join the Woods party and shot a 4-under par 68.
The score aside, this was unlike any round Hughes had played as a pro — except perhaps the final round of that RSM Classic.
“Starting out, it had that vibe that you were playing for a title, which is crazy at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning,’’ Hughes said of the intensity in Saturday’s round. “That’s just what he does. It was fun. I wasn’t, like, terrified of the moment, but it gets the butterflies going in a good way.
“It was funny, because I was asking him stuff about himself, but I pretty much know everything about him because I’m a huge fan. I tried to play it cool and not sound like a total dork.’’
With Woods clearly in a zone, shooting 30 on the front nine, Hughes said he was “kind of careful to pick my spots’’ speaking to him in an effort not to distract him.
“We had some good talks, talked about football and some standard stuff,’’ Hughes said. “It was cool to get to know him a little bit. I had never met him prior to that, so on the first tee there I was definitely a little nervous. But it was a great day. You want to play with those [top-draw] guys and be in that cauldron. If you’re gonna do Saturday early, you might as well do Saturday with Tiger.’’
Woods sounded impressed by what he saw out of Hughes, saying, “He’s a nice kid and he hit some really quality shots today. Overall, he should be very pleased the way he played.’’
Hughes said he believes playing with Woods elevated his game.
“I’ve had a pretty poor year, and to be in an environment like that really gets the juices flowing,’’ he said. “It’s 90 degrees out, but I can assure you I had some goosebumps and shivers at times out there when you hear some of the roars and you realize that you’re playing with Tiger Woods and he’s doing what he’s doing and I’m hanging in there.’’
Hughes did more than “hang in there,’’ and that will do nothing but serve him well for Sunday’s final round, whenever the next time he plays with Woods comes and the next time he’s in contention to win a tournament.
