Mackenzie Hughes knew the hit was good.
Everything else was blurry.
As Hughes’ winning shot in the second hole of the playoffs rolled into the bowl, the 31-year-old Canadian, who hasn’t lifted a PGA Tour trophy since winning his first trophy six years ago, balled his right hand into a fist and loaded the ball. . By the time the ball dropped to secure Hughes’ victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday, he had already begun to use his fists.
“I don’t know about it,” Hughes later said of his early celebration. “I didn’t understand at what point I started celebrating, but I knew about a step ahead that everything was going right in the middle. It was like the best feeling in the world.”
The par-4 finish hole at Jackson’s Country Club used to be good for Hughes. In the rules, he landed a 105-foot 4-foot inward fairway kick to establish playoff parity.
Then, on the first extra ride on #18, Hughes came up and down from the bunker on the green, mothballing the 5-footer for a higher par.
Both shots taught Hughes good lessons.
“The kick itself was really straight,” Hughes said of his winner from about 7 feet, “and I was kind of lucky to basically have about 3.5 feet from left and then in the first playoff. the hole I had was 5 feet to the right of that. I felt like I was right in the middle of these two. In regulation, I felt like my shot was going a little right, the first playoff hole was a little to the left, and then this one was really straight.
“Again, I was lucky that I ended up in a place where I was comfortable reading. I felt like I was sure of what he was going to do and I played him right in the middle of the hole and he went right straight. It was pretty sweet.”
It was the same with the first lobe pump.
Source: www.golfchannel.com