JACKSON, Miss. — Whether or not it was sheer confidence or outstanding resilience, Mackenzie Hughes by no means doubted he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship. He simply by no means imagined how it might unfold Sunday night.
Hughes needed to make six key putts on the ultimate seven holes — 4 of them for par — to outlast Sepp Straka on the second playoff gap for his second PGA Tour victory.
“The second felt loads tougher than the primary one, that is for positive,” Hughes mentioned.
The 31-year-old Canadian famend for his putter lastly made birdie his third time enjoying the 18th gap on the Nation Membership of Jackson, pouring in an 8-footer for the win.
However this was as a lot about pars — the 15-footer on the par-5 14th, the 7-foot putt on the sixteenth after he could not attain the inexperienced from a fairway bunker, and two robust par saves on the 18th gap from 100 toes behind the inexperienced in regulation and from a bunker on the primary playoff gap.
“I saved telling myself the entire week that I used to be going to do it. That was the one factor I noticed in my thoughts,” Hughes mentioned. “These par saves down the stretch, I used to be simply attempting to will the ball into the outlet.”
The primary par save on the 18th gave him a 3-under 69 to power a playoff in opposition to Straka, who performed two teams forward of Hughes and shot 67 to submit at 17-under 271.
On the second playoff gap, Straka missed from 18 toes on the perimeter earlier than Hughes made the successful putt. It was the second time in his final 4 tournaments that Straka misplaced in a playoff. The opposite was in opposition to Will Zalatoris at first of the PGA Tour postseason.
“I performed good golf on a troublesome Sunday,” mentioned Straka, who picked up his first PGA Tour title earlier this 12 months on the Honda Traditional. “Giving your self probabilities to win out right here it key. The extra you are able to do that, the extra comfy you will be.”
For Hughes, it had been six years since his lone victory — additionally in a playoff — at Sea Island.
“I used to be combating like hell to remain in it,” Hughes mentioned. “Ending second, whereas it is nonetheless nice, it sort of stings if you’re that shut. I simply wasn’t going to just accept that in the present day.”
The victory comes one week after the Presidents Cup, and Hughes was upset to not be included on the Worldwide group at Quail Hole in Charlotte, North Carolina, the place he lives. He wished to make use of that as motivation, and it positive labored out that means.
Garrick Higgo of South Africa had a 68 and completed third. Straka took the lead by getting up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 14th and the reachable par-4 fifteenth. He needed to accept pars the remainder of the day.
Hughes had these scoring holes nonetheless to play, and he practically squandered the possibility. On the 14th, he was out of place off the tee, his wedge over a tree again towards the green got here up brief in a bunker, he needed to lay up once more and escaped with a 15-foot par putt.
On the closing gap, he was effectively left off the tee and punched underneath a tree and over the inexperienced in opposition to the grandstand. After free reduction, he used putter from 100 toes away off the inexperienced with excellent tempo to three toes for.
On the primary playoff gap on the 18th, Hughes got here up brief in a bunker with solely about 15 toes from the sting of the bunker to the pin. He blasted out to five toes and made par.
That despatched them again to the 18th for a 3rd time, and Hughes closed him out.
Mark Hubbard, who went into the ultimate spherical with a one-shot lead, managed solely two birdies in his spherical of 74 and tied for fifth.
The ultimate spherical featured 5 gamers who had not less than a share of the lead in some unspecified time in the future. That included Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, whose spherical got here undone on the par-5 14th when he took a triple bogey with no penalty shot.
Higgo by no means was a part of the lead, although he lingered your entire day and missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the seventeenth that in the end saved him out of the playoff.
