Mackenzie Hughes turns attention from changing diapers to competing in Tournament of Champions
Mackenzie Hughes has seen it all. He has the tricks down and knows what to expect. He compares his efficient effort these days to that of a NASCAR pit crew.
But Hughes, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, is not talking about his golf game as he drives into the parking lot of the Tour's annual opening event, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. He's talking about his diaper-changing ability.
Hughes and his wife, Jenna, welcomed their third child in December (a daughter, Ellie Mae, to go along with two sons) and the native of Dundas, Ont. has this parenting thing down to a science. The whole crew, including Hughes' mother-in-law, is in Maui this week, and Hughes is more eager than ever to get going.
Every year I tee it up on the PGA Tour, my confidence and what I think of myself grows and that digs into my goals for what I want to achieve on the course," says Hughes, who won the Sanderson Farms Championship in October. I do set my sights on trying to win more and it's lofty, but I'd like to see myself trying to get to double digits in wins (for my career), which will be super difficult to do but I don't see why I can't.
I'm only 32 years old and I feel like I'm going into what should be my golfing prime."
This week's event will be the first of 17 elevated" events on the PGA Tour schedule in 2023. While the Saudi-backed LIV Golf threw buckets of money at a handful of the game's top stars last year, the PGA Tour countered by increasing the purses of some of its tournaments this year to as much as $20 million (U.S.). This week's event is worth $15 million, up from $8.2 million last year.
It'll be noisy but there won't be as many surprises," Hughes says of LIV Golf and what's to come this year. The chatter and all the noise will be there, but that's their M.O. - they want to be disruptive and always be in the discussion.
It's part of the landscape now. This summer it was all new and eye-opening, but we're in a place now where it exists, and the PGA Tour exists, and we'll go from there."
Hughes is one of a record three Canadians at the Plantation Course at Kapalua to start 2023. Adam Svensson, who won his first PGA Tour event at The RSM Classic in November, is making his debut at the event, while Corey Conners is also in the field. Although the event is called the Tournament of Champions, it now features those who finished in the top 30 of the FedExCup the year before but did not win. That is how Conners earned his way in.
Hughes is bullish on the Canadian contingent on the PGA Tour this year. The trio in Hawaii will be joined by Michael Gligic, Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin as full-fledged members of the Tour for the balance of the season, which ends on Labour Day. David Hearn has partial status.
Every week on Tour, I feel like there is a chance a Canadian could win," Hughes says. Every year I keep talking about this and the outlook is always brighter the next year. And the next year it's even brighter. We've been on this trajectory for the last five or six years and it's been really exceptional."
While Hughes is excited about the overall output by the top Canadian men in golf, he laughs at his expectations for this week.
He hasn't teed it up competitively in six weeks and, between the holiday season and the new addition to his family, he says he squeezed" some work in where he could. He has a home gym so he did a lot of work in there. He put a net in his garage so he could hit balls for an hour or so" when leaving the house wasn't possible.
My expectations aren't super high, which I think is a good thing for me because I tend to play better. When my expectations going in are high, then sometimes it leads to being frustrated or not being in as good a mental state because you expect everything to be great," he says. I know there is a little bit of rust I'll have to shake off not playing tournament golf in six weeks, but the swing feels pretty good. Body feels good."
The Sentry Tournament of Champions begins Thursday with 39 golfers in the field, led by world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, who could retake the top spot from Rory McIlroy with a top-three finish.
Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star's Sports section. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley