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TSN Senior Reporter

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OAKVILLE, ONT. -- There aren’t many home games for PGA Tour professionals, but Mackenzie Hughes is enjoying one this week, or at least as close as you can get to one.

Hughes is from nearby Dundas, Ont., about 30 minutes down the Queen Elizabeth Way from Glen Abbey, and the home cooking and local fan support may have been a key to his opening-round 67, putting him in the clubhouse as the low Canadian.

It may be a little early, but the locals are already talking of a parade down King Street, the main drag in Dundas, should Hughes end up the winner on Sunday afternoon.

OK, that part might have been made in jest to me by one of residents of that town who was out following Hughes in the first round at the Abbey but it shows the support he’s been getting here this week.

“[At] any tournament it’s great, especially here,” Hughes said of his fast start. “You can’t win it on Thursday but you can lose it on Thursday. I put myself in a pretty good spot.”

Playing his early holes in some morning rain, he rolled in six birdies against a single bogey in what he called a “stress-free” round. The key was his iron play, which was dialed in. He hit 10 approaches to inside 20 feet of the pin and at one point rolled off five that were within 10 feet. For one of the top putters on the PGA Tour, those are easy pickings.

“Those are fun days when you’re around the hole a lot and you’ve got eight, 10 feet for birdie,” he stated. “You can be aggressive a lot.”

This is Hughes’ first time playing the national open as a professional. He made two trips to the tournament as the reigning Canadian Amateur champion, but in recent years has skipped the trip here to focus on either the Mackenzie Tour or the Web.com Tour.

Despite that, and the fact that he is still a PGA Tour rookie, Hughes is here as one of the leading Canadian hopes to end the 63-year drought of home-country golfers winning their crown.

Much of that is due to his great season that included a dramatic playoff win at the RSM Classic in November and a trip to the Masters. Overall he’s had eight top-25 finishes and earned more than $2 million.

With all that, he’s experienced what just about every Canadian golfer has at this event – a week like no other during his year. He’s been pushed and pulled in different directions by sponsors, media and fans, and that often has an effect on his main job of playing golf.

“Before Wednesday, I felt a little bit rushed and all over the place,” Hughes admitted. “On Wednesday I was able to get a good practice in and I felt it was a bit more normal.

“It was a bit chaotic and there were a lot of things going on but that’s part of the territory.”

Among his duties this week was heading back to his home club, Dundas Valley, where the par-three course, the one where he learned to play, was renamed in his honour.

It’s been a pretty heady year in many ways for the 26-year-old who, in the last 12 months made the PGA Tour, won a tour event, got married, played in the Masters and, with his wife Jenna, is expecting his first child.

He’s also learned to temper his hopes on the course if not the beliefs he has in his abilities.

“I think having a really high expectation level as a rookie can be your undoing,” said Hughes. “I went through a little lull there for a few weeks and trying to just really stay patient and let the rounds come to me, not trying to expect every week that I can win. I believe that I can win every week but I don’t expect to win every week. It’s a big difference there so I’m trying to manage those expectations and doing a pretty good job so far.”

As he was on Thursday, Hughes will be cheered on all week by lots of family and friends from home as well as fans who aren’t as well acquainted with him. And they’d love nothing more than to help him across the finish line Sunday afternoon. It’s still far to early to begin thinking about that parade, but just imagine.