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TSN Senior Reporter

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Another major, another Canadian on the leaderboard.

As with the first three majors of the season, Canadians were prominent in the opening round of the Open Championship, with Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners posting solid scores in red figures.

Hughes rolled to an opening-round 66 over the breezy but soft Royal St. George’s course. The Dundas, Ont., product made five birdies on his day including three consecutively on the fourth, fifth and sixth holes.

“I felt pretty good about it,” said Hughes. “I got off to a nice start, lots of good shots. Hitting a of lot fairways, which around here you hit a bunch of fairways it's making your life a lot easier.”

Hughes missed just three of 14 fairways, managing to avoid the long, lush rough and deep bunkers that claimed plenty of victims on Thursday.

He also missed just three greens – including the 18th where he was just an inch away – which kept his scorecard neat and tidy and allowed him to play to his strengths and use his putter. There was just one blemish, which came at the 15th after his tee shot found his lone bunker on the day.

He also missed a several good opportunities to take his score lower coming in over the last few holes. With short irons in his hand he was unable to get the ball close to the hole, but a couple of nervy two-putts held his score.

“All in all, it was a great day,” said Hughes. “Not maybe the finish I would've liked, but all in all, if you told me I was going to shoot 4-under today I would've taken it in a heartbeat.”

Hughes is making his Open Championship debut. His experience with links golf is limited, having competed in the British Amateur on two occasions. But he has proven himself a quick learner, guiding his ball around the course like a veteran.

“I was really excited for links golf and the challenge this presents to you,” Hughes said. “You have to just hit shots. There is not a lot of driving range-type shots where you just stand out there and hit a normal shot.

“A lot of kind of manipulation and creativity involved. Holding the wind, riding the wind. So, I'm just – I feel like I do belong in this setting, but yeah, making my debut and Royal St George's has been a real treat so far.”

Conners came in at two under and said he was inspired by his former Kent State teammate’s play, noting that it’s another solid performance at majors by the stable of Canadian golfers.

“I saw Mac played a good round early on this morning,” he stated. “Yeah, Canadians are playing well, so it's exciting to see. It definitely motivated me to try and have a good round, as well.”

Conners, who will team with Hughes to represent Canada at the Olympics in two weeks, didn’t have his usual marksmanship on the fairways, missing five of them.

He was better heading to the greens where only three escaped his aim. A double-bogey on the par-4 fifth was sandwiched between birdies on three and five. The back nine had two birdies and a bogey with three solid pars to end his day.

“I feel like I learned a lot in my prep throughout the golf course, kind of where you want to try and hit it, where you want to try and avoid,” Conners stated. “I was patient, committed to my shots and pretty happy with the round.”

The other two Canucks struggled on Thursday, with both Adam Hadwin and Richard T. Lee finishing the day at 5-over 75