Aug 27, 2020
Canada’s Hughes impressive on and off the course
After Thursday’s opening round, Mackenzie Hughes stands alone in third place at the very difficult Olympia Fields just two shots off the lead, but the Dundas, Ont., native also has his eyes focused on racial injustice and the shooting of Jacob Blake, Bob Weeks writes.
By Bob Weeks
Mackenzie Hughes did some talking on Thursday at the BMW Championship. Some of it was done with his clubs, the other part with his heart.
Hughes fired a 1-under 69 at a very difficult Olympia Fields GC, just outside of Chicago, one of just three rounds under par in the first round of the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs. That left him two shots off the lead held by Hideki Matsuyama.
Compared to the previous week when 30-under par was the winning score, this course was playing more like a U.S. Open where pars were at a premium.
“This is about as hard a setup as you could have,” said Hughes. “Firmness-wise, it's really difficult to hold some of those fairways that are sitting on angles, and some of those first bounces into the greens, you're pitching it 15 yards short of the flag.”
Hughes birdied his first hole of the day by draining a 32-foot putt and followed by running off eight straight pars. Birdies on his 10th and 12th hole pushed him into a two-shot lead but he fell back with bogeys on the next two holes before finishing up with four pars.
“The golf course wasn't giving up a lot of birdies,” Hughes said, “and we had to be patient and play to the fat of the green and accept that you were going to make bogey here and there.”
As impressive as the round was, Hughes was more inspiring for his comments in a post-round scrum where he was asked about other sports leagues boycotting play to draw attention to racial injustice and specifically to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.
“There's no reason for that much force to be used in that kind of situation,” stated Hughes. “I think we can all agree on that. It's just unfortunate that we're dealing with this in this day and age.”
This is not the first time the Dundas, Ont., native has spoken out on the issue of social justice. When George Floyd was killed in May, he posted his feelings on the issue on social media, saying, “I don’t want my son growing up knowing that such a divide still exists in this world.”
On Thursday, he continued to be open with his feelings.
“I think things need to change,” Hughes said after his round. “There needs to be discussion to continuing, and I'm willing to talk to anyone about it and keep it going.”
The PGA Tour issued a statement on Thursday morning in support of other sports leagues, which decided to stop play on Wednesday.
“There have been a number of efforts in the past to send a message that the current climate is unacceptable, and these teams, leagues and players now taking this step will help draw further attention to the issues that really matter,” said the statement. “The PGA TOUR supports them – and any of our own members – standing up for issues they believe in.”
When the tour started the first round, the only open sign of recognition of the issue came from Cameron Champ, who is biracial. He wore one black shoe and one white one, both with words written on them in support of Black Lives Matter.
But later, Tiger Woods acknowledged that he discussed the issue of not playing the first round on Wednesday with tour officials.
“I talked to the commissioner and they were on board,” said Woods. “Obviously, he released his statement, and all the guys were on board. So no, obviously there was talk about it because of obviously what happened, but we're all on board, on the same page.”
On Friday, Hughes will try to keep his hot hand on the golf course. His goal this week is to finish inside the top 30 and make it to next week’s Tour Championship. But as he clearly and eloquently stated, there are bigger issues at play these days.