Hughes battles injury, gorse in opening round

All things considered, it’s lucky that Mackenzie Hughes managed to play golf at all on Thursday.

Hughes hurt his neck on Wednesday, preventing him from turning his head to the left. It was so bad when he woke up Thursday, he considered withdrawing from the Open Championship but elected to give it a go, battling to a one-over 73.

“I wasn't really sure I was going to play this morning,” Hughes stated. “I hurt my neck yesterday and this morning on the range I was making swings that were abbreviated and quite uncomfortable. I took a bunch of medication and some heat cream and just tried to kind of get through it. Early on, I was just trying to kind of chip it around and then it got a little bit better as the day went on – still not great – but all in all I was pleased to be able to get around.”

Hughes got through the first nine with a bogey on the fifth and a birdie on the eighth for an even-par front side. On the back, birdies on 10 and 12 buoyed his hopes but then disaster came on 13. He hooked his shot into the gorse and when he went to look for his ball, gut stuck with the spikes of the nasty plant.

“I got mangled by a gorse bush and its thorns and I have splinters in my fingers,” he said.

The spikes were serious enough that he sought out medical attention after his round concluded.

Despite the ailments, Hughes praised the course for its unpredictability as well as its rock-hard condition. The Dundas, Ont., product said he used a three-iron off the tee on the 350-yard par-4 18th. The ball flew 240 yards and ran another 100, just failing to climb the last mound onto the green. His ball rolled back into the Valley of Sin, and he settled for a par.

“The course is playing fantastic, and you can make great shots and be rewarded, or you can be just off and be punished,” he said. “Actually, you can hit great shots and be punished too.”

Corey Conners made five birdies on his day, including one on the 18th hole, for a one-under 71. While he managed to avoid the gorse, he got a full taste of the Old Course when his tee shot on 17 found the infamous Road Hole bunker, a massive hazard from which it’s almost impossible to escape.

“It was an unfortunate bounce, short of the green,” Conners said. “I was trying to bounce one up and it was on a pretty good line, very close to where I was trying to hit it. It took a bit of a left turn and ended up in a tough spot in the Road Hole bunker which I was trying very hard to avoid.”

Another shot of links golf came on the ninth hole. Sitting 167 yards from the pin, he attempted to chip a nine-iron, landing it 10 yards short of the putting surface and hoping it would roll to the hole. Instead, the ball rolled out another 90 yards coming to rest near the pin on the fifth hole.

“I tried to putt it from there, gave it all that I had but it was about 25 feet short,” Conners said, a look of dismay breaking out on his face

Those incidents didn’t take away from Conners’ appreciation for playing the Open at the Old Course. In fact, they add to the challenge of the competition.

“It’s hard not to have a smile on your face when you get called to the first tee on this historic ground,” he said.