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TSN Senior Reporter

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Most weeks on the PGA Tour, the scorecard turned in by Mackenzie Hughes on Friday at the BMW Championship wouldn’t reflect a good day. But on a brutally tough Olympia Fields Golf Course where birdies were rare and bogeys hard to avoid, his round of 3-over 73 was excellent.

It left the Canadian at 2-over par through 36 holes and just three shots off the lead.

“It’s probably the hardest golf course we’ve played this year,” said Hughes. “This has been hard as a brick since the bell went off on Thursday.

On a fast and hard golf course where it was next to impossible to control the ball on the fairways or the greens, Hughes kept himself within reach of the top of the leaderboard by playing a smart round that was held together by his putter. After scrambling to a par on his opening hole, he birdied the second after hitting his approach shot to two feet.

He then rolled in an eight-footer for par at the third and made five-footers on six and seven for pars.

A three-putt on the eighth led to his first bogey of the day but he got that back by dropping a 13-footer on the ninth hole for a birdie to make the turn in one under.

After opening the back side with five pars, Hughes made bogey on 15 and 16, and then struggled to a double bogey on his final hole to end the day on a down note.

But he is still in great shape as he heads to the weekend, especially if the course continues to play tough.

“I like it when pars are at a premium,” said the product of Dundas, Ont., “You really have to dig deep and grind out some pars. It takes a lot of discipline which I like.”

Hughes has played well this year on difficult courses. He was second at the Honda Classic and tied for sixth at the Memorial, both of which were tough tests.

The scores this week are stark comparison to last week’s event, which Dustin Johnson won with a score of 30-under par. At the Northern Trust, one under would have missed the cut by two shots. This week it’s leading.

The last time the 36-hole lead at a PGA Tour event was -1 came in 2014 at the Doral Championship. That year there were four at that mark; this week there is only two.

Corey Conners had the distinction of logging the first round so far without a bogey. He made 17 pars and a birdie in his second round and sits at five-over par. Louis Oosthuizen matched that card later on Friday.

The battle this week is not only to win this event, but also to get into the top 30 on the FedEx Cup standings at the end of the week. That leads to a spot in the season-ending Tour Championship where top prize is $15 million. For those on the bubble, like Hughes, it’s hard not to keep one eye on the fluid standings as they get closer to Sunday’s final round even though they don’t mean much at this point.

“It’s hard not to see them as they’re all over the place,” he admitted. “But they’re irrelevant until things are over. I like my chances if I keep playing the way I have so far.”

Hughes came into the week sitting in 36th spot and at various times during the second round found himself as high as 15th before settling into 30th at the end of the round. He’ll go up and down plenty more times over the next two days, hoping he can fall on the right side of the top 30 on Sunday evening.

Making it to the Tour Championship next week at East Lake Golf Club comes with a bounty of rewards including a berth in all four major championships and the Players Championship. 

But before the field for that event is determined, there is the matter of just surviving at Olympia Fields.