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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 11, 2017

Mackenzie Hughes

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. You're off to a good start in THE PLAYERS Championship, bogey-free in your first competition round. Give us an overview of your round today.
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, it was very solid, but yeah, to go bogey-free around this place, very difficult to do, obviously, and I started the day, I wouldn't have expected a round like that, but I knew my game was trending. I had some good results last week, and yeah, it was just one of those days. It wasn't perfect golf, but I managed it really well and made a few nice saves when I needed to and made a few nice putts, so it was good, a good day.

Q. When was your first official round here?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: I played nine Monday, 18 Tuesday, and then nine more Wednesday, so I have two full rounds.

Q. Anything in particular that's been missing that's back?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Patience. Yeah, the last few weeks I missed a few cuts in a row. I was getting a little frustrated, a little down on myself, and last week was a big step in the right direction, just trying to make a little mental adjustment and just be a tad more patient, a little more forgiving or accepting of the misses. It paid off last week and still paying off again right now.

Q. Did winning make it harder to be patient?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: I think so. I think maybe the expectation level gets elevated. You know, and I sometimes forget that it's still my first year because the win was last year and you're playing all these big tournaments, and you think, because I'm here I should be playing really well. Yeah, trying to lower those maybe a touch and maybe not have any, so to speak. I came out here today just trying to play a good, patient round of golf. Wherever that put me, so be it.

Q. What was your closest bogey today?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Well, 18 was stress-free -- no, just kidding. No, 18 I was fortunate to have a little bit of a window over there. It wasn't much of one, but the alternative was chipping out into the fairway, which I could have chipped out in the water just as easily, so I thought it was worth it to try and play it through that window. I would say the closest was probably 3, No. 3. I hit it short left on that perfect 3 and I chipped up to about eight feet and made a nice putt there. That was probably the closest I came to making a bogey.

Q. How big of a window from your eyes on 18?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Four or five feet. You know, I mean, I probably had four feet of height. I had to go under the first branch, over the next two, so I mean, it was a perfect 6-iron. My window this way was probably like that (indicating), but it was big enough. I was close enough to the trees where -- it paid off.

Q. What was your mental adjustment? You did it, or was it with a coach?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: It was really with me. I knew that I wasn't the way I needed to be on the golf course when things weren't going right. It just isn't as much fun. It's a long year, so if you go through two- or three-tournament tough patch there, there's no reason to panic, no reason to get frustrated, it's just stay the course and keep doing what you've been doing, and I'm getting back to what I do when I play really well, and it feels a lot better and a little more satisfying to just be patient out there and stick with it.

Q. What have you learned about this course in the three rounds you've played?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: It's very hard, for one. And I think that there's just not really a moment where you can let up. It's so subtle, so tricky. There's so many shots in my group today where they looked like close to being perfect and then they'd just kind of roll off the green at the last minute. You're in these little collection areas and you've got tough chips and tough putts up these hills. It's just totally like point A to point B for me, I think. It doesn't matter -- you can lay it back 30, 40 yards further, but as long as you're in the fairway, you've got a chance. You know, playing from the wrong side of these holes, they get bad angles, and you're in the rough, it can get really, really hard out here and you can be scrambling a lot. Putting it in the fairway is probably first and foremost, and then you've got to chip and putt really well around here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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