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THE HONDA CLASSIC

February 22, 2018

Mackenzie Hughes

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

Q. 30 on your inward nine, parred through the Bear Trap. You made it look easy at times?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: It definitely wasn't easy, but I managed my game well. Hit the ball really solid, which you have to do in the wind, and made a few putts there at the end. It was nice.

I've been playing nicely this year, and the results haven't really showed it. It's been a tough year. I've learned a lot, but I just keep losing momentum, and today I made a couple nice chip-ins that kind of kept the round going. It was just, didn't feel a whole lot different than what I've been doing this year but dialed it in nicely and scored well.

Q. What did you feel the last couple of weeks that maybe gave you some extra confidence this week?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Just the fact that the mistakes I was making were super simple, missing a green with a wedge and making a bogey or 3-putting from 30 feet, the littlest things I was doing were causing rounds to kind of get away from me a little bit. It wasn't anything physical. It was just kind of getting the whole mind-set switched. It's been trending in the right direction. It's just, again, the results haven't really showed it but so far, so good this week.

Q. Does it help when par is a good score? Does it help to grind out there today instead of having to go super deep?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, I think that's nice. 2-over on the front nine, you don't feel like you're out of it, you just keep plodding along, and if you can get on a run, make a couple, make a few, you're right back in it and that's what I was able to do on the front nine. Made a couple birdies in a row and so that was nice to get some momentum.

Q. Out in 37 and made the turn coming home in 30. What did you figure out halfway through?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Just kind of a mind-set shift. I told myself today I need to be really patient and I made the turn at 2-over, and I said that I was still playing pretty well. I just kind of stuck with it.

I chipped in from the back collar on 1 from about 20 feet, and that kind of got me going a little bit. I had not made a putt all day and chipped one in and next one I made a putt, and I kind of steamrolled that into some momentum. Made four in a row I think.

Yeah, just sticking with it, but this golf course demands so much, you've got to be so patient out there.

Q. Coming into this week, you missed all eight cuts in this wrap-around season. How do you stay patient in the bigger picture to know that better things are ahead?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: You know, that's been tough. I definitely felt like the last few weeks that maybe I've been pushing it a little bit but my game is still fine. Seems like I lose the momentum battle out there a few times in the last few weeks.

In Phoenix, I was playing well, close to the Top-10, had a few holes left and ended up missing the cut there. One of those things where I got on the wrong side of momentum there and I made a few bogeys. Again, my game's fine.

So I keep telling myself that I've got a two-year exemption in my back pocket, there's tons of golf left this year, we've played not even a third of the schedule yet. There's so many events out here. I keep leaning on that. There's lots of golf cleft, I'm is secure for another year. So just hang in there and keep going.

Q. You wanted to change your name because that's what you said you go by?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: I mean, yeah. My friends all call me Mac. So I just thought, well, that would be easy, and then it wasn't. That's it, basically.

Q. And then you changed it back?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Because I was just -- everyone was like, why did you change your name. I was like, I didn't change my name. It the it's the same. I just decided to go back to Mackenzie, and if you want to call me Mac, call me Mac. I don't know, I'm not worried about my name anymore.

Q. How was it out there today?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: It was tough. Got a little rain there at the end, but the wind sort of died down the last four or five holes, I would say. Still blowing, but it wasn't as difficult as when we started and kind of through the middle of the round there. The first hole of the day, it was pumping downwind and I hit 8-iron from 205.

So there is some serious wind out there but at the end it was dying down just a hair. Was able to make a few putts. But I played awesome today. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. It was pretty stress-free for the most part.

Q. Considering your results this season, was this a surprise?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Not really. I've won before, and I know that at any point, I can do it again. You know, I look at so many cases where guys, you know, go in these little ruts but I've never felt like I was lost or that I was searching for my game.

James Hahn a couple years ago, Wells Fargo, he missed eight cuts in a row and won. That's something I tell myself, too. And the fact that the season is still long, there's no need to panic. I'm still playing golf for a living and on the PGA TOUR, so it's not all bad.

Q. McDowell was telling us he was hitting it good on the range and not getting good scores, but there was no temptation to fix something that's not broken -- have you had temptation when you weren't getting the results to change something?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Certainly that part of the golfer's brain is always firing, and I'm starting to calm that down and say, you know what, I'm not broken. A lot of the mistakes I make this year are just kind of mindless mistakes, like ball is in the middle of the fairway and 3-putts from ranges that I'm not familiar with 3-putting.

I putted great last season, and that part of my game has been struggling a little bit. That kind of leaks into the rest of your game. You're not making putts and you start trying to hit it closer, chipping it closer, all those things. You start pressing a bit. I've had a few tournaments where I started to roll the ball a little nicer and a little bit more like myself.

Q. Do you ever have bad putting patches?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: For sure. I mean, last year, I had a few tournaments, I went through some slumps with the putter.

Overall, the whole last year was great. This year, that's definitely been something that's let me down. Missing that kind of crucial 8-footer to keep the round going, and then you kind of lose confidence a little bit.

So that's kind of been what I've been fighting a little bit and like I said, you just force other areas to try and make up for it and that's never great when you start forcing things.

Q. Does this feel like you're in the middle of your second season on TOUR?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Well, I feel like we're not quite to the middle yet. We're getting there.

Q. Does it feel longer than that?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Feels like a long time ago since Sea Island because how long the seasons are. And it was in 2016 and now we're in 2018. I keep trying to draw on those memories and again, if you told me 2 1/2 years ago, oh, I'd be standing here, you know, I missed eight cuts, but you're one off the lead at the Honda, I take it, and I had a great rookie season. Things are not all that bad. I just had a baby boy. You're just kind of drawing all the positives and keep moving along.

Q. Do you have a coach?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah.

Q. Help you to fire less?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: To fire less?

Q. You said the brain of the players, they fire --
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, he keeps reminding me that my game is pretty good and just keep working the plan and clean up those mistakes a little bit and all of a sudden you get a round like today.

Again, it's not a surprise to me to play well. Game's been pretty good for a while and just, again, clean it up a little bit, make a few more putts and 3-under.

Q. What did you do on 6?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: They moved the tee up one, so it was like 440 into the wind. But the bunkers you could carry, so you could kind of just pump it over those bunkers. I was in the intermediate cut, had 160 yards, so it was doable today.

Q. How does new fatherhood factor into this when you're struggling on the golf course?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Well, I don't like making excuse us but I was saying that the first five weeks on the West Coast, traveling together for the first time, and there's been a lot of extenuating circumstances that I think most people go through as a new father

But being in the same room together, crying baby wakes up in the middle of the night and you're like, I'm awake, and I tee off at 7:00 or 7:30, and I'm like, might as well get up now and it's 4:00 or 3:00, stuff that you're not used to doing (laughter.)

But guys go through it. The fall, to me, as well, when I missed all of Malaysia that I was exempt for, China, Korea, my season would have looked a lot different if I had went and played three events in Asia in the fall. But there's been a lot that's happened. I got a new caddie. There's just a lot of things that are different. But again, game's been fine. Just golf's hard sometimes.

Q. Would you have gotten a kick out of rattling everybody's cage with a 29 today?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, that would have been fun. I really didn't even notice I was doing it until the last couple holes on the front side there. I had like a 25-footer on 8 and I was like, man, if I had made that, I was 7-under on the side.

Then on 9, got a bad lie in the rough there and made a bogey, but doesn't take away from a great day.

Q. Baby's name?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Kenton.

Q. Do you call him Ken?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: No.

Q. Where are they this week?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: They are in Buffalo. That's where she lives. That's where our parents are from, so back home there. Getting a little bit of help. She's loving life.

Q. And you're sleeping well?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: And I'm sleeping, so that's a start. And it almost feels weird, like you almost feel like I should wake up in the middle of the night to see what's going on. Eight hours continuous sleep is very foreign to me right now.

Q. Are you a heavy sleeper or light sleeper?
MACKENZIE HUGHES: Depends. I go through phrase phases. When I go home after like a long stretch, if I'm like with the baby in the room, I can like sleep through it sometimes, crying and whatnot. Then sometimes, you hear like -- yeah. You're like, did he fart? And he farts pretty loud. I hear that sometimes. He wakes himself up pooping through his diapers, which again, I would wake up, too.

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