MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2021

Mackenzie Hughes

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you characterize that round? Certainly got off to a fast start.

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, I've told a couple people now, it was a nice start, it was a rough middle, and it was a nice ending. My caddie and I, Jace, talked about how every tournament you kind of go through a little patch where you've got to dig through it. I don't know what -- I mean, I made like five bogeys in ten holes, something like that.

I knew I was still right in it, so I was trying to stay patient. I knew there were some par 5s coming up. Fortunately, I was able to play the last seven holes at 3 under to finish off nicely.

Q. How difficult is it to kind of get your mind around the fact that you are going to have rough spots, you are going to make bogeys, and as you say, you still have a lot of time ahead of you?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, I think that comes with experience now. I've been playing on the PGA TOUR now for five years, and I think that you sort of come to understand that rounds are going to have the ebbs and flows. You never know when you're going to run off three birdies in a row or four birdies in a row.

So I think, keeping that in mind and keeping that patience does wonders. I think early on in my career, I might have let that round get away from me, but a little more maturity, and you bring it back and even.

Q. Ralph said, after watching your first round, he said, it looks like you're really playing with a nice rhythm out there. Is that something you're conscious of?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, so that's something I've been working on the last few weeks is -- and I felt like it's progressed every week where I've gotten a little bit better. Really what it comes down to for me is, if I swing with nice rhythm, I typically don't hit any like wild tee shots. I drove it really nice yesterday. Didn't drive it quite as well today. My rhythm wasn't quite as good.

Really just trying to control my transition. If my transition stays in nice smoothness and it doesn't get too quick or anxious, I'll hit it pretty well. That was what I've done well the last few weeks and what I'll continue to try and do over the weekend.

Q. How much more precise do you have to be on the greens here?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Funny you asked because I was telling my caddie walking off 17 that I had a 3 1/2 foot putt for par. It was just outside left, and it was really fast. Every putt that you hit, you're trying to marry the speed and the line, even on the short three and four-footers. You can't really just go ahead and jam those in because, if you miss those and you jam them in, you're going to have seven feet coming back.

They're really quick, and they're fun to putt, but you have to be careful over lots of putts and be mindful of your speed.

Q. How much -- did you think that one on 15 was going in? It looked like you had a little early celebration.

MACKENZIE HUGHES: I was laughing. I rarely miscued on the little putter raise in the early step. I kind of got caught there early celebrating. A foot from the hole, it was right in the middle, and I thought, man, this is going to be cool. I kind of pictured a crystal coming from Augusta National, and then it leapt out, and I thought, oh. So I'm going to have to work hard on the weekend to get one of those crystals.

Q. Finally, compare the conditions of the course yesterday to today in terms of difficulty.

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Wind down a hair. I knew playing early we were going to get a little bit of calm conditions, at least front nine, first few holes, and that was the case. With the cloud cover, the fire in the greens is just down a hair. The greens are holding fairly nicely. Even though they have really firm spots in them still, good shots are still being rewarded. I think it's playing perfectly right now.

As you can see, 4 under is still leading, and it's not playing easy by any means.