RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 9, 2022

Mackenzie Hughes

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Mac, obviously a pretty good score out there today. I'm sure you're happy with it. Just how would you assess your first round of the championship and your level of contentment where you're at?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. I was just telling Bob that I felt like I played well enough to maybe get one or two more, which selfishly you always want a couple more.

With where I drove it, I drove the ball really nicely today, and that's not normally a strength of mine but today it was a strength. So when I do that, I feel like I give myself a lot of chances. The day feels a little more stress-free.

It was a nice day, and I'm happy with the start.

Q. You talked yesterday about when you come here, you've learned to not over extend yourself, didn't play in the Monday Pro-Am. Can you try to quantify just how much more it means to you to perform well at this particular tournament?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Yeah, it's one that you really want to play well at. Obviously every week you go on the PGA TOUR, you want to play well, but playing well in front of the home fans and your friends and family, it's hard to describe how good that feels. So when you're out there and you're making birdies and having a good round, it just feels that much better.

It was a lot of fun today, and to play with Mike and Adam, who also have a lot of support out there, was really fun.

Q. This tournament hasn't been around in a couple years. I'm just curious how important it was for you to get out of the gate so quickly with a fast start?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Obviously you like having a fast start. I don't think of it like we haven't had a tournament in a while so I need to get myself going. Any tournament, you're kind of working yourself into on Thursday. You can't win on Thursday, but you can play your way out of it.

Got off to a nice start and hopefully keep it going.

Q. That hot start, can you talk a bit about what it feels like at a Canadian Open to get off to that kind of start? Is it possible to think four days ahead three holes into a tournament?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: I make the eagle on 11 and feeling pretty good about things, but I was trying to tell myself there's so much golf not only just this week, but in round 1.

It was a great start but I knew -- the other thing too, starting on 9 versus 1 are totally different. So you start on 9, you get three par-5s in your first seven holes. Start on 1, there's no par-5s until you get to 9. So I was kind of aware of the fact that guys were going to get to these holes too and make some numbers. It was kind of just keep the pedal down and try to make a bunch of birdies.

Q. I heard there's some distractions in the golf world happening, but I can't think of three guys who would be more focused and locked into what they're doing than your group. Can you talk about playing with them and how you are clearly able to block everything else out on a day like this?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: When you're on the golf course, there's obviously a lot of stuff going on, a lot of shots that are challenging that keep your focus. So there was never any time that I was thinking about anything else other than what was in front of me.

I know there's a lot of stuff going on overseas and whatnot, but not really bothering me too much.

Q. Mike mentioned that he was impressed that there was fans following your group at 7:00 a.m. in the rain. What did you think of all the fan support you got this morning?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: It was awesome. Everyone was out early, which we were off at 7:00 a.m., which I thought there wouldn't be too many people out that early with the weather. It was fantastic and felt it all the way around.

I know playing with Mike you draw in a few extra people. So it was a really fun day.