PGA Tour rookie Mackenzie Hughes wins delayed RSM Classic play-off
Monday 21 November 2016 17:03, UK
Mackenzie Hughes has become the first PGA Tour rookie to complete a wire-to-wire victory in 20 years after he clinched the RSM Classic title with a par at the third extra hole.
The Canadian returned to the Sea Island Resort early on Monday morning for the resumption of the four-man play-off against Camilo Villegas, Henrik Norlander and Blayne Barber, with Billy Horschel having been eliminated before darkness halted play on Sunday evening.
The quartet, who had all finished tied on 17 under after 72 holes, continued their battle on the par-three 17th after two attempts at playing the 18th on Sunday had failed to produce a champion.
But the tournament lasted just one further hole as Villegas, Norlander and Barber all made bogey, while Hughes scrambled his par with a superb putt from the fringe to land his maiden win in just his ninth PGA Tour start.
Hughes appeared the most unlikely of the group to salvage a three after all four players missed the green from the tee at the testing 189-yard 17th.
Villegas, Barber and Norlander all managed to pitch onto the putting surface, but Hughes underhit his pitch and his ball gripped and stopped in the fringe.
But the 25-year-old piled the pressure on his rivals as he rolled his 15-foot putt straight into the cup before Barber missed from 10 feet and Norlander could not convert his bunker escape to eight feet.
Villegas, chasing his first PGA Tour title since the 2014 Wyndham Championship, looked set to extend the contest as he lined up his par attempt from barely six feet, but his ball grazed the edge of the cup to leave Hughes as the champion.
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"I just tried my best to make a par and give them something to look at," said Hughes, who is the ninth Canadian to win a PGA Tour title, and the first since Nick Taylor won the Sanderson Farms Championship over two years ago.
"I figured I had to make it or I would be out. I hit it with good pace, I knew it was on the right line and it was great to see it go in."
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