\n
\nJACKSON, Mississippi: Whether it was sheer confidence or remarkable resilience, Mackenzie Hughes never doubted he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship. He just never imagined how it would unfold Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
\nHughes had to make six key putts on the final seven holes \u2014 four of them for par \u2014 to outlast Sepp Straka on the second playoff hole for his second PGA Tour victory.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe second one felt a lot harder than the first one, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n
\nThe 31-year-old Canadian renowned for his putter finally made birdie his third time playing the 18th hole at the Country Club of Jackson, pouring in an 8-footer for the win.<\/p>\n
\nBut this was as much about pars \u2014 the 15-footer on the par-5 14th, the 7-foot putt on the 16th after he couldn\u2019t reach the green from a fairway bunker, and two tough par saves on the 18th hole from 100 feet behind the green in regulation and from a bunker on the first playoff hole.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI kept telling myself the whole week that I was going to do it. That was the only thing I saw in my mind,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThose par saves down the stretch, I was just trying to will the ball into the hole.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe first par save on the 18th gave him a 3-under 69 to force a playoff against Straka, who played two groups ahead of Hughes and shot 67 to post at 17-under 271.<\/p>\n
\nOn the second playoff hole, Straka missed from 18 feet on the fringe before Hughes made the winning putt. It was the second time in his last four tournaments that Straka lost in a playoff. The other was against Will Zalatoris at the start of the PGA Tour postseason.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI played good golf on a tough Sunday,\u201d said Straka, who picked up his first PGA Tour title earlier this year at the Honda Classic. \u201cGiving yourself chances to win out here it key. The more you can do that, the more comfortable you\u2019ll be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nFor Hughes, it had been six years since his lone victory \u2014 also in a playoff \u2014 at Sea Island.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI was fighting like hell to stay in it,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cFinishing second, while it\u2019s still great, it kind of stings when you\u2019re that close. I just wasn\u2019t going to accept that today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe victory comes one week after the Presidents Cup, and Hughes was disappointed not to be included on the International team at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he lives. He wanted to use that as motivation, and it sure worked out that way.<\/p>\n
\nGarrick Higgo of South Africa had a 68 and finished third.<\/p>\n
\nStraka took the lead by getting up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 14th and the reachable par-4 15th. He had to settle for pars the rest of the day.<\/p>\n
\nHughes had those scoring holes still to play, and he nearly squandered the chance. On the 14th, he was out of position off the tee, his wedge over a tree back toward the fairway came up short in a bunker, he had to lay up again and escaped with a 15-foot par putt.<\/p>\n
\nOn the closing hole, he was well left off the tee and punched under a tree and over the green against the grandstand. After free relief, he used putter from 100 feet away off the green with perfect pace to 3 feet for.<\/p>\n
\nOn the first playoff hole at the 18th, Hughes came up short in a bunker with only about 15 feet from the edge of the bunker to the pin. He blasted out to 5 feet and made par.<\/p>\n
\nThat sent them back to the 18th for a third time, and Hughes closed him out.<\/p>\n
\nMark Hubbard, who went into the final round with a one-shot lead, managed only two birdies in his round of 74 and tied for fifth.<\/p>\n
\nThe final round featured five players who had at least a share of the lead at some point. That included Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, whose round came undone on the par-5 14th when he took a triple bogey without a penalty shot.<\/p>\n
\nHiggo never was part of the lead, though he lingered the entire day and missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 17th that ultimately kept him out of the playoff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSON, Mississippi: Whether it was sheer confidence or remarkable resilience, Mackenzie Hughes never doubted he would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"\n
England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-03T04:53:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"111\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic - Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic","og_description":"Gulf News| UAE's Largest News aggregator site","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport","og_site_name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","article_published_time":"2022-10-03T04:53:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":452,"height":111,"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/gulftimesuae-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"gulftimes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_site":"@Gulftimesuae","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"gulftimes","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=5052"},"author":{"name":"gulftimes","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977"},"headline":"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic","datePublished":"2022-10-03T04:53:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=5052"},"wordCount":728,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=5052","url":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport","name":"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic - Gulf Times | News by the minute","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-10-03T04:53:28+00:00","description":"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2173996\/sport#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"England\u2019s Hull holds off Ko, Lin to win LPGA Volunteers Classic"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","name":"Gulf Times | News by the minute","description":"Largest News Aggregator in the Gulf","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Gulf News Aggregator","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#organization","name":"Gulf Times","url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"Gulf Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786","https:\/\/x.com\/Gulftimesuae"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/#\/schema\/person\/4c5b0f90aae48bb43165ee6e39ddc977","name":"gulftimes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a8f9c2e07a9cd7e7e7c302c8c7ce8d5e0865a0bbcc732793d6e761588fd10b03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"gulftimes"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/gulftimes.ae"],"url":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}