'Unbelievable': Hughes achieves goal of reaching Tour Championship

Mackenzie Hughes competed in 20 tournaments during the 2019-20 PGA Tour season, played 1,116 holes, and took 4,364 strokes prior to the BMW Championship - the last tournament before the FedEx Cup Playoffs finale.

And after a long, taxing season - one that was interrupted for three months due to the coronavirus pandemic - whether Hughes would achieve his season-long goal of reaching the Tour Championship came down to one hole, and ultimately, one shot.

Getting into that position was no easy task. Hughes, sponsored by theScore, started the campaign in a slump, missing nine of 11 cuts while not finishing better than a tie for 55th. He was ranked 308th in the world before his season turned around with a runner-up result at the Honda Classic.

Then, the pandemic hit, but not even a three-month layoff could slow the 29-year-old's momentum. Hughes' strong play continued following the stoppage, and he earned the chance to qualify for East Lake with another solid result at Olympia Fields, all while climbing in the FedEx Cup standings. He needed to move up six spots to get inside the top 30 and secure a spot in the Tour Championship.

Through three days in Chicago, Hughes was among a handful of players who posted multiple under-par rounds, placing him in the penultimate pairing for the final day while projected to finish inside the top 30. He entered Sunday two strokes behind co-leaders Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama.

But Round 4 didn't start according to plan.

"My goal the entire week was to win the tournament," Hughes told theScore. "Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday with a pretty (sore) neck. So it became about survival at that point and I was just trying to put together a swing. I felt a lot different and I couldn't quite make a proper backswing."

Not exactly what someone fighting to advance wants to deal with at a venue presenting a U.S. Open-type challenge.

Playing defense from the get-go, Hughes relied heavily on his trusty putter to piece the round together for 16 holes while maintaining his top-30 position. But a bogey on No. 17 made things interesting heading into the difficult closing hole.

"It was a big moment and I was definitely aware," Hughes said. "I saw the board on 17, I pretty much knew. ... I talked to my caddie and we basically said 'par is going to be enough.'"

He added: "I really had to dig deep, take a few deep breaths and I was just trying to gather myself to play one great hole. I didn't have my stuff all day and was just kind of fighting it. I was definitely nervous but knew what I needed to do."

Hughes stepped up and launched his longest drive of the day, and a 346-yard rocket over the right-to-left dogleg gave him under 150 yards remaining for his second shot.

The Tour veteran said the drive was "helped by a little bit of adrenaline."

Step one complete.

But his approach was subpar. Overcompensating for not wanting to go long and leave himself with a "very difficult two-putt" - one that Johnson and Jon Rahm made look relatively easy - Hughes wound up short in the greenside bunker.

"When you get a wedge in your hand, you find it hard to aim away from the flag," Hughes said. "I got greedy and misjudged it. All of a sudden I'm in the bunker looking at a somewhat difficult bunker shot.

"In my head, I'm thinking to myself 'What are you doing? You just pumped this drive, made the hole about as easy as you can make it, and now I'm making it difficult again,'" he continued. "It was a pretty straightforward shot. I was trying to hit a good shot and just didn't make a good swing."

Hughes made that "somewhat difficult bunker shot" seem simple, leaving himself with a slippery five-footer to punch his Tour Championship ticket.

"At that point, I was really just focused on my speed," he said. Hughes felt very comfortable with the line he and his caddie selected.

"The main thing was not to hit it too hard, because it wouldn't have taken the break, and yeah, it just caught the right half of the hole," he said, noting that a "huge sigh of relief" came when the putt sunk.

Fittingly, a roller-coaster final hole determined the fate of Hughes' roller-coaster season.

Hughes finished tied for 10th at the BMW Championship, locking in his Tour Championship slot. Had he bogeyed that final hole, Adam Long would have jumped into the top 30, and Hughes' season would be over.

"It's such a big deal to play well for the year and be amongst the last 30 guys," Hughes said after qualifying for his first season finale.

"That was one of my goals. I visualized myself there, I tried to see myself there all the time," he added. "The fact that I will be teeing it up (at East Lake) this week is unbelievable."

Coming through under pressure isn't new to the Canadian. Hughes said the pressure Sunday was intense, but "different" than during his 2016 RSM Classic win, or what he felt while trying to lock down his PGA and Korn Ferry Tour cards.

"They have somewhat similar feelings, but playing to win is so much more fun and so much more freeing," Hughes said. "I'm not going to compare that to playing for your card. ... That's probably more pressure than what I was facing.

"I was in a scenario where I was just trying to maintain my position the last few holes. There's no feeling that can replicate when you win a tournament and you beat all the guys that were there that week - that's still the greatest feeling and the feeling that you want to have. It's very close, but not quite the same."

Even though Hughes didn't hoist a trophy on Sunday, earning an East Lake spot comes with a lot of the same perks as winning on the PGA Tour.

"I think (reaching the Tour Championship is) one of the most underrated things on the PGA Tour as far as accomplishments go," he said. "When you make it to East Lake, it's such a huge accomplishment."

Hughes is now locked in for all the 2021 major championships - which means his second trip to Augusta is coming in April - and two World Golf Championships. And due to the shortened season, he gets the added bonus of playing in January's Tournament of Champions in Maui, Hawaii.

"When I heard 'you got into Maui,' that really got my juices going because that is probably my favorite tournament in the world," he said.

But first, Hughes will get his first chance to win the FedEx Cup and collect the massive $15-million prize. However, his work's cut out for him.

Since he squeaked into the Tour Championship, the new staggered-scoring format implemented in 2019 gives him an even-par starting score, 10 shots behind leader Dustin Johnson.

But Hughes isn't going to complain.

"I actually think this format doesn't give Dustin enough of an advantage," Hughes said. "You could argue that he should have a 10-shot lead."

Johnson has notched a win and a second-place finish in the playoffs.

"For me, I can't really finish much worse," he added. "I'm 28th, so if I don't have a great week I finish 30th. But I have a lot of upside to gain from playing well this week."

A solid week could pay off handsomely. A top-eight finish pays at least $1 million, and the 30th-place golfer still walks away with $395,000.

"I'm just going to accept the format for what it is and just be happy I have a chance," he continued. "I'm really grateful to have that opportunity and I'm really excited to get to East Lake and enjoy the hard work that paid off this year."

Though catching Johnson might seem impossible - not to mention the rest of the 30-man field - one thing is certain: if that tricky five-footer on the 18th at Olympia Fields doesn't drop, Hughes wouldn't even be playing in the Tour Championship.