It took five days to determine a champion of the 2016 RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club, with the winner of a five-man playoff the same player who had led the tournament after each of the first three rounds and refused to crack down the stretch on Sunday.
Mackenzie Hughes, a 26-year-old PGA Tour rookie from Canada, holed a clutch par putt of 18 feet early Monday morning on the par-3 17th hole at the Seaside course, and wound up as the tournament champion when his three playoff competitors all missed par attempts from 10 feet or closer.
Hughes’ winning putt came on the third extra hole and the first of the morning, as darkness halted the playoff Sunday after two holes. Five players tied at 17-under 267 at the end of regulation Sunday, and four of the five carded pair of pars on the 18th hole late Sunday afternoon to extend the playoff to a third hole Monday morning.
Billy Horschel, the 2014 FedExCup champion, quickly exited the playoff when he missed a 2-foot par putt on the first extra hole. The other four players – Hughes, Camilo Villegas, Blayne Barber and Henrik Norlander – parred the hole, with Hughes and Villegas having the best birdie opportunities of the group.
All four also parred the 18th hole for a second time, with Hughes coming close to avoiding a Monday return when he was the last of the quartet to attempt his birdie putt.
The weather was considerably cooler when the playoff resumed the following morning on the 17th, and all four players missed the green with their tee shots.
Hughes was the first player to hit his second shot, and his chip up the slope stopped in the fringe. He holed his putt for par and watched as his playing partners all missed their par attempts from closer range.
Thanks to his clutch par save, Hughes became the second rookie winner on the 2016-17 PGA Tour, and the first rookie in 20 years to go wire-to-wire for a PGA Tour victory.
Hughes quickly took control of the tournament with a 9-under 61 Thursday on the Seaside course, scoring all nine of his birdies on the first 15 holes. Hughes holed a trio of long birdie putts, chipped in for birdie on the 10th and hit a pair of approach shots within 3 feet.
He ended the day one ahead St, Simons Island resident Jonathan Byrd and fellow veteran and Georgia resident Stewart Cink, who shot 62 on Seaside in perfect scoring conditions. Cink was 9-under before making bogey on his final hole of the day, and Byrd shot 30 on his second nine to challenge Hughes’ lead.
Hughes came back with a 5-under 67 in the second round on the Plantation course to lead fellow rookie Cheng Tsung Pan by two after 36 holes with a 14-under 128 total. Hughes birdied three of Plantation’s four par 5s and kept a bogey off his scorecard for the second day in a row.
Despite a triple bogey on the par-4 11th, Hughes retained his lead after the third round, notching birdies on three of his last six holes for a 68 and a 1-shot margin over Villegas, Horschel and Pan at 16-under 196. Hughes drove into one of the sandy native areas off the 11th fairway and left his second shot in the sand. It took him two more shots to reach the green on the par 4 and he 3-putted for a triple to give up the lead he had held since the opening round.
But Hughes rolled in a trio of birdie putts between 10 and 16 feet after his stumble to overtake several players who made big moves in windier conditions than the players encountered in the placid first two days.
Villegas birdied nine of his last 14 holes after a double bogey on the par-3 third for a 64 to finish the day at 15-under. Horschel shot a 65 and Pan played his last 10 holes in 5-under to also finish at 15-under.
The final round was a 5-way battle between the five players who wound up in the playoff. Norlander, a former Augusta State golfer who was playing the tournament on a sponsor exemption, pulled into a 5-way tie at the top with a birdie the ninth. He was the first to post 17-under when he hit his approach shot to the difficult 18th inside five feet to put the finish touches on a 65.
Barber, a third-year PGA Tour player from Auburn, was the second player in at minus-17 after birdies at 14 and 15.
Hughes, Villegas and Horschel played in the final pairing, with Horschel carding three birdies on the back nine for a 68, and Villegas closing out his round with birdies at 16 and 17 for a matching 68. Hughes shot 69 with his first three bogeys of the tournament, getting to 17-under with a birdie at the 14th.
After graduating from Kent State in 2012, Hughes spent two years each on the Canadian and Web.com Tours, winning in Canada as a rookie in 2013 and leading the tour’s money list with a trio of top-3 finishes. He earned his 2016-17 PGA Tour card with a win on this year’s Web.com Tour and 17th place finish on the money list.
Hughes tied for 13th in the first start of his PGA Tour rookie season and locked up his playing privileges for the next two years with his victory, which was worth $1,080,000. Hughes also earned invitations into the 2017 Tournament of Champions, Masters, Players Championship and PGA Championship, with next year’s PGA scheduled for Quail Hollow in his adopted hometown of Charlotte.
Fellow rookies Pan and recent Georgia Tech standout Ollie Schniederjans tied for sixth at 14-under 268 along with veteran Jim Furyk and Jamie Lovemark. Former Georgia Bulldog and Macon native Russell Henley tied for 10th at 269 with ex-Georgia Tech golfer Cink and Patrick Rodgers.