Hometown kid Mackenzie Hughes shoots 64, moves into mix at RBC Canadian Open

ANCASTER, Ontario – It was a special Friday for hometown hero Mackenzie Hughes at the RBC Canadian Open. It also came with a heavy heart.

Hughes stampeded up the leaderboard with a second-round 64 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, moving into a share of second place through the morning wave at 7 under, three back of leader Robert MacIntyre. The RBC Canadian Open is always special for Hughes, but this one is on a different level – he hails from Dundas, Ontario, just 5 miles down the road. He got a chill on the first tee Thursday morning when being announced as from Dundas. His fondest memories of attending and volunteering at this event as a kid occurred at Hamilton Golf and Country Club (2003 and 2006).

It's also the first RBC Canadian Open since the passing of his longtime friend Bill Bath last month. Bath caddied for Hughes at the previous RBC Canadian Open contested at Hamilton (2019), and he was one of Hughes’ biggest supporters in his professional golf career.

Hughes has honored Bath this week, wearing one of his friend’s old hockey jerseys on both Thursday and Friday at the par-3 13th hole, known as “The Rink” with its expansive buildout that wraps around the hole’s perimeter.

“I've been thinking about him a lot the last month or so,” Hughes said Friday. “It's a bit emotional even when I put that (jersey) on to think about him … a lot of great memories with him and his family.

“I met him when I was 11 years old. He's been a big part of my journey and just someone that I always trusted to talk to.”

Bath’s wife and son are in attendance this week, and Hughes has not let them down.

Hughes, 33, has made seven prior starts at the RBC Canadian Open, but he has never seriously contended (his career-best finish, T8 in 2018, was eight off the winning score). That could change this weekend. After a solid if unspectacular 1-under 69 in the opening round, leaving him one stroke inside the projected cut line, he caught fire Friday morning with four birdies and a 79-yard hole-out eagle in his first eight holes, against one bogey. He added a birdie at the first and a 12-foot eagle at the par-5 fourth; he was 8-under through 13 holes at the par-70 Hamilton, suddenly with thoughts of 59 in play. He fell back with bogeys at Nos. 7 and 8 before steadying the ship with an 8-foot par at his final hole.

Hughes’ fellow Canadian Nick Taylor famously won last year’s RBC Canadian Open with a 72-foot eagle on the fourth playoff hole at Oakdale Golf and Country Club, snapping a 69-year winless drought of Canadians at the event. There’s no shortage of implications for Hughes this week: he’s chasing a place on Canada’s Olympic men’s golf team, and he’s vying for a spot at this fall’s Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal (he admitted earlier this week that he perhaps wanted a spot on the 2022 International Team too badly, and he’s striving for an improved mindset down the stretch of this qualification period.)

Taylor’s win showed his Canadian peers that it could indeed be done, winning their national open amidst professional golf’s deepest, most talented era.

Not only does this week mark Hughes’ national open, it’s the rare hometown national open, and he’ll compete Saturday in a late-afternoon pairing. Safe to say his good friend is smiling as he looks down.