MacKenzie Hughes Kick Starts New Season Revealing No Holds Barred ‘Inside The Tour’ Feelings.

5 months ago by Comments Off on MacKenzie Hughes Kick Starts New Season Revealing No Holds Barred ‘Inside The Tour’ Feelings.

This week’s season-starting The Senty should be featuring the top-50 place-getters at the close of the 2023 PGA Tour season.

Canadian Mackenzie Hughes ended last year’s season 51st on the FedEx Cup standings but he tees-up this week in Hawaii all thanks to defending champ Jon Rahm signing with LIV.

Last month, the now 33-year-old double PGA Tour winning Hughes addressed Rahm’s PGA Tour departure posting the following on his ‘X’ account:

Hughes found himself being asked about the ‘X’ message ahead of this week’s Hawaiian event and in doing so, this member of the Tour’s Players Advisory Board (PAC) didn’t hold back, and going into much detail, in revealing his feelings on all that has taken place in men’s pro golf since the lifing of the Covid-lockdown.

Let’s break down Hughes’ comments.

Asked what inspired his ‘X’ message:  

“I’m of the belief that golf in, like — well, in 2019, to me was like the peak of, like, professional golf. Since then — I mean, we had, you know, I think we did really well through COVID. We were one of the first sports back. I think that was a highlight, for sure. It was still COVID, so how do you have a highlight through a pandemic? It was kind of tough.

“Our economic model was sustainable. The LIV threat came along and all of a sudden we started to double the purses, and we’re asking sponsors to double their investment, and we’re giving them the same product. Fans also, I think, are left wondering, like, do guys even love playing golf anymore, or are they all just concerned about money.

“All these guys going to LIV have made it pretty clear that it’s all about money. I mean, growing the game, but also money. So, to me, that’s disappointing, because, like, I don’t play — like, in 2019 I didn’t pick a schedule based on a purse.

“But now that I’m qualified for these events, I mean, obviously it would be silly for me not to play in these events. They are great opportunities. But, like, I just don’t think it’s right. I don’t think that — again, we have the same product that we had in 2019, yet we want this, like, increased investment, not just increased, but increased in a big way.

“I just think that the product, I mean, while I think it’s great, it’s the same product. I just think fans are kind of left scratching their head thinking, like, what is going on.

“They also don’t know where certain guys are playing and there’s spats between the LIV and the PGA TOUR, and it’s not unified in any way, shape, or form. There’s negotiations going on that are unclear, they have been dragged on for a long time.

“The fan just wants to watch golf. I think you watch sports for an escape from other nonsense, but I think golf has brought a lot of nonsense onto its plate, and now you don’t get just golf, you get a lot of other stuff going on. It’s a bit of a circus.

“So, I just felt compelled to kind of speak on it that, like, not everyone out here is just thinking like, Oh, like, let’s make these purses three million dollars, that sounds great. No, it doesn’t, because in two years the PGA TOUR will have no one sponsoring any tournaments, because no one wants to pay these prices. So, it’s a fine line.

“I think that also there’s a lot of guys that feel entitled out here. Like, you start to see all these big amounts of money flying around and this offer and that offer and people think, Oh, well I stayed loyal, like, where’s my money? And it’s like, you’re not entitled to play the PGA TOUR. You have the right and you have a privilege to play out here and it’s an opportunity, but it’s not like anyone owes you anything. No one’s, you know, forcing your hand. You don’t have to stay, you can go play over there if you want.

“So, this whole, the-TOUR-owes-me-something attitude, I don’t like either. So, kind of a long round about way of answering your question, but I, yeah, I just felt compelled to speak on it. I feel pretty strongly about it, and just wanted maybe the casual fan or a fan to realize that it’s just not what everyone’s thinking about, so…”

What does Hughes see as the outcome?

“The outcome I hope for is that, like, I don’t see LIV going away any time soon. So, the outcome I hope for is that there is a way for the tours to obviously co-exist, and there’s some sort of unity, and there’s not a huge rift between ’em.

“There’s like some way that there’s, not a pathway, but there’s just sort of a little more of a free flowing pass back and forth. Not for everybody. Not everyone on LIV is exempt to play on the PGA TOUR. So, it’s not like everyone on LIV should be able to play a TOUR event whenever they want.

“But, you know, the TOUR obviously misses guys like Brooks Koepka, Phil, DJ, Cam Smith, like there’s no doubt that the TOUR is stronger with those guys playing. So, I think that I would love to see a way for those guys to play again, but how do you justify to a guy like, like, I’m sure the Spieths, and the JTs and the Rorys and Scotties and Will Zalatorises, who were offered major amounts of money and decided not to go and stayed, and then the guys that left, and they maybe played two years of LIV, and then you make your way back to the TOUR, and it’s like all things are good again? I think those are the guys you have to worry about making the most upset”

“Okay, they made 150 million, and now they’re going to come back and play on your TOUR like nothing ever happened. So, I just don’t know how that gets navigated. Maybe they will have to just kind of take it on the chin and just suck it up.

“But that’s outcome I hope for, is that those guys eventually find their way back here, and play consistently out here, and we find a way to coexist as LIV and PGA TOUR and it goes, kind of that bitterness and that rivalry and that divisiveness in golf goes away, and it becomes about who is playing the best golf, who is playing the best golf in the biggest tournaments, and you start talking about major moments in golf, not just major moments in the headlines or on Fox News when Jon Rahm says he’s going to LIV Golf. I’m just tired of talking about that stuff.

“So, that’s the outcome I hope we get to some day, but who knows when”.

Does Hughes feel he is speaking on behalf of many of his PGA Tour colleagues or not?

“I would like to think that there are guys that would think the way I do, certainly, but I’m sure there are guys that are in a very opposite camp to me. Guys that would say, Those guys are gone, never let ’em back ever. But that doesn’t seem realistic or in the best interests of the game.

“To me, as much as I love my position here on the PGA TOUR, I wouldn’t feel threatened by those guys coming back. I would feel like this TOUR would just become stronger if we had the best players in the world playing here.

“But, yes, I would say, like, I talk about it a little bit with guys, but it’s not something that, like, if I’m at dinner, we’re not talking about, like, you know, where the game’s at and where it needs to go from here. I certainly think a lot of guys do feel like the way I do. But, like I said, I know there are guys that are strongly opposed to what I would be saying and say, screw those guys, you know?

“So, again, how do you make everyone happy? You can’t. The way forward I hope is smoother, but I know it will be messy before it gets smooth again”.

How has what’s unfolded in men’s pro golf affected on his own love of the game?

“For a large part of this summer it kind of took away a lot of my focus from just the game itself. It seemed like every day that you woke up there was some news, or some random headline, or Patrick Cantlay’s trying to take over the TOUR, you know, it’s like every day you’re like, what is going on. It’s like living in like fantasy land. It’s just every day something was new, it was new headline, new story.

“There was never just, like, about the golf. Wyndham Clark wins the U.S. Open and has this incredible performance, but that was the week that Jay (Monahan – Commissioner) had taken his leave, and there was lots of talk about Patrick Cantlay, and these different rumors.

“There was just like side noise, and it was just, like — that’s all it was, was just noise. Just, yeah, it takes a way from the purity of the competition of just the game and those major moments.

“So, I don’t know if it took away any of my joy, but it definitely took away a lot of my focus”.

As a member of the Players Advisory Board (PAC) does he feel his voice is being heard?

“It’s been a very weird year to be on the PAC. I’ve heard this from other guys that have been on the PAC before, that with the way the TOUR moved this year, and the way it reacted to certain different threats, they had to move so quick that they almost, I don’t think they could ever fully get everyone’s, sort of, opinion or talk about these things in meetings thoroughly enough where everyone felt like they were getting their chance to say things, because they had to move quickly, and they had to make these decisions quickly, because they, you know, were being threatened by LIV. I think that they felt that urgency to react and to make those moves.

“I think there were a lot of times that we sat in those meetings thinking that we were having good, meaningful discussions, and then a month later something would happen and you would be like, Wait, we didn’t even really decide on this yet, and we’re just, the TOUR is just going ahead. Like, we’re just going to go ahead and do it anyways, even though we had no real unanimous sort of buy-in to an idea.

“Like, I know the elevated event idea, for an example, limited fields, was in a topic of discussion at the Farmers last January. We discussed it and, of all the guys on the PAC, I mean, it was a 50/50 split, probably. I mean, guys were all over on their opinions on it. The TOUR was pretty steadfast in that in saying that they felt their data and their research backed up the fact that these were going to be better events, better products for the TOUR to sell going forward, but there was just not buy-in across the board for guys in that meeting.

“Then we got to Bay Hill, and I remember it was, like, I think it was a Tuesday or Wednesday at Bay Hill, and it came out that, oh, we have eight new signature events for 2024, and they’re going to be limited field events with no cut. Everyone on the PAC was like, Wait, what? We talked about this a month and a half ago, and there was no discussion or no real final decision on that. Then, all of a sudden, out of the blue, we just have this final outcome.

“So, I know I expressed my frustration at the time, and talked to the TOUR about that, I’m like, Well, why am I on the PAC if I’m not going to be a part of any of these decisions in the first place. Like, I’m not going to just spend two hours of my time in San Diego at the Farmers in a meeting if it’s for nothing. If I’m not being heard, then I’m just not going to be — I’m not going to speak.

“So, it’s gotten better. But these PIF negotiations, I mean, I have no idea. I have no idea what’s going on. I have no idea what they’re trying to accomplish. Maybe it’s not my job to know that”.

What does he know of the status of the present negotiations?

“I’m told that the negotiations are just going to be slowed down by that. Like, if the TOUR members know, obviously it’s more than the TOUR members now, because people talk. I would like to know.

“I would like to know what the specifics of, like, what is the final outcome that they’re after. I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what they want from the PIF. I don’t know what they want in regards to how does LIV coexist after this deal gets done. What do they want LIV to be. I don’t know what Jay wants for those players. Does Jay want Brooks back, does Jay not? PGA TOUR Enterprises is a for-profit business.

“So, if I’m a for-profit business, I want the best product, and the best product is now including Brooks, Cam Smith, Bryson, all those guys help create the best product. So, now is that part of the goal? I don’t know. So I just — I don’t know”.

Did he feel involved or even influential despite being left out of the Delaware meeting? Did that affect his outlook on things?

“I think that definitely told me whose opinion mattered. I mean, there was 70 PGA TOUR players there and they thought only 25 or 30 of them were good enough for that meeting? Bit of a slap in the face. You got 70 of the best players on the PGA TOUR that season, and you’re going to tell me I can’t sit in that meeting and at least listen? You can just put me in the back and say, Hey, Mac, don’t speak, but you can at least listen to what we’re saying. It was like this closed doors meeting for the who’s who of the TOUR.

“I’m not saying that you should make a decision based on what I think, but it would be nice to even just to put your two cents in or to hear what’s going on, to be involved, to feel like you’re part of it. Because it’s not — I’m not going to say — I’m not a star of the PGA TOUR, but I’m not a slump either.

“I don’t have like a, you know, but anyways, it’s kind of the way it is right now. I get it, to an extent. Like, I get the fact that you have to listen to your top guys right now in a threat like this, where you feel like, Hey, this guy might leave if we don’t listen to what he’s saying.

“But they don’t care if Mackenzie Hughes probably — like, if I’m not playing the PGA TOUR tomorrow, it doesn’t matter to the PGA TOUR probably — not — I shouldn’t say that, but like, you know what I mean? Like, if Scottie Scheffler went, obviously it’s a bigger impact than if I go. So, it’s like, they’re listening to those guys because of where we are, right, and they’re making accommodations and doing things based on what these guys want. I get it, but — I don’t love it, but I get it”.

 



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