Mackenzie Hughes: Scottie Scheffler's comments '100% resonated with me'

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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Mackenzie Hughes stood along an autograph line full of kids at Royal Portrush and, for a few seconds, morphed into the late Alex Trebek, another famous Canadian.

“Who won last year’s Open?” he asked the crowd of youngsters clamouring for a golf ball.

He handed a signed ball to the first boy who answered Xander Schauffele. Then he asked if anyone knew who won the U.S. Open before handing out another gift.

“I feel if there is multiple kids asking I have to make it diplomatic,” the golfer and father of three told the Toronto Sun.

After doling out a full sleeve of precious souvenirs to instant Mackenzie Hughes fans, the golfer made his way to a Mercedes shuttle, ending his final practice round before Thursday’s Open Championship.

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Fame, success and adulation are part of the game for professional athletes and every one of those kids at Royal Portrush likely dreams of being on Hughes’ side of the autograph line when they grow up.

That’s why many found it shocking to hear Scottie Scheffler, the most successful golfer in the world, tell the world on Tuesday that he finds reaching the pinnacle of the sport to be “an unsatisfying venture.”

“I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what’s the point? This is not a fulfilling life,” Scheffler said Tuesday in one of the more stunning press conferences in memory.

Reaction from the golf world has been largely positive, especially considering the usual minefield of social media.

“It 100% resonated with me,” Hughes told the Sun in a one-on-one interview. “I’ve thought about it for a little while now: How long do I want to do this? There is a lot more to life than trying to win golf tournaments and play good golf. So, it definitely resonated with me, especially with where I’m at with my family.”

“Obviously Scottie’s had quite a bit of success, so it’s maybe surprising from the outside for a lot of people, but his level of golf is just so high, he’s just so far and away better than the next person.

“But, no I was not surprised to hear it come from him. I think he’s been pretty open about that and open about his faith and I think he’d be one of the first guys you’d expect that to come from.”

Hughes might make playing golf look easy, but living out his dream of becoming a PGA Tour pro has included its share of struggles. For much of his golfing life, the Dundas, Ont., native has beat himself up over mistakes on the course. When he did make mistakes, he would constantly tear himself down. It’s something he has worked on for years and the turnaround in his mental game from his college days at Kent State is night and day according to those who knew him then.

He has described his mental-game turnaround as a career-long work in progress and it’s certainly interesting that, at the relatively young age of 34, he has thought about life after the PGA Tour.

“I don’t want to value myself just based on this game, which unfortunately can be easy to do at times out here,” he said. “Every day you’re posting a score and people are after you if you play well, and if you don’t, then they really don’t care. It’s easy to place your value in that.”

With three children under the age of 10, Hughes and wife Jenna have planted roots in Charlotte and are settling into a new house. The entire gang is here in Portrush, as well as both sets of grandparents, and Hughes is enjoying this annual trip to links land.

“I think you’re able to relax a bit more and enjoy it. It’s different golf. It’s a course I haven’t played before which is fun,” he said. “It’s a little bit of imperfect golf if you will. Bad bounces, lots of wind. No really stock numbers or stock yardages, so in that sense I like that it’s a bit different like that.”

With the best short game of this generation of Canadian golfers, the Open Championship should suit Hughes. But after Scheffler’s comments, it seems as though Hughes has spent some moments in this faraway seaside town pondering the long game.

“Now that I’ve got kids, I think of that stuff more and I try to separate what I’m doing out here and what I do at home. My ultimate hope in life is that I’m remembered for being a good husband and father and golf is something I do but it’s not who I am,” he said.

“My kids don’t care and my family will still love me if I never play golf again. Golf is really fun, but that’s more important.

“Golf is a fun deal, it’s not everything.”