Mackenzie Hughes is the highest ranked player on the PGA Tour’s FedExCup points list in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, and he played like it Thursday.
The Canadian, who is ranked 31st in 2025 FedEx points, shot an 8-under-par 63 at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club and holds a one-shot lead through the first round of the $4 million 132-player event.
Hughes birdied his final four holes and five of his last six to vault into the lead, and is a stroke ahead of tour rookie Will Chandler, Irishman Seamus Power and Thorborn Olesen of Denmark, who holds The Dunes Club course record.
“At the end there I kind of caught fire,” Hughes said. “I can’t remember the last time I birdied the last four holes, but it’s definitely a nice finish.”
Four players including Andrew Putnam and Ryan Fox of New Zealand are two shots back in a tie for fifth, and six players are three behind Hughes including 44-year-old five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Watney and Blades Brown, 17, who made the Myrtle Beach cut last year as a 16-year-old.
Defending champion Chris Gotterup shot a 4-under 32 on the back nine and is tied for 15th at 4-under 67.
A number of players took advantage of benign winds to post fairly low scores. Dunes Club director of agronomy Steve Hamilton said Monday that he attempted to make the greens more firm this year, and that will become more of a factor with windy conditions.
“I thought they were a lot firmer than last year,” Olesen said. “If you get out of position, it’s really, really tricky to hit some of the greens. I think it’s a really good setup. If it gets a little bit windy, I think it will be pretty difficult out there.
“Luckily for me, I was playing solid today. I was in good position on most of the holes, so it made it a bit easier for me.”
Hughes rides hot putter
Hughes, 34, has two career PGA Tour wins in 233 starts, coming in 2016 and 2022. He shot up this season’s FedExCup standings with a tie for third in the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island last month to earn $1.04 million after receiving a sponsor’s exemption as an RBC golf ambassador.
That finish came on the heels of his other top 10 this season at the Houston Open, and in his only start since he shot his ninth consecutive round in the 60s with an opening 65 in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson before missing the cut with a second-round 73.
Hughes credited his putter for Thursday’s low round. He needed just 24 putts on the day, holed 108 feet of putts, and led the field in the strokes gained putting category at more than four strokes.
Hughes said he has been deliberate on the greens this season by using a line on his ball to line up his putts, and has sometimes relied on his caddie to assist. So he sped up the process Thursday, with no line and no practice stroke.
“It’s a bit like putting like a kid, I guess,” Hughes said. “I’m just trying to kind of free myself up a little bit and also kind of get more into my reactionary putting, like trust my instincts a little bit more. Just more like look-shoot type thing versus trying to be perfect.”
The last time Hughes recalls changing to the reactionary putting that he reverted to Thursday was in the fall of 2023, and he promptly finished second.
“I just know that putting to me has always been more of an art, and I feel like I’ve been trying to make it a little too perfect lately,” he said. “I’m probably having one of my worst putting years I’ve had in a long time. It was nice to see today that it’s still in there and maybe I just need a bit of a kind of reset.”
Hughes said he also enjoys the contours of The Dunes Club’s greens, which has played to his creative instinct.
“I just feel like there’s a lot of stuff going on around the greens, like a lot of little swales and run-offs and waves in the greens. It makes it fun,” Hughes said. “You really have to kind of use your imagination on some of these putts. That’s kind of what I was working on. I thought it worked out pretty nice.”
Olesen dominates Dunes again
Olesen may have found himself a new favorite golf course.
The 35-year-old who is ranked 81st in the Official World Golf Ranking is 17-under par over his last two rounds at The Dunes Club with 17 birdies and no bogeys.
He set the course record with a 10-under 61 in the final round of last year’s Myrtle Beach Classic that moved him into a tie for 16th at 12 under. He began Thursday’s round on the back nine and was 5 under through 10 holes with birdies on 10, 11, 13, 18 and 1 before adding birdies on holes 4 and 6 for what he called his best round of the year.
“I definitely had good thoughts [from] last year,” Olesen said. “I thought it was a really good week, and I enjoyed it last year. I looked forward to coming back here. This year I have my family with me so yeah, it’s nice.”
Olesen, 35, a participant in the 2018 Ryder Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games, is in his second stint on the PGA Tour. He joined in 2013 and played sparingly over a couple seasons and did not maintain his exempt playing privileges, so he returned to Europe and played several years on the DP World Tour (formerly the European Tour) before returning to the PGA Tour last season.
He has eight DP World Tour wins and is still seeking his first PGA Tour victory.
He still resides in Europe and has his wife and kids traveling with him for a few weeks beginning last week.
“It’s just nice to have my kids here and my wife and get to see them every day,” Olesen said. “We live quite far away, so it’s nice to have them close.”
Chandler, a 27-year-old PGA Tour rookie who played at Georgia, has only made four of 13 cuts this season but tied for sixth at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
He qualified for the 2025 tour season by finishing in the top five of the PGA Tour Q-School. This is the first year since 2012 tour spots were available through the Q-School after 12 years of limiting graduates to Korn Ferry Tour status.
Power, 38, has a pair of PGA Tour wins in 2021 and ’22 and a top finish this season of a tie for eighth in the Valspar Championship.
His bogey-free round included a hole out for eagle with a 9-iron from 162 yards on the par-4 eighth hole, and birdies on 15 and 16 to reach 7 under.
A lot to play for
While everyone in the field would rather be playing in Philadelphia in the Truist Championship, a signature PGA Tour event with a purse of $20 million, there is still a lot on the line in Myrtle Beach.
The winner earns a berth in next week’s PGA Championship, exempt tour status through 2027, and a start in the winners-only The Sentry at Kapalua in Hawaii to start the 2026 season.
“Everyone is trying to get in the elevated event,” Power said. “Obviously I get that, but it’s a good golf course, and at the end of the week I will say it’s going to be someone with a two-and-a-half-year PGA Tour exemption. That’s going to be the big thing. You have a ticket to Maui sitting here too. You have all that stuff.
“I guess everyone here would prefer to be playing in Philly, but you have a great course and a great tournament. Hopefully it’s here to stay.”
Power played well in his last dual-field event, tying for 18th in the Corales PuntaCana Championship in the Dominican Republic, which was played concurrently with the RBC Heritage.
“[The course] is in great condition,” Power said. “A very good layout. Some of the best greens you’ll see, to be honest. All in all, I’m very, very impressed. Obviously being an opposite field event you’re not 100 percent sure, especially playing for the first time. It’s a really good test. You get firm, fast greens. You have good rough and a nice layout. I’m absolutely loving it.”
