Mackenzie Hughes wins Canadian Men's Amateur Championship title in successive years
Mackenzie Hughes successfully defended his title at the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship with a one stroke victory over Brian Churchill-Smith and Chris Hemmerich on Friday, August 10, 2012.
Hughes got off to a confident start and recorded a birdie on the first hole that he played. However, a double bogey on the third hole, followed by a bogey on the fourth, dragged him down from the lead.
Afterwards, he managed to score another three birdies against a lone bogey to sit atop the leaderboard once again and finished the round with an even-par 72.
Meanwhile, Brian Churchill-Smith made a strong charge on the leaderboard with the help of four birdies and an amazing eagle. However, a double bogey on the 12th hole retrained him from getting to the top spot.
Yet, he still had the chance of taking the title home, as Hughes, Hemmerich and Corey Conners were found guilty of slow play. They missed three of four checkpoints and were liable for a three-stroke penalty each.
However, they appealed for a review and the decision came in their favour after a delay of 50 minutes.
“It’s tough when you work hard like that all day and then you can almost have it taken away from you at the end,” Hughes said.
“I was worried, for sure, because we had missed three checkpoints, so there was a good likelihood that we were going to be penalized, but the reasons that we discussed with (rules officials) were what they wanted to hear and were what made the difference”.
When the decision came, people started raising questions as to why the players were not penalized for their mistake.
Later on, Brent McLaughlin, Director of rules, competitions and amateur status for Golf Canada, came out and told that the information that was provided to them earlier was not accurate. Moreover, he also told that the spectators surrounding the players
also caused the game to slow down a bit.
Therefore, it would not have been fair with the players if the points were deducted from their hard-earned score.
“We want to apply the rules. We want to apply them fairly and correctly for everybody,” he said. “... At the end of the day, we want to make sure it’s right”.
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