Most intriguing player on the PGA Tour this week? Try the 71-year-old

Reed Hughes laughs at himself. He’d just finished rolling in putts all over the yard — and that’s the funny part to him. 

“I didn’t just have the yips all day like I normally do,” he quipped. 

Things, though, quickly became funnier, so to say. The PGA pro had also just won the 2023 Gulf States E-Z-GO Section Championship, played last September at Deerfield Golf Club in Canton, Mississippi, about a half-hour north of the state’s capital, and the winner earned a spot in this year’s Sanderson Farms Championship, a PGA Tour event that kicked off Thursday at the Country Club of Jackson, also in Mississippi. Heady stuff. Earlier this week, organizers paired Hughes with Kevin Dougherty, the fourth-longest hitter this year on Tour; and Parker Coody, grandson of Masters champ Charles Coody, though he eventually withdrew.

And Hughes? He’s played in eight Tour events, the most recent coming in 2007, when he missed the cut at the Zurich Classic. Notably, his first Tour start was the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic — played in 1984. The U.S. president then was Ronald Reagan; there have been six since then. The highest-grossing movie 40 years ago was “Ghostbusters” — the original one. 

Hughes, you see, is 71. 

His birthday, according to the Tour’s website, is Aug. 8, 1953. He plays out of Senatobia, Mississippi, and a year ago, he played better than 36 other players at the Gulf States E-Z-GO, shooting rounds of one-under 71 and four-under 68, to win him the Sanderson spot alongside such pros as Rickie Fowler and Gary Woodland. Nationally, his story was first spotted by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine, then Golfweek’s Cameron Jourdan and Ryan French of the Monday Q website picked it up, and Thursday, during Sanderson round-one play, Hughes got some love on Golf Channel coverage, including a one-on-one interview. (Said announcer Steve Sands playfully at one point: “Are we allowed to root in the booth for a 71-year-old?” — to which analyst Sam Saunders replied: “I am. I don’t care if you’re not. That’s impressive right there.”)

His start is newsworthy, no doubt. 

Should he make the cut, he’d be the oldest ever to do so on the PGA Tour — Jay Haas was 68 when he reached the weekend at the 2022 Zurich Classic, though that was a team event, and Sam Snead was 67 when he made the cut at the 1979 FedEx St. Jude Championship. Hughes could also shoot his age or better; the last player to do that was Arnold Palmer, who, in 2001, shot a 71 at the age of 71. (Notably, Palmer was Saunders’ grandfather.) 

Thursday, Hughes was trending toward that score. 

He parred the 398-yard, par-4 1st, after a 255-yard tee shot that found the left rough, a 36-yard second shot, a third shot that he dropped to 23 feet — and a one-putt. He birdied the 392-yard, par-4 2nd, after hitting his approach to 11 inches. But he tripled the 552-yard, par-5 11th, and doubled the 148-yard, par-3 13th, and he shot a four-over 76. 

There’s good news here, though, in the Hughes story.  

He plays again Friday, at 9:55 a.m. ET, alongside Dougherty, who’s 38 years younger. 

Below is a look at Hughes played Thursday, according to the Tour’s online leaderboard:

1st, 398-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 255 yards to the left rough, 139 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 36 yards to the left rough, 104 yards to the hole
Shot 3: 112 yards to the left side of the green, 23 feet, 8 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

2nd, 392-yard par-4 (birdie)
Shot 1: 273 yards to the left side of the fairway, 123 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 123 yards to the left side of the green, 11 inches to the hole
Shot 3: In the hole

3rd, 581-yard par-5 (par)
Shot 1: 274 yards to the right side of the fairway, 305 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 228 yards to the right side of the fairway, 80 yards to the hole
Shot 3: 88 yards to the right side of the fairway, 22 feet, 9 inches to the hole
Shot 4: 33 feet, 2 inches to the right side of the green, 10 feet, 1 inch to the hole
Shot 5: In the hole

4th, 172-yard, par-3 (bogey)
Shot 1: 156 yards to the left side of the green, 60 feet, 1 inch to the hole
Shot 2: Putt 50 feet, 7 inches, 9 feet, 5 inches to the hole
Shot 3: Putt 11 feet, 11 inches, 2 feet to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

5th, 594-yard par-5 (birdie)
Shot 1: 273 yards to the right rough, 314 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 181 yards to the right side of the fairway, 133 yards to the hole
Shot 3: 135 yards to the right side of the green, 5 feet, 9 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

6th, 462-yard par-4 (bogey)
Shot 1: 271 yards to the right intermediate, 199 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 188 yards to the left rough, 41 feet, 3 inches to the hole
Shot 3: 19 feet to the left rough, 23 feet, 1 inch to the hole
Shot 4: 25 feet, 4 inches to the left side of the green, 3 feet, 1 inch to the hole
Shot 5: In the hole

7th 216-yard par-3 (par)
Shot 1: 213 yards to the left side of the green, 15 feet, 6 inches to the hole
Shot 2: Putt 14 feet, 6 inches, 12 inches to the hole
Shot 3: In the hole

8th 396-yard par-4 (birdie)
Shot 1: 264 yards to the left side of the fairway, 131 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 139 yards to the right side of the fairway, 28 feet, 2 inches to the hole
Shot 3: In the hole

9th, 408-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 289 yards to the right rough, 121 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 132 yards to the left side of the green, 38 feet, 4 inches to the hole
Shot 3: Putt 37 feet, 11 inches, 3 feet, 9 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

10th, 227-yard par-3 (par)
Shot 1: 218 yards to the left fringe, 70 feet, 8 inches to the hole
Shot 2: 70 feet, 11 inches to the right side of the green, 6 feet, 2 inches to the hole
Shot 3: In the hole

11th, 552-yard par-5 (triple bogey)
Shot 1: 265 yards to the right rough, 286 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 138 yards to the right side of the fairway, 149 yards to the hole
Shot 3: 137 yards to the right water, 43 feet, 5 inches to the hole
Shot 4: Penalty
Drop in the right side of the fairway, 124 yards to the hole
Shot 5: 129 yards to the left side of the fairway, 50 feet, 11 inches to the hole
Shot 6: 42 feet, 2 inches to the right side of the green, 8 feet, 9 inches to the hole
Shot 7: Putt 10 feet, 8 inches, 20 inches to the hole
Shot 8: In the hole

12th, 428-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 301 yards to the right side of the fairway, 127 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 132 yards to the right side of the fairway, 16 feet, 1 inch to the hole
Shot 3: 15 feet, 11 inches to the right side of the green, 13 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

13th, 148-yard par-3 (double bogey)
Shot 1: 150 yards to the left rough, 25 feet, 7 inches to the hole
Shot 2: 16 feet, 7 inches to the left side of the green, 9 feet to the hole
Shot 3: Putt 13 feet, 7 inches, 4 feet, 3 inches to the hole
Shot 4: Putt 5 feet, 10 inches, 15 inches to the hole
Shot 5: In the hole

14th, 572-yard par-5 (birdie)
Shot 1: 266 yards to the right rough, 308 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 217 yards to the left side of the fairway, 91 yards to the hole
Shot 3: 91 yards to the right side of the green, 20 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

15th 318-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 274 yards to the right side of the fairway, 45 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 52 yards to the left side of the fairway, 21 feet, 2 inches to the hole
Shot 3: 22 feet, 5 inches to the right side of the green, 12 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

16th 449-yard par-4 (bogey)
Shot 1: 295 yards to the right side of the fairway, 157 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 162 yds to the right side of the green, 40 feet, 5 inches to the hole
Shot 3: Putt 46 feet, 5 inches, 5 feet, 8 inches to the hole
Shot 4: Putt 8 feet, 7 inches, 2 feet, 6 inches to the hole
Shot 5: In the hole

17th 438-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 273 yards to the left rough, 166 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 180 yards to the left rough, 59 feet, 10 inches to the hole
Shot 3: 58 feet, 8 inches to the right side of the green, 4 feet, 11 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

18th 480-yard par-4 (par)
Shot 1: 270 yards to the left side of the fairway, 210 yards to the hole
Shot 2: 221 yards to the right side of the green, 54 feet, 9 inches to the hole
Shot 3: Putt 53 feet, 22 inches to the hole
Shot 4: In the hole

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.