How a 71-year-old is competing in PGA Tour’s Sanderson Farms Championship
There’s a chance that one player could break his age at this week’s Sanderson Farms Championship.
Reed Hughes, a 71-year-old from Senatobia, Mississippi, earned his place in the field at the Country Club of Jackson by winning the Gulf States E-Z-GO Section Championship last September. Hughes shot 71-68 to win by four shots.
“I made some putts that I hadn’t been making,” Hughes said after last year’s win. “I didn’t have the yips all day like I normally do. I hit the ball really well. I missed like two greens all day. It’s never over until it’s over.”
Reed Hughes will tee it up at the Sanderson Farms this afternoon.
He earned his spot in the field by winning the Gulf States PGA Section event. His final round 68 was the best of the event by 3 and beat the field avg by 10.
Reed Hughes is 71 years old.— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) October 3, 2024
This will mark Hughes’ first PGA Tour-sanctioned start since the 2012 Senior PGA Championship, where he missed the cut. Hughes has made eight career PGA Tour starts, though has yet to make a cut. His first Tour event was the 1984 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic. His most recent was the 2007 Zurich Classic, where he shot 85-82.
Hughes is grouped with Parker Coody and Kevin Dougherty for the first two rounds of the Sanderson. Dougherty ranks fourth on Tour in driving distance with an average of 317 yards. Coody was born in 2000, 16 years after Hughes’ Tour debut.
The oldest player to ever make a PGA Tour cut was Sam Snead, who did so at the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic at 67 years, 2 months, 23 days old. Jay Haas was 68 and change when he made the cut at the 2022 Zurich Classic, though that was a team event.
Russ Cochran, 65, competed in this year’s Zurich Classic.