MORE: Tour players weigh visiting Scottsdale’s 16th hole if they were fans<\/a><\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
Known for stunts and pranks that he streams on social media, Jack Doherty offered to pay a spectator $100 to yell \u201cjackass\u201d in the middle of Mackenzie\u2019s backswing as the Canadian player was about to hit his second shot out of a fairway bunker on the 18th hole. The random fan accepted the offer and yelled at Mackenzie as he began his backswing.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for Mackenzie, he was only taking a rehearsal swing when the man shouted at him. He backed away, and Mackenzie\u2019s caddie, Julien Trudeau, approached the gallery rope line and identified the man and Doherty to security. Police stepped in as well, and both Doherty and the unidentified fan were ejected from the tournament grounds. PGA Tour security official Steve Olson subsequently informed Doherty that he was banned from all future tour events and would be charged with trespassing if he attempted to attend another tournament.<\/p>\n
Hughes, after a two-under 69 on Saturday, shrugged off the incident as \u201cpart of this tournament a little bit,\u201d referring to the rowdy atmosphere on parts of the course, primarily on the par-3 16th hole played in a temporary arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, heard that, and then called security and they got the guys quickly, and then I hit my shot, and that was it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt happens at this tournament sometimes, and it’s not a big deal. This many people and alcohol, I mean, things happen. I feel like it’s not much of a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The timing of the incident actually was fortuitous, with Hughes only rehearsing his swing. \u201cI was over my shot, and I do, like a free swing, like waggle, and that kind of saved me because the person yelled on my waggle. So I was kind of going to stop anyways.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit a nice shot still, so that was nice,\u201d he added about his approach from 160 yards that settled 25 feet from the pin. He two-putted for par to finish off a 69. He\u2019ll begin Sunday\u2019s final round tied for 20th place at seven-under 206.<\/p>\n
A two-time tour winner, Hughes, 35, said he doesn\u2019t know the prankster who put the fan up to yelling at him or why he was singled out. He had never heard of Doherty, 22, who has millions of followers on Instagram and other platforms. Hughes spoke to PGA Tour security personnel afterward and was satisfied with the response. He did see the video later, and his reaction was simply, \u201cI didn\u2019t lose any sleep over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, Doherty has. Backlash to his actions apparently has been so brutal that he felt compelled to double down on his \u201charmless prank\u201d and recorded a 45-second video for all the people \u201chating on him.\u201d He accused those who criticized and then advised everyone to\u2014get this!\u2014\u201cgrow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hughes said that some of his fellow players have reached out to him. But not to express sympathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, had a few people, like, kind of poking fun of me a little bit, calling me, you know, \u2018Jack, you-know-what.\u2019 It\u2019s fine. I\u2019m just a nice Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n
A grown-up one, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Mackenzie Hughes took the high road on Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open, shrugging off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[212904,45317,99,428,112094],"class_list":{"0":"post-455733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-jack-doherty","9":"tag-mackenzie-hughes","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tpc-scottsdale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}