MYRTLE BEACH CLASSIC

May 8, 2026

Mark Hubbard

Dunes Golf and Beach Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Mark, 4-under 67 to get in at 9-under, one back of the lead. How would you describe that round?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, it's been good the last two days. It's been weird. Haven't birdied a single par-5 and I think I birdied five par-3s. Irons have been really good. Driver and putter kind of been here and there.

Gotten hot a couple times and felt good at times and then felt awful another times.

Just been a weird week. Overall I think more than anything I've been really happy with just how I've played and carried myself. My attitude has been better this week. Just playing a little more freely than I have been for the past couple months. That's what eventually paid off.

Q. To add to that weirdness, it's chalk and cheese for the back nine and the front nine on this golf course for you. Why is the back nine more suitable?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, I'm not really sure. I think the front is a little goofy with two and four being those 90 degree dog legs, not a lot of room to hit it off the tee. And then once you get through those, five, six, six is kind of gettable, but seven, eight, nine coming down are all tough holes. With the wind direction we're seeing this week a lot of them are in or in off the left.

So I think just a little less gettable with that. Yeah, I don't really know. Like I said, it's kind of been a weird week.

Q. 1-over through seven today. What sparked the four birdies in a row in the middle of the round there?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, made a long one on nine and that kind of got me going. But, yeah, overall just found something in my putting. I wasn't really feeling that great early with it. Then just kind of found a little setup cue that turned things around, and gained some confidence from there.

Q. Can you share that with us?

MARK HUBBARD: It was just the way I was setting into the ball. I had gotten a little too far ahead of it. For me I have a tendency to kind of stop the handle and let the head go, and so when I get kind of a little bit ahead of it it exaggerates that.

I was just trying to get my eyes a little bit further back, and then I made four in a row. I honestly felt like I could have made a few more, but made some really good par putts. One at -- yeah, coming down the stretch, so it was really good.

Q. How big was the birdie at the last to creep closer to the lead?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, it was nice. More than anything I was pumped about that drive. Yesterday I snap hooked it into the trees and it hit a tree and came back about 60 yards. I had a wood into that green, which I don't know if that's ever been hit since maybe they had the Senior Tour event out here. I was just happy to be in the fairway more than anything.

Q. You finished T7 here last year or the year before when you played last time.

MARK HUBBARD: Here?

Q. Yeah.

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, it was last year.

Q. What did you learn that week about this golf course that is helping you this week?

MARK HUBBARD: I just really like this golf course. It's a great golf course. Forces you to work it both ways. Got to be good with your irons. Gets swirly around the greens. You're almost better off missing the green by five yards than a foot a lot of the time just because of the level. One, I'm good around the greens with kind of those feel shots and then two I'm a good iron player.

Just kind of sets up for me well. I don't feel like length is a huge, huge advantage here, so that also works for me. So I don't know so much that I learned anything from last year. I genuinely like this course a lot and it suits my game.

Q. How would you sum up your season so far this year?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, it's been disappointing. I feel like my game has been a lot better than what I've been scoring. A lot has been me getting in my own way, trying too hard, putting too much pressure on myself.

So it's hard to not do that when you're in whatever, 150the on the FedExCup with half the season left. Like I said, did a really good job the last two days just kind of chilling out and letting things come to me, and then really just kind of giving myself some space and some empathy when he have not hit good shots or missed putts rather than beating myself up, which is what I've been doing for the past couple months.

So for me whatever happens this weekend happens, but I just wanted to control that. It hasn't been fun this year so far and I've had a lot more fun the last two days. Not necessarily just because my score has been good, but because I like I said, I haven't been beating myself up.

Q. One of a handful players out here made a substantial amount of starts without a victory yet. This opportunity now, how do you process that and when you get into that situation how do you deal with that?

MARK HUBBARD: Yeah, I've always been a big believer that the way you win is just get yourself into position a lot and eventually it'll happen.

That's what the problem is. I just haven't recently been in that position a lot. More than anything I'm just excited to be back in that position this week, get the juices flowing and feel my heart rate and just see kind of really where I am with my game.

You know, not that I haven't had pressure trying to make cuts, but, yeah, it's just going to be nice to be back in contention. That's where I feel like I should be so just excited for the opportunity.