Mackenzie Hughes held his nerve in a playoff against Sepp Straka to secure the Sanderson Farms Championship with a score of 17 under.

It is the second PGA Tour win of the 31-year-old Canadian's career, with nearly six years passed since his first win back at the RSM Classic in 2016.

This win was all the more unlikely after shooting a 71 on Thursday, but he followed it with a 63 on Friday for the lowest round of the week, before finishing with 68 and 69 on the weekend.

He had to fend off the challenge of Straka to get it done, who was the only player this week to shoot all four rounds in the 60s.

Straka rose to a share of the lead after four birdies over the space of five holes on his front-nine, and another pair of back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th to tie things up for the last few holes.

Hughes had a makeable birdie putt on the 17th to take the lead, but he narrowly missed it, before hooking his drive on the 18th into a position where salvaging a par was the best-case scenario.

From deep in the rough, he sent his second shot on the par-four over the back of the green, requiring an up-and-down to force a playoff. His long putt from off the green was excellent, leaving him a four-footer for par and he made no mistake.

Hughes again failed to make the green in regulation as they replayed the 18th, but he again saved par as Straka missed a 10-footer for birdie. On the second playoff hole, replaying the 18th one more time, Hughes figured it out, landing his approach within 10 feet and converting the birdie for the win.

Speaking to NBC in the moments after his win, he called being greeted by his wife and young son to celebrate a victory "something I've dreamed about since I had my first boy".

"I kept telling myself the whole week that I was going to do it, and that was the only thing I saw in my mind," he said. "Those par-saves down the stretch… I'd say that kind of describes my game a bit, that grit and perseverance."

There was strong South African representation at the top of the leaderboard, with Garrick Higgo alone in third at 16 under while Dean Burmester took sole possession of fourth at 15 under.

Argentina's Emiliano Grillo was joined by Americans Nick Hardy, Keegan Bradley and Mark Hubbard in a tie for fifth at 13 under, and defending champion Sam Burns finished nine shots off the pace at eight under in a tie for 30th.

Mark Hubbard has been consistent throughout at the Country Club of Jackson but he pulled out his best round yet to claim a one-stroke lead from Mackenzie Hughes at the Sanderson Farms Championship on Saturday.

Hubbard holed six birdies on the back nine, including five in a row, as he carded a seven-under 65, the second-best round of the day, to move into the lead at 15 under.

The 33-year-old American joined Hughes and Scott Stallings in the co-lead after a classy chip and putt on the par-four 15th hole for birdie, before an excellent 203-yard approach set him up for birdie on the 18th.

Hubbard, who carded rounds of 67 and 69 on the opening two days respectively, holds a one-shot lead from joint day two leader Hughes who shot at four-under 68 on Saturday.

Hughes also enjoyed the back nine with four birdies, including holing a 29-foot putt on the 18th after a bogey on the 17th to stay in touch with Hubbard.

The pair are well placed to contend for the title, with the next best being three players at 12 under after three rounds, in Garrick Higgo, Stallings and Sep Straka.

Stallings was firmly in contention before two bogeys on his final three holes blemished his day, having been bogey-free with six birdies to that point.

Keegan Bradley, who shot the best round of the day with an eight-under 64, and Nick Hardy are tied at 11 under, with Emiliano Grillo, Dean Burmester and Kim Seong-hyeon one further stroke behind.

Belgian Thomas Detry, who had shared the lead with Hughes after 36 holes, endured a tough day that included three bogeys to slip seven strokes behind the leader.

Davis Riley is looming at nine-under overall, while pre-tournament favourites Andrew Putnam and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are eight under after both carded rounds of 69, with reigning champion Sam Burns battling to make a charge, back at six under.

Mackenzie Hughes and Thomas Detry share the lead through two rounds at the Sanderson Farm Championships, making their way to 10 under in two very different ways.

Canada's Hughes got off to a disappointing start when he opened his tournament with a one-under 71 on Thursday, but followed it up with Friday's round of the day, shooting a nine-under 63 on his second trip around The Country Club of Jackson.

He birdied his first three holes of the day on his way to a bogey-free round, finishing up with birdies on 15, 17 and 18.

Meanwhile, while Hughes has been up and down, Belgium's Detry has been remarkably consistent through 36 holes, posting back-to-back 67s.

Detry was even par through his first five holes on Friday before rattling off five birdies from his next seven.

Alone in third place at nine under is Sepp Straka, who took advantage of a hot run where he birdied five out of six holes to follow up his opening 69 with a strong 66.

Scott Stallings, Garrick Higgo and Mark Hubbard are tied for fourth at eight under, with Davis Riley, Nick Hardy and Stephan Jaeger rounding out the top-10 in a tie for seventh at seven under.

The only two players to shoot better than 66 in their second round were Hughes, and Argentina's Emiliano Grillo, who posted a six-under 65 to salvage a one-over Thursday and jump up to a tie for 10th heading into the weekend.

Fresh off his debut Presidents Cup appearance, defending champion Sam Burns is five strokes off the pace at five under.

Patrick Cantlay entered Sunday's final round of the BMW Championship with the outright lead, and he ended it with his second consecutive win at the event after birdieing his 17th hole to pull ahead by one stroke, finishing at 14 under.

He is the first player in the 16-year history of the FedEx Cup playoffs to successfully defend one of the playoff events.

On a tough scoring day where only three players shot better than 68, Cantlay kept his cool, taking advantage of Scott Stallings' missed birdie putt on 18 that would have also moved him to 14 under, draining his own final birdie moments later to head onto the 72nd hole with the lead.

Things threatened to heat up after Cantlay's last tee shot veered right into the bunker, but with a few branches hanging over his direct line to the flag, he played it safe and landed his approach on the open left-side of the green, leaving a 15-yard two-putt to win the tournament.

In his typical stoic fashion, he stepped up and nearly birdied it, lipping out for a tap-in par to secure back-to-back victories at the BMW Championship. 

It is Cantlay's 11th top-10 finish of the season, giving him the most for this PGA Tour season, leading Matt Fitzpatrick and Scottie Scheffler with 10.

Speaking to The Golf Channel after stepping off the 18th green, Cantlay said it takes a little bit of luck to win events like these, highlighting his tee shot on the 17th hole which looked destined for the bunker, only to bounce over and land in the middle of the fairway to set up his winning birdie.

"I hit a lot of solid shots, and then I got a couple of good breaks," he said. "Obviously on 17, that isn't a break I'm expecting, and it was really big for me to take advantage of it. 

"I've played a lot of great golf this week, and I'm happy to come away with the win.

"I made a lot of clutch five and four-footers today, the putter felt really good today, really solid, and I'll hopefully carry that into next week."

Stallings finished in outright second at 13 under, jumping up from 46th in the FedEx Cup standings to 12th, comfortably landing inside the top-30 to book his spot in the coming week's Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Course.

In the two-way tie for third at 11 under was world number one Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, and in a tie for fifth at 10 under was Canada's Corey Conners, South Korea's Lee Kyoung-hoon, and Australia's Adam Scott.

Lee and Scott had plenty to play for on Sunday, as Lee shot the round of the day with a 65 to leapfrog into the top-30, while Scott needed a bunker save on the 18th hole to book his spot in the Tour Championship, and he did so, finishing 29th in the FedEx Cup standings.

Rounding out the top-10 at nine under was a group that included Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy, while Shane Lowry was one of three players to finish at eight under, and he was the unlucky player to fall out of the top-30 as Scott jumped in.

Sahith Theegala's tie for 15th at seven under was good enough to finish 28th in the FedEx Cup standings, Jordan Spieth was at six under, and Cameron Young, who looked like a potential winner heading into the weekend, ended up at five under after back-to-back 72s on Saturday and Sunday.

J.T. Poston claimed his second PGA Tour win on Sunday, holding on to win the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run.

The 29-year-old posted a two-under 69 in the fourth and final round to finish on 21-under for the tournament, three shots clear of Emiliano Grillo and the fast-finishing Christiaan Bezuidenhout, tied for second at 18-under.

As well as qualifying for The Open Championship, Poston becomes the first player since David Frost in 1992 to go wire-to-wire at the John Deere Classic and only the third in the tournament's history along with Scott Hoch, who achieved the feat in 1980.

Poston revealed it was not easy to remove the possibility of that achievement from his mind following his round, but with his last win coming at the 2019 Wyndham Championship, believes it is a boost for his confidence.

"It is hard," he told CBS. "I mean, wire-to-wire, having the lead for that long, it's just hard not to think about it and think about that finish line.

"I tried to stick to the game plan. We got off to a great start and then, kind of started to try and give some back, but I hit a lot of good shots down the stretch.

"I was just trying to breathe. I think there were a lot of nerves, more than the first few days. I was just trying to battle through them and I think, after this week, knowing I can play with those nerves. I can still win, I can still shoot a solid score considering the pressure and trying to win out here."

Poston started strongly, opening the round with consecutive birdies on each of the first three holes, but his momentum was halted with bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes.

His round stabilised on the back nine, however, with a birdie on the par-five 17th effectively securing the tournament.

Poston was able to see off Grillo and Bezuidenhout, who claimed three birdies over the closing five holes, with Christopher Gotterup and Scott Stallings finishing a further stroke back on 17-under.

J.T. Poston holds a three-stroke lead heading into the final round of the John Deere Classic after shooting a four-under 67 on Saturday.

Trying to complete a wire-to-wire victory after tying for second last weekend at the Travelers Championship, Poston sits on 19-under after 54 holes at TPC Deere Run.

The 29-year-old started strongly with three birdies on the front nine, but suffered a blip on the closing nine holes, with a birdie on 14 softening the blow of bogeys on 12 and 15.

He recovered to take momentum into Sunday with an eagle on the par-five 17th, forcing his way past the bunkers on his approach to the green to then one-putt and restore breathing room from the chasing pack.

Despite the solid form coming into this weekend in Silvis, Poston's lone win on the PGA Tour came in 2019, taking out the Wyndham Championship.

He leads a three-way tie for second between Scott Stallings, Denny McCarthy and Emiliano Grillo, who birdied four of the last five holes on Saturday to finish on 16-under.

Out of the top four players on the leaderboard, McCarthy is the lone player not to have won a tournament on the PGA Tour, with Stallings and Grillo's last wins coming in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Trailing them is Callum Tarren on 15-under, with Bo Hoag and Chris Naegel tied for sixth on 14-under.

Hoag, the world number 524, was Saturday's big mover with a third-round score of eight-under, opening the first four holes with two birdies and an eagle.

He more than compensated for his solitary bogey on 15 with birdies on 14, 16 and 17 to finish with the day's lowest score.

Scottie Scheffler leads the Charles Schwab Challenge by two strokes coming into the final round, shooting a two-under 68 in Saturday's third round.

The world number one sits at 11-under coming into the final 18 holes at Colonial, after facing tricky conditions with intense heat and heavy wind gusts.

After posting bogey-free rounds on Thursday and Friday, Scheffler almost made it three rounds in a row but three-putted the par-four 17th for bogey.

He bounced right back with a long birdie putt on the 18th to close out the round on two-under, leading Brendon Todd and Scott Stallings on nine-under.

After missing the cut last weekend at the US PGA Championship, his first cut since his season start in October, the Masters champion could win his fifth PGA Tour title on Sunday.

Those five wins would come from a phenomenal 10 starts, after taking out the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in February, and would emulate Tom Watson's 1980 feat of five wins before the start of June.

Harold Varner III is in the running for his maiden PGA Tour victory, sitting a further stroke back from Todd and Stallings on eight-under after three rounds, also shooting a two-under 68 on Saturday.

John Huh, Cam Davis, Chris Kirk and Patrick Reed share a four-way tie for fourth on seven-under.

Also shooting a third-round score of 68 was Mito Pereira, finishing strong with three birdies over the closing five holes, including a long 15-metre putt to secure a birdie on the 18th.

Pereira is coming off his dramatic collapse on the final hole at the PGA Championship last weekend, missing the playoff between Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris.

Both Thomas and Zalatoris have gone on from that performance at Southern Hills to miss the cut this weekend in Fort Worth.

Brandt Snedeker and Beau Hossler both shot five-under-par 67 to join JJ Spaun and Dylan Frittelli atop the leaderboard, after the third round of the Valero Texas Open on Saturday.

Spaun and Frittelli bogeyed the last par-five 18th hole to finish on 10-under-par after 54 holes, shooting rounds of 69 and 70 respectively on Saturday.

It would have been a five-way tie for the lead had Scott Stallings not also bogeyed the final hole, finding the rough and then the far-side bunker on his second and third shots.

Among the many in the field who have yet to qualify for the US Masters, Matt Kuchar is two strokes back from the leaders on eight-under-par after three rounds.

In what is essentially the final qualifier for the first major of the year, and having missed the cut at Augusta last year, Kuchar is aware of the stakes.

"I think quality play trumps anything," he said.

"I'd take execution over course knowledge any day of the week. I think it's going to take just quality golf tomorrow to win this thing."

After shooting a bogey-free round on Friday, second round leader Ryan Palmer tumbled down the leaderboard on Saturday with a five-over-par 77, finishing in 21st on five-under-par.

Spaun and Hossler are both looking for their first PGA Tour win, while Frittelli last won in 2019 at the John Deere Classic and Snedeker took the Wyndham Championship in 2018.

Hossler finished with momentum on Saturday, making three consecutive birdies from the 14th hole. His career-best finish was a second at the Houston Open in 2018.

A win for Snedeker would make for his 13th trip to Augusta.

Defending champion Sam Burns is one of four players to score a seven-under-par 64, after the first round of play at the Valspar Championship on Thursday.

The world number eight had a busy round on the opening day, with nine birdies and two bogeys. He recovered well after bogey the par-four 16th and reeled off birdies on the final two holes to close out his opening 18 holes.

Following a chaotic weekend at The Players Championship, the Florida weather had a positive effect on the Copperhead course, with Burns reaping the benefits from facilitative greens.

"The greens are really receptive with the rain we’ve gotten last week," he told reporters following his round.

"Yeah, I think the golf course will continue to firm up after we get some sun and wind and I think it’s going to play really well the next few days."

Burns, David Lipsky, Adam Hadwin and Jhonattan Vegas share the lead at Copperhead after the first day of play.

Scott Stallings, Richy Werenski, Davis Riley and Danny Lee are one back at six under, while Justin Thomas, Kramer Hickok and Doc Redman are a further two strokes back.

After missing the cut at TPC Sawgrass, Jason Day opened with a one-under-70, only two weeks after the passing of mother.

Notable names in group at four under include Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar and Louis Oosthuizen.

Out of the co-leaders, though, Lipsky was the only one to go bogey-free, opening with a birdie on the par-five first to set the tone on a confident front nine. He closed out the round with four consecutive pars.

The 33-year-old has never won on the PGA Tour and has not won an event since his time on the European Tour in 2018.