Guy next door Taylor sets bar for Canadians
Unassuming pro arrives at TPC Sawgrass riding momentum of big Pebble Beach win
Canadian Nick Taylor arrives at the Players Championship a month removed from outplaying Phil Mickelson in Sunday’s final round to complete a wire-to-wire win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am.
Along the way, Taylor has become the first of this generation of Canadian golfers to win twice on the PGA Tour. If any of this has fazed the stoic 31-yearold, it doesn’t show.
This week at TPC Sawgrass, I explained that I was in Disney World with the family in February and I missed most of his win.
“That sounds like more fun,” he said.
One of a group of down to earth Canadian tour pros that includes Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, nobody seems more like the guy next door than Taylor. His Twitter bio doesn’t mention anything about golf, instead proclaiming, “Top 5 Mario Kart N64 Players in the world.” He could update it to say, “Once shot -19 over four days at Pebble Beach,” but don’t count on it.
Following a practice round this week, we asked him about that fateful week in California that secured a trip to the Masters and his PGA Tour future through the 2021-22 season.
“It feels like it was so long ago,” Taylor said. “It was just one of those weeks where everything seemed to be going my way. I had been hitting it really well since January, but I started putting really well that week. I’ve always loved going there.”
Taylor explained that, before the first round, he already liked the order of the courses he would play, and thought that Thursday at Monterey Peninsula would give him a great chance for a fast start. He shot an eight-under 63 and didn’t look back.
“The draw was really good, too,” he said. “And it was just more relaxing than most weeks and everything was dialed in.”
Taylor has felt his game improving steadily over the past year, and having made six of nine cuts in 2019-20, his season wasn’t off to a bad start. A 10th place finish at the Safeway Open was the highlight, surrounded by a number of middle-of-the-pack weekend results.
“It was during the 30th place finishes where I felt that I was playing well enough to be top 10, top 15, or competing to win, so there were a few things to clean up, but it’s really just one shot per round,” he said. “I felt that my game was ahead of my results, but that doesn’t always mean you’re going to win a few months later.”
Taylor knows a thing or two about patience, though. After spending 20 weeks in 2009 as the world’s No. 1 amateur and winning the 2010 Ben Hogan Award as the top U.S. college player, his professional career didn’t start with a bang. Three years in Canada on what’s now the Mackenzie Tour finally led to a year on the former Web.com Tour in 2014, before at last making the jump to the PGA Tour.
Taylor won the Sanderson Farms Championship in his rookie year, and has kept his playing status ever since with varying degrees of stress.
As this PGA Tour season began, one of the great questions among Canadian golf fans was who from the group of Taylor, Hadwin, Conners and Hughes would be the first to earn the all important second win that rightly or wrongly validates a career.
Hadwin nearly did it in the fall with two top fives, including a runner-up, but it was Taylor who would earn the bragging rights.
Hughes nearly made it two Canadian wins in a month when he battled Honda Classic winner Sungjae Im down to the final hole at PGA National two weeks ago.
Taylor, Conners and Hughes played a practice round together at TPC Sawgrass on Tuesday.
“I actually hadn’t seen Mac since Pebble, since he played great at Honda,” Taylor said.
“It’s just awesome that all of us are playing well, and hopefully getting into the biggest tournaments together and ride the wave of momentum. Corey has been playing well for a long time, so it’s fun to catch up with him.”
Besides that trio, Hadwin and Roger Sloan are the other Canadians in the field this week.
Taylor, Hadwin and Sloan have all welcomed new additions to their family in recent months. Taylor’s son Charlie is four months old, and life has quickly changed for him.
“Things aren’t as important on the golf course,” Taylor said. “You’re still trying to do your best, but when you’re playing poorly, you forget it quicker. Your perspective changes.”
One thing Taylor has realized is that packing a golf bag is nothing compared to the preparation he and wife Andie have to do for Charlie before heading on the road.
“He has so much stuff,” Taylor said “We’re still trying to figure that out.”