Taylor equals record, grabs lead in Phoenix
LOS ANGELES, California: Canada’s Nick Taylor matched the course record at TpC Scottsdale, grabbing the first-round lead with an 11-under-par 60 at the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open on Friday (Saturday in Manila).
Taylor’s round was completed over two days as rain wrecked Thursday’s play with the Canadian having completed just six holes before the close.
He held a five-stroke lead over Americans Andrew Novak, Maverick McNealy, overnight leader Sahith Theegala and Doug Ghim before heading quickly back out to start his second round.
Taylor started with a 9-foot birdie on the 16th, his seventh hole and made another on 18 before reaching the turn.
But it was on the front nine where he really hit his stride with three straight birdies, another on the par-four 5th and then finished off sinking birdie putts on the 8th and 9th his final two holes.
“It felt like I was seeing the lines great. Speed was awesome. I don’t know what to say. I’ve probably never putted that well,” said the 35-year-old who is seeking his fourth win on the PGA Tour.
“I drove it great, ball in hand and was hitting my irons nice, and I essentially made every putt I looked at. It was a day that you don’t want it to end. Luckily I’m going to play another round here, so hopefully I can keep that going. But everything has worked really well.”
In June, Taylor became the first Canadian to win the Canadian Open since 1954.
The course record of 60 was set four times previously, most recently by Phil Mickelson in 2013.
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour’s new for-profit entity will dish out over 80 percent of the initial $930 million of player equity grants to its top 36 golfers, according to a leaked memo reported by US media on Wednesday.
ESPN and Golf
Digest both reported the contents of the memo from PGA
Tour commissioner
Jay Monahan, which had been distributed to players.
Last month, the tour announced a deal that could eventually be worth up to $3 billion with a group of billionaire sports team owners to create a new entity called PGA Tour Enterprises.
The move comes after the PGA Tour lost several top stars to the breakaway LIV Golf League, backed heavily by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
Under the new program, players would collectively access more than $1.5 billion in grants that vest over time with SSG investing an initial $1.5 billion and the possibility of investing another $1.5 billion later.
In the memo, Monahan said that $930 million of initial player equity grants would be handed to 193 PGA Tour members.
A total of $750 million of that amount would go to the top 36 players based on career performance, including results over the past five years and their position in the Player Impact Program which ranks how much a player is deemed to have impacted tickets, sponsorships, media consumption and fan engagement.