SAVING GRACE
Abbotsford’s Taylor does a better job of getting up and down during third round at Pebble Beach to shoot one-under par
As a West Coast guy, Canadian Nick Taylor is very comfortable here in California, and having played in five AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams, he knows this course well.
But the U.S. Open is no pro-am.
After opening his week with three straight bogeys, the 31-year-old has been scratching and clawing his way back ever since.
The Abbotsford golfer has had trouble scrambling from the gnarly greenside rough for much of the first two rounds, but made the twoover par cut right on the number with a great up-anddown for par from the thick stuff on his final hole Friday.
Taylor has hit just 31 of 54 greens through three rounds, so getting up-and-down has been a priority. He did it better on Saturday. What was the trick?
“I was in a few bunkers which is, I think, easier than the rough,” Taylor said.
That’s the U.S. Open for you. But after making seven bogeys in Round 1, the Canadian has steadily improved, dropping shots just five times in rounds two and three combined.
He began Saturday at twoover par with the lofty goal of getting to under-par for the tournament, which would have require shooting a 68. Driving the ball well, and holing more putts than the first two days, Taylor played his front nine in level-par before making birdies at hole Nos. 11 and 13 to get to two-under for the day, and even-par for the week.
His goal was in sight, before a stumble down the stretch. Taylor would finish Saturday with a one-under
70, and will enter today’s final round at one-over par for the championship.
“It was a good day,” Taylor said after his round. “I made some good saves today, which was nice. That was probably the first time in last few days where I strung together some nice par putts to keep the round going.”
A beautiful iron shot into the 218-yard, par-3 17th hole gave Taylor a slick downhill 10-foot birdie putt to get under par for the tournament for the first time all week. With so few birdie looks available on the back nine, Taylor was perhaps too aggressive with his putt to the tricky hole location, and it slid by the left edge and it kept rolling six feet past. His par putt coming back hung on the edge. Just like that, his birdie two turned into a bogey four.
“I probably wasn’t thinking speed enough there,” he said of the putt on 17. “And I think it was on five degrees of slope, which is, um, pretty aggressive.”
Taylor’s caddie Jeff Willett blamed the hole location more than he blamed Taylor, saying there was next to no chance to stop the first putt close without hitting the hole. After the round, the caddie showed us his green-reading book to illustrate his point.
Taylor wouldn’t blame the hole location for his miss but predicted things would get very interesting for the leaders later on Saturday.
“I should have hit it softer obviously,” he said. “But I think 16 and 17 are definitely on the edge, and if it if they get faster or dry up at all, it’s going to be pretty dicey for the guys in the afternoon.”
Tiger Woods, who shot an even-par 70 on Saturday, also noticed some downhill treachery over the closing holes.
“I made one-putt at 16 which was just trying to keep the ball on the green,” Woods said. “You’d much rather have a 10-footer coming back up the hill than a four- or five-footer coming back down the hill.”
After Taylor sent his final drive of the day right of the fairway, and his layup further right, he had to settle for par at the closing hole. Taylor might not have achieved the goal he set at the beginning of the round, but any underpar round on Saturday at Pebble Beach was a good one. And he hopes for more of the same today.
“If I can keep it under par, I think I’ll keep moving up,” he said. “It would be nice to get under par for the tournament, but we’ll see what the course gives us.”