Feb 1, 2025; Pebble Seaside, California, USA; Nick Taylor hits his tee shot on the fifth gap through the third spherical of the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am golf event at Pebble Seaside Golf Hyperlinks. Obligatory Credit score: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Photos It might be a anxious approach to win a golf event, however Nick Taylor has embraced turning into the PGA Tour’s “Mr. Playoff.”
Taylor gained the Sony Open in Hawaii in a playoff final month, and he is returning to the positioning of one other extra-holes victory when he defends on the WM Phoenix Open this week in Scottsdale, Ariz.
A five-time winner on tour, Taylor has gone to a playoff to win every of his previous three titles. He made an unbelievable 72-foot eagle on the fourth playoff gap on the 2023 RBC Canadian Open to greatest Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, a profession spotlight for Taylor as he grew to become the primary Canadian to win his nationwide open since 1954.
Eight months later, he held off Charley Hoffman on the Phoenix Open by making birdie on the second playoff gap.
“I suppose you get confidence while you get in these conditions the extra you pull out profitable outcomes,” Taylor advised reporters Tuesday. “However I am simply as nervous in these conditions as most likely anyone else.
“I really feel like I’ve extra readability in these playoffs of what I am attempting to do. Something you attempt to work in golf, when you’re over a swing or a putt and there is doubt or there’s indecision, it is most likely not going to finish up properly, and for some purpose in these conditions, I’ve a variety of readability and little doubt.”
Taylor has a 3-0 report in playoff conditions on tour. He identified that if every of these three went the opposite manner, his profession could be “a unique story.”
“To be on the opposite facet of that each single time has actually been sort of a catapult of the place my profession has gone,” he stated.
Taylor was neck and neck with Colombia’s Nico Echavarria via 4 rounds final month in Honolulu. No bother: He birdied the second playoff gap and Echavarria could not match it.
“It positively helped,” stated Taylor, ranked No. 29 on the planet. “I used to be solely within the first two signature occasions, so it actually opened up my schedule, the majors, clearly. To sort of finish (2024), did not play my greatest, however to have the ability to begin the yr, regroup within the offseason and do properly was nice.”
The 36-year-old is +5000 to win this week at BetMGM as he faces a powerful discipline headlined by Scottie Scheffler and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, each back-to-back champions in Phoenix in prior years.
If Taylor is to do the identical, he stated he’ll must hold a successful mindset Thursday via Sunday.
“I feel a lot in golf is benefiting from the alternatives that you simply’re given, if it is wherever from attempting to get your PGA Tour card that I’ve needed to cope with prior to now or preserving your card or — I really feel like in these conditions prior to now, I have been capable of handle or make the most of these alternatives,” he stated.
“Once more, I simply really feel like I’ve extra readability after I’m attempting to win. It isn’t essentially I am stepping on the tee anticipating to win or be there in the previous couple of holes, however simply get again to the straightforward issues of the method, and I’ve carried out a extremely good job after I get in these moments.”
–Area Degree Media
