It might be a anxious technique to win a golf match, however Nick Taylor has embraced changing 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 turned 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 whenever you get in these conditions the extra you pull out profitable outcomes,” Taylor informed 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, if you happen to’re over a swing or a putt and there is doubt or there’s indecision, it is most likely not going to finish up nicely, and for some motive in these conditions, I’ve numerous readability and little doubt.”
Taylor has a 3-0 file in playoff conditions on tour. He identified that if every of these three went the opposite method, his profession could be “a unique story.”
“To be on the opposite facet of that each single time has actually been form of a catapult of the place my profession has gone,” he mentioned.
Taylor was neck and neck with Colombia’s Nico Echavarria by means of 4 rounds final month in Honolulu. No bother: He birdied the second playoff gap and Echavarria could not match it.
“It positively helped,” mentioned Taylor, ranked No. 29 on the earth. “I used to be solely within the first two signature occasions, so it actually opened up my schedule, the majors, clearly. To form of finish (2024), did not play my greatest, however to have the ability to begin the yr, regroup within the offseason and do nicely was nice.”
The 36-year-old is +5000 to win this week at BetMGM as he faces a robust subject 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 mentioned he’ll must hold a successful mindset Thursday by means of Sunday.
“I feel a lot in golf is making the most of the alternatives that you just’re given, if it is anyplace from attempting to get your PGA Tour card that I’ve needed to take care of up to now or holding your card or — I really feel like in these conditions up to now, I have been capable of care for or benefit from these alternatives,” he mentioned.
“Once more, I simply really feel like I’ve extra readability once 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 accomplished a very good job once I get in these moments.”
–Area Stage Media
