It may be a stressful way to win a golf tournament, but Nick Taylor has embraced becoming the PGA Tour’s “Mr. Playoff.”
Taylor won the Sony Open in Hawaii in a playoff last month, and he’s returning to the site of another extra-holes victory when he defends at the WM Phoenix Open this week in Scottsdale, Ariz.
A five-time winner on tour, Taylor has gone to a playoff to win each of his past three titles. He made an improbable 72-foot eagle on the fourth playoff hole at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open to best Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, a career highlight for Taylor as he became the first Canadian to win his national open since 1954.
Eight months later, he held off Charley Hoffman at the Phoenix Open by making birdie on the second playoff hole.
“I guess you get confidence when you get in those situations the more you pull out successful outcomes,” Taylor told reporters Tuesday. “But I’m just as nervous in those situations as probably anybody else.
“I feel like I have more clarity in those playoffs of what I’m trying to do. Anything you try to work in golf, if you’re over a swing or a putt and there’s doubt or there’s indecision, it’s probably not going to end up well, and for some reason in those situations, I have a lot of clarity and no doubt.”
Taylor has a 3-0 record in playoff situations on tour. He pointed out that if each of those three went the other way, his career would be “a different story.”
“To be on the other side of that every single time has really been kind of a catapult of where my career has gone,” he said.
Taylor was neck and neck with Colombia’s Nico Echavarria through four rounds last month in Honolulu. No trouble: He birdied the second playoff hole and Echavarria couldn’t match it.
“It definitely helped,” said Taylor, ranked No. 29 in the world. “I was only in the first two signature events, so it really opened up my schedule, the majors, obviously. To kind of end (2024), didn’t play my best, but to be able to start the year, regroup in the offseason and do well was great.”
The 36-year-old is +5000 to win this week at BetMGM as he faces a strong field headlined by Scottie Scheffler and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, both back-to-back champions in Phoenix in prior years.
If Taylor is to do the same, he said he’ll need to keep a winning mindset Thursday through Sunday.
“I think so much in golf is taking advantage of the opportunities that you’re given, if it’s anywhere from trying to get your PGA Tour card that I’ve had to deal with in the past or keeping your card or — I feel like in those situations in the past, I’ve been able to take care of or take advantage of those opportunities,” he said.
“Again, I just feel like I have more clarity when I’m trying to win. It’s not necessarily I’m stepping on the tee expecting to win or be there in the last few holes, but just get back to the simple things of the process, and I’ve done a really good job when I get in those moments.”
–Field Level Media
