(Photo credit score: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images)
It could also be a tense strategy to win a golf match, however Nick Taylor has embraced turning into the PGA Tour’s “Mr. Playoff.”
Taylor received 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 inconceivable 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 guess you get confidence when you get in those situations the more you pull out successful outcomes,” Taylor advised reporters Tuesday. “But I’m simply as nervous in these conditions as in all probability anyone 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 report in playoff conditions on tour. He identified that if every of these three went the opposite method, his profession could 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 mentioned.
Taylor was neck and neck with Colombia’s Nico Echavarria via 4 rounds final month in Honolulu. No hassle: He birdied the second playoff gap and Echavarria could not match it.
“It definitely helped,” mentioned Taylor, ranked No. 29 on the earth. “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 robust 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 mentioned he’ll have to preserve a profitable mindset Thursday via 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 mentioned.
“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