North of the border, they refer to it simply as “The Putt.”
HAMILTON, Ontario – Step right up, folks, and see if you, too, can make a 72-foot putt!
Here, north of the border, they refer to it simply as “The Putt.” Amid a steady rain, the 72-foot eagle bomb at Toronto’s Oakdale Golf and Country Club by Abbotsford’s own Nick Taylor on the fourth hole of a sudden-death playoff ended a 69-year drought of a Canadian not winning its national open.
“Still can’t believe it’s been a year,” Taylor said on Wednesday in his pre-tournament interview ahead of his title defense at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. “It’s been a fun ride.”
When his long-range bomb dropped, Taylor tossed his putter into the air and leaped into the arms of caddie Dave Markle, a former teammate on Canada’s amateur team, after the longest made putt of his PGA Tour career.
The 72-foot putting challenge for fans attending the 2024 RBC Canadian Open. (Photo: Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
“My distinct memory is seeing Dave charge at me, kind of his face. Then the rest of it is kind of a blur,” Taylor recalled. “I’ve seen the replay enough now that I kind of have that visual almost now instead of my own perception. Yeah, I’ve seen so many angles now, it’s really cool to see different people’s reaction. I feel when my wife and I see it we find a different person to look at and see how they reacted, which is pretty fun.
Golf Canada is giving every spectator at this week’s RBC Canadian Open a chance to see if they can duplicate Taylor’s feat.
So, yes, step right up and try your luck at the RBC Community Junior Golf 72-Foot Putt Challenge. For $20, fans receive two chances to hole a putt of the same length as Taylor’s iconic championship winner. Nail it like Nick and you’re rewarded with a new Scotty Cameron putter and upgraded passes for that day at the Open. (At press time, 22 contestants had holed it, including nine on Friday!)
Proceeds from the contest benefit the First Tee program that brings golf into elementary and middle school phys-ed classes in Canada.
The 72-foot putting challenge for fans attending the 2024 RBC Canadian Open. (Photo: Adam Schupak/Golfweek)
After Taylor finished his pro-am round on Wednesday, he stopped by the challenge hole to help some First Tee kids give his long-range bomb a shot. One nearly made it.
Then it was Taylor’s turn. His first attempt slid right and a little long. His second stopped about a foot wide to the left. Turns out 72 feet is as hard as it looks.
“You don’t have a whole lot of 72-footers in practice or in tournaments,” Taylor told the Hamilton Spectator. “It was a one-in-a-million type shot.”
While he couldn’t pull it off this time, he rediscovered the magic at a charity event back home in his native British Columbia a few months ago.
It’s a moment that will be etched in the RBC Canadian Open annals forever — seconds after Nick Taylor made a 72-foot bomb on the fourth playoff hole to the country’s national tournament, his fellow countryman and winner on the PGA Tour Adam Hadwin ran on the green, along with several other Canadian Tour players, to celebrate with him and shower him with champagne.
A security guard, just doing his job, didn’t recognize Hadwin in the moment and tackled him to the ground.
After a year in the shadows, the man notorious for that body blow finally spoke with Canadian TV network TSN this week, although he did so anonymously.
That security guard clearly played football. Look at that amazing disguised blitz. Caught Adam Hadwin completely off guard. And then the textbook tackle not leading with his head.pic.twitter.com/3ilSvATB1I
As Taylor and the fans tracked the ball, Mr. X kept his eyes on the crowd. When the putt dropped, it set off one of the wildest wild celebrations and perhaps the most famous tackle in golf history.
“I was on the other side of Nick and his caddie,” Mr. X recalled, “which meant I had to come around him. There were a lot of people moving and I saw this person heading directly towards Nick. I saw it as if it was in slow motion, this guy coming towards Nick with a bottle and no credentials.”
Mr. X moved quickly, like a defensive back spotting the halfback getting a handoff. He intercepted him and the two ended up on the ground.
“It was a soft takedown,” Mr. X pointed out with a chuckle. “His feet never left the ground.”
The security guard and the golfer lay intertwined on the ground for only a second or two. Taylor’s caddie, David Markle, saw what was happening and paused his celebration to try to alert Mr. X that he had taken down one of Canada’s greatest golfers.
“Bryan Crawford [RBC Canadian Open tournament director] came over and it was over quickly,” said Mr. X. “We got up and laughed, said sorry to each other, and it was all over.”
The footage will be talked about all weekend as Taylor is joined by Rory McIlroy, who also won this event in 2022, Shane Lowry, Sahith Theegala, Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Tom Kim and Adam Scott, among others at Hamilton Golf & Country Club in Hamilton, Ontario.
As golf cliches go, “there are horses for courses” seems to carry plenty of truth.
For example, Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times, and Tiger Woods dominated the South Course at Torrey Pines for over a decade, winning the Farmers Insurance Open seven times between 1999 and 2013. Woods also won the U.S. Open on that picturesque course above the Pacific in 2008. Davis Love won the RBC Heritage five times at HarbourTown Golf Links between 1987 and 1993.
Rory McIlroy has only played the RBC Canadian Open three times, but the 35-year-old Irishman has already made his mark on the event.
McIlroy had already won the Players Championship in 2019 before he arrived at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, and before the final round, he was tied for the lead with Matt Kuchar. Using a $2 Canadian coin (affectionately called a ‘loonie’) as his ball marker, McIlroy blitzed the course and the competition with a Sunday 61 to not only win but also shatter the previous scoring record at the event of 263 by five shots.
“I remember saying to myself, ‘Keep your foot down,'” McIlroy told Golfweek. “I birdied the first two holes and set the tone for the day, and I followed through on the commitment that I made at the start of that day to just keep your foot down and keep going. Some days it works and some days it doesn’t, and thankfully that day it did.”
There is a code among PGA Tour players that golfers should always defend their tournament wins the following year, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of the RBC Canadian Open for two years. However, McIlroy returned in 2022, and unfortunately for his competition, the Sunday result was the same as McIlroy fired a 62 to defeat Tony Finau by two shots.
“I saw Justin Rose went out, and he was going really close to shooting 59, so I knew that there were scores out there,” McIlroy said. “I was super excited because I was playing with Tony and Justin [Thomas] in that final group on Sunday, two of the best players in the world. It was a really cool deal.”
Winning puts a smile on every athlete’s face and makes memories of venues sweeter. McIlroy is no different, but looking back at that afternoon brings back memories of the win and the Canadian fans who did not have a chance to enjoy their national championship for two years.
Rory McIlroy celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2022 RBC Canadian Open at St. George’s Golf & Country Club in Etobicoke, Ontario. (Photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
“It was absolutely incredible,” McIlroy said. “COVID was hard and the regulations and the lockdowns were pretty strict in Canada, so it really felt like in ’22 that it was the first time that people were out and they were ready to go. And they made it known. Walking up 18 on Sunday, people stormed the fairway, they’re in the bunkers and they’re nearly on the green. It was such a cool scene.”
One of the coolest scenes of the PGA Tour season last year also played out on Oakdale Golf & Country Club’s 18th green when Nick Taylor dramatically holed a 72-foot eagle putt in a playoff to defeat Tommy Fleetwood to become the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954 and the first Canadian-born winner since 1914.
Taylor instantly became a national hero in Canada for winning his country’s national championship, which McIlroy, who won the 2016 Irish Open, can relate to but not completely.
“It’s amazing, but before I had won the Irish Open, Shane (Lowry) had won the Irish Open, Padraig (Harrington) had won the Irish Open, so we weren’t waiting decades for an Irish winner,” McIlroy said. “In Canada, they were, so for Nick Taylor to break through and be a Canadian Open winner as a Candian, is just incredible. I can’t imagine how that felt for him, just to be the one to do it and break the course, so to say. It was an unbelievable scene.”
After holing the eagle putt, Taylor tossed his putter to the side as bedlam engulfed the green. That club toss was designed into the tournament’s logo.
Three weeks ago, during a virtual press conference, Taylor was asked to reflect on his win.
“I can’t believe, first, that it’s been a year.” he laughed before revealing the true impact of his achievement. “I still get people coming up to me and telling me about where they were when they putt had dropped, the moment, their reaction, the people around them. I think those stories, over time, have probably been the most special ones. From strangers to family to friends to all of the above, it’s been very humbling over the past year to hear stories about how people were impacted by it. It’s been great and I wish I could be the defending champion a little longer.”
Back in February, Taylor jarred a 12-foot putt to defeat Charley Hoffman on the second playoff hole at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open, proving that he can still summon the magic touch he displayed at Hamilton Golf and Country Club last summer.
If history is a guide, to hold off McIlroy and win another RBC Canadian Open, he’ll need it.
“Bad thoughts seem to go out of my brain,” he said.
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Former University of Washington men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond’s scouting report of Nick Taylor from the team’s 2009 media guide has aged well 15 years later.
“I’ve never coached anyone that can raise his game so much in difficult conditions and high-pressure situations,” Thurmond, now the coach at Arizona State, wrote all those years ago. “Nick can hit the best shot at the biggest moment.”
“He’s tough when he gets the chance, it’s just getting him there,” said Mark McCann, Taylor’s swing coach since 2018. “Every time he gets a sniff, he’s going to win, it’s getting him to that sniff.”
Taylor notched his fourth career Tour title in the Valley of the Sun, the Canadian native’s adopted hometown. His first win came at the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship but then he had to wait more than five years to get back to the winner’s circle. When he did so, at the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Taylor stared down Phil Mickelson in the final round. There was also the time in 2018 when Taylor shot a final-round 63 at the Wyndham Championship to keep his Tour card.
How does he do it when his back is against the wall or the tournament is on the line?
“Bad thoughts seem to go out of my brain,” he said.
Taylor’s third win proved that Pebble was no fluke, winning his national open to snap a 59-year drought for Canadians at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open. With the pressure of an entire country depending on him to end the winless spell, Taylor calmly stepped up and holed an unforgettable 72-foot eagle putt to clinch the title in a four-hole playoff over Tommy Fleetwood.
And then on Sunday, he trailed Hoffman by three strokes with four holes to go but never panicked, electing to lay up at the par-5 15th and rely on his stellar wedge game. Taylor credited work he’s done with his mental coach, Chris Bergstrom, in helping him find his sweet spot for being so mentally tough.
“The chase mentality seems to be my best mindset where I have to do things,” he said. “Sometimes that means I need to birdie two holes on the back nine to make the cut. We have tricks to try to get into that mindset. I had to get into that mindset trying to chase down Hoffman … Why the ball decides to go in the hole at the right time in the last two years, who knows?”
What he does know is that two years ago he fell into the trap of projecting ahead to what it would be like to qualify for the International Team for the Presidents Cup and he applied too much pressure to achieving his goal of his first international competition. This year, he’s poised to make the team and play for Canada’s Mike Weir in Montreal, and with his world ranking climbing to a career-best of 28th, he’s in line to represent Canada at The Olympics.
“Those are huge goals of mine but also golf will kind of take care of that. If I’m looking week after week of where I am, what I need to do, it’s only going to be hurtful,” he said.
The International Team can certainly use a player who can raise his game in the most pressure-packed situations like Taylor has been doing ever since Coach Thurmond first laid eyes on him.
Here’s the cool part that no one has talked about yet: Hadwin missed the cut on Saturday morning.
LOS ANGELES – Adam Hadwin learned his lesson. He wore his PGA Tour badge and didn’t go running on the green with a bottle of champagne to spray Nick Taylor when he holed the winning putt to win the WM Phoenix Open in a sudden-death playoff on Sunday.
On Sunday, Hadwin wore the same green hoodie and jeans he was wearing in Canada on that fateful day as Taylor battled it out with Charley Hoffman. Hadwin said he sported the same outfit that morning for good luck for Taylor, who shared the 54-hole lead. As one social media commentator noted, “It’s like he wants it to happen.”
This time, Hadwin watched the tying putt from a bridge between 18 green and the clubhouse at TPC Scottsdale along with fellow Canadian Corey Conners. Then he moved greenside with Conners, his wife, Taylor’s wife, Andie, and pro Kevin Streelman during the two-hole playoff.
“I wore my badge this time. At least this time they knew who I was,” he said.
Here’s the cool part that no one has talked about yet: Hadwin missed the cut on Saturday morning. He was part of the wrong end of the wave that shot about three strokes higher and he carded 75-71 and had Sunday off. He had no reason to be at TPC Scottsdale. It wasn’t as if he finished a few groups before and had time to kill. Most of the country was busy watching the first half of the Super Bowl. But Hadwin lives nearby and told Golfweek he was watching the golf on TV that afternoon rooting for his buddy.
“I live only like 12 minutes away,” he said downplaying the fact that he headed over to TPC Scottsdale on the chance that Taylor rallied from three strokes back of Hoffman with four holes to play. Still, as Dionne Warwick once sang, “That’s what friends are for.” We’re giving a golf clap to Hadwin for being there for his buddy’s win again – and we’re glad he didn’t get pummeled this time.
I asked him during the playoff @WMPhoenixOpen if he had checked that security know who he is this time? He said he’s wearing his credential specifically and not risking it with a bottle of champagne! https://t.co/PBKFc9U4yk
The win is Taylor’s fourth of his PGA Tour career.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Nick Taylor clawed his way back from a three-shot deficit with four holes to go using a claw grip with his putter that propelled him to victory at the WM Phoenix Open.
Taylor birdied five of his last six holes at TPC Scottsdale on Sunday in an incredible display of putting to shoot a bogey-free 6-under 65 and win a two-hole sudden-death playoff over Charley Hoffman.
Taylor dropped his putter and clenched his fists as he birdied 18 for the third consecutive time – once in regulation and twice in the playoff — the final time from 15 feet. It marked the fourth career PGA Tour title for Taylor, who finished runner-up here last year.
“The finish was pretty dream-like,” he said.
Thirteen months ago at the Sony Open, at the suggestion of his short-game coach Gareth Raflewski, the Canadian Taylor switched to putting with a claw grip in which the left hand holds the club firmly and the right hand rotates so the palm faces his thighs. The grip is pinched “clawlike” by the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, and used to guide the stroke in a pendulum arc.
“My setup got much cleaner, my face rotation slowed down, so we’ve done the same drills for a year, just constantly repeating them over and over again,” he said. “I felt like growing up the claw was kind of a stigma. If you went to that, you probably struggled on the greens, but for me, once I committed to it, I haven’t turned back, and I’ve never putted better than the last year.”
Nick Taylor celebrates after defeating Charley Hoffman in a playoff at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Pros trying to improve their putting is considered golf’s endless and seemingly most futile search, but for Taylor, who dubbed himself as a streaky putter, it has been a game-changer, turning the biggest weakness in his game into a strength. Taylor famously holed a 72-foot eagle putt to win the 2023 Canadian Open in a playoff and end a 69-year drought for Canadians in their national open.
Having already won in his native land, Taylor, 35, added his hometown event. He has been a local resident since he graduated from University of Washington in 2010, and practices at TPC Scottsdale frequently. And yet until last year, he had always struggled reading the greens at TPC Scottsdale. That wasn’t the case this year as he holed 184 feet, 6 inches of putts in the first round, a personal high watermark. He gained 7.2 strokes on the greens, the fifth-best 18-hole performance in the ShotLink era dating to 2004, en route to tying the course record with an 11-under 60.
“I putted out of my mind,” Taylor said.
He followed with rounds of 70-68 and shared the 54-hole lead, but he trailed Hoffman by three strokes with four holes to go before his putter turned deadly one more time. He sank a clutch 10-foot birdie at 18 to force a playoff, and drained birdie putts of 15 feet and 11 feet in extra holes. For the week, he made 459 feet, 9 inches of putts, the most in the field and the best in Taylor’s 260 career Tour starts.
On Saturday evening, after the third round of the Phoenix Open was suspended due to darkness, Hoffman was asked what it would take to win the title.
“The lowest score,” he said with a wry smile.
The 47-year-old in his 19th year on the PGA Tour went out and gave it all he had. He wrapped up the third round when play resumed on Sunday with five birdies in his final six holes to shoot 7-under 64 and then matched that figure again to be the first player in the clubhouse with a 72-hole total of 21-under 263. Hoffman, a WM ambassador since 2007, was seeking his first title since 2016 but had to settle for his first top-10 since the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic.
“I played my butt off,” Hoffman said. “I knew if I got to that 22 number it would be hard for (Taylor) to catch me, and left a putt short (at 18) in regulation. But I love the juices. I love competing. This builds a little fire in the belly. I definitely want to be back here.”
This time Taylor also managed to get the better of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was bidding to win the title for the third straight year. Scheffler charged with five birdies in a row on Sunday morning during the third round to trail by two heading into the final round. Then he reeled off four more birdies in a row starting at the second to take the lead at 17 under. Taylor’s reaction to seeing the world No. 1 charge? “Oh, boy,” he said.
But Scheffler’s putter let him down in crunch time as he lipped out for par from 6 feet at No. 7, missed for birdie from 8 feet at the ninth and most disappointing of all, failed to make a 3-foot birdie attempt at 13. A final-round 66 made for a valiant effort to defend the title – had he won they may have re-named the course TPC Scottie-Dale – but it came up short (T-3).
“I’d say I’m a bit frustrated. I didn’t really finish the way I wanted to, but I gave myself a good chance this week,” Scheffler said. “Just wasn’t able to close.”
Nick Taylor Is awarded a check during the trophy ceremony after winning in a two-hole playoff during the final round of the WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale on February 11, 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
Weather delays totaling nearly seven hours had been a big part of the tournament’s story and so it was only fitting that there would be more one more on Sunday, a 76-minute frost delay, and a sudden-death playoff.
After players completed the third round, they had 10 minutes before they were sent back out for the final round. Hoffman made an eagle and six birdies in his first 15 holes to reach 21 under and build a three-stroke lead. But Taylor seized the moment.
“To find my swing a bit the last nine or ten holes and make some birdies was incredible,” Taylor said.
Here’s what you need to know from a long Friday at TPC Scottsdale.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottie Scheffler isn’t going to give up the WM Phoenix Open title without a fight.
The two-time defending champion fired a bogey-free 6-under 66 (with preferred lies in effect once again) in the second round at TPC Scottsdale on Friday to vault into contention, four shots off the pace set by Andrew Novak and Nick Taylor when was suspended due to darkness. (Eighteen players in the morning wave and the entire afternoon wave have yet to complete their round. The second round will resume at 7:30 a.m. MT.)
Asked whether he thinks he can win the title for a third straight time, something only Arnold Palmer has done in the tournament’s illustrious history, Scheffler said, “Yeah, I don’t see why not. Yeah, obviously I’d like to be a little bit closer to the lead, but still, four back out now is not a bad place to be.”
He added: “I probably was just a bit too far away from the hole to make too many birdies, but bogey-free is always good.”
Scheffler earned his first PGA Tour victory at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open in a playoff over Patrick Cantlay and repeated by holding off Taylor and Jon Rahm a year ago. Scheffler opened with 2-under 69 and heads into the weekend at 8-under 134. This marks the 16th time in Scheffler’s last 23 PGA Tour starts that he’s in the top-10 through 36 holes.
“I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, plotting along and taking advantage of my opportunities,” he said. “The last two days I really haven’t played the back nine as well as I would like to. I haven’t really taken advantage of some of the scoring holes back there, so I’m looking to improve on that the next couple days.”
Here are four more things to know from the second round of the WM Phoenix Open.
Nick Taylor knows TPC Scottsdale like the back of his hand and it showed on Friday.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Nick Taylor knows TPC Scottsdale like the back of his hand and it showed on Friday.
The Canadian native, who lives not far from the course and practices here regularly, tied the course record with an 11-under 60 to take a five-stroke lead over four golfers after the first round of the WM Phoenix Open.
“I’ve probably never putted that well,” said Taylor, who made 184 feet, 1 inch of putts using a claw grip in the first round, gaining 7.145 strokes on the greens. “Yeah, saw the lines great, and it was a continuation of last night.”
It marked the second straight round on the PGA Tour over a span of two tournaments and six days that a player shot 60 with preferred lies being in effect due to weather conditions. (Wyndham Clark shot 12-under 60 at Pebble Beach on Saturday during the third round.) Taylor’s five-shot lead is the largest 18-hole lead in WM tournament history and the largest at any Tour event since Jim Gallagher Jr. shot 63 at Olympic Club to lead by five after the opening round of the 1993 Tour Championship.
Nick Taylor gained more than 7 strokes putting in his opening round of 60.
It's the most strokes gained putting in a single PGA Tour round in nearly 7 years. Anirban Lahiri is the last player to gain 7+ in a round, picking up 7.32 in R2 of the Memorial in 2017.
Taylor, who is making his 10th career appearance at the WM Phoenix Open and started on the front nine Thursday, played just six holes as a result of a 3-hour, 30 minute delay due to rain, which was followed by the suspension of play due to darkness. Despite unseasonably chilly conditions that sent the temperature dipping into the 40s, he was off to a hot start, making three birdies in his first six holes. On Friday morning, there was a 103-minute frost delay but when Taylor started at the par-3 16th, the cold didn’t bother the Canadian.
“I’ve played enough in it where I kind of know what to expect,” said Taylor, who was runner-up to Scottie Scheffler at the WM Phoenix Open.
Taylor planted his tee shot 9 feet from the hole and sank the putt. Then he started a string of four birdies in a row beginning at 18, including draining a 21-foot birdie putt at No. 2 and wedging to a foot at the par-5 third. He cooled off with four pars in a row, but the last of them, at No. 7, felt like a birdie. After catching a little too much ball with his bunker shot, his putter bailed him out and rescued par with a 21-foot putt.
Asked if he had 59 in his mind, he said, “After a missed opportunity probably on 6 and sneaking away with par on 7, it was kind of done there. I wanted to keep the round going and finish it off.”
Taylor, who became a national hero last summer when he became the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open in 69 years, tacked on birdies at the final two holes, canning putts of 15 feet and 9 feet to tie the course record and shoot a personal-best nine-hole score of 29 on his second nine. Taylor became the fourth different golfer to shoot 60 during the WM Phoenix Open, joining Grant Waite, the first to do so in the final round in 1996, Mark Calcavecchia, second round in 2001, and Phil Mickelson, who did it twice – second round in 2005 and first round in 2013. It marked the 55th 60 in Tour history and the third this season (Nick Dunlap in the third round of The American Express was the first).
“I essentially made every putt I looked at,” said Taylor, who took just 23 putts, hit 13 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens. “It was a day that you don’t want it to end. Luckily I’m going to play another round here, so hopefully I can keep that going. But everything has worked really well.”
Taylor had a quick, 30-minute turnaround for his second-round tee time and proceeded to hit his opening drive into the native area and had to take a penalty stroke. He made his first bogey of the tournament but it still does little to tarnish the lowest round of his Tour career.
This week, a loaded 80-man field is on the Monterey Peninsula for the PGA Tour’s second signature event of the year, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The Crosby Clambake will look a bit different this time around, with the celebrity amateurs playing in just the first two rounds. Monterey Peninsula Country Club has been removed from the rotation, so the field will play Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill over the first two days before just the pros take on Pebble over the weekend.
Thanks to its elevated status, this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am boasts its best-ever field that includes Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schaufelle, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Here are 10 of the best performers from the last five AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams.
2024 
!