Taylor Moore teamed up with the President of RKA Investments LLC to win the Pebble Beach team title.
Taylor Moore teamed up with the Kyle Adams, President of RKA Investments LLC, to win the team title at the 2022 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The duo shot a final-round 62 to finish 33 under. Their four-day total of 264 (63-63-66-62) was a shot better than the team of Doc Redman and actor Michael Pena. Mackenzie Hughes and former NFL quarterback Alex Smith finished solo third at 30 under.
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Tom Hoge and partner Brent Handler, Chief Executive Officer of Inspirato, finished tied for fourth at 28 under.
Moore has a 2016 win on PGA Tour Canada as well as a win last season on the Korn Ferry Tour at the Memorial Health Championship. He finished sixth in the points race on the KFT. His best finish on the PGA Tour is a tie for eighth at the RSM Classic last November.
Windy conditions led to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside and Plantation Courses.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Jordan Spieth isn’t the only new proud papa of late. Talor Gooch joined the club a little over four months ago. But the 30-year-old former Oklahoma State star claimed he’s getting plenty of rest as his wife and his in-laws are here this week to make his life easy.
“It’s gives me comfort,” he said.
That word summarizes Gooch’s approach to the game. The fifth-year PGA Tour pro says he finally feels comfortable out here and it shows in his results: he’s registered two top-5 finishes and a pair of T-11s during the fall season.
On Friday at the RSM Classic, the wind blew and the temperature barely rose into the 60s, but it didn’t bother an Oklahoma native, who is used to factoring in the wind. Gooch canned a 66-foot eagle putt and made four other birdies en route to shooting 5-under 65 at Sea Island’s Seaside Course.
“It’s easy on days like today to play conservative, but when you’re swinging it well you’ve got to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re trying to win tournaments and to do so you’ve got to be aggressive.”
Well, there was at least one shot that he admittedly may have been just trying to lag his long-range eagle putt at the par-5 seventh into gimme range.
“I saw hopefully a two-putt and it popped in,” said Gooch, who when told he holed 132 feet of putts on the day, cracked, “A 66-footer helps with that.”
Through 36 holes, he’s played the six par 5s in 7 under, including another long eagle putt from 50 feet at the 14th on Thursday, to post a 36-hole aggregate of 13-under 129.
Gooch, who is seeking his first Tour title, didn’t pinpoint when he started feeling comfortable with being in contention, but he said he’s been there, done that enough that he’ll be ready for this weekend.
“We were talking about it today on a hole where I was hitting like a chip 7-iron and it’s like I’ve seen this shot before out here and I’ve made the mistake before out here. So just being out here enough, you start to understand like days like today, I’m comfortable with it because I know what to expect because I’ve seen it before,” he said. “You just can’t put a value on comfort and how much that will do for you.”
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Blustery conditions lead to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside Course and its sister, the Plantation Course, where John Huh made six birdies to shoot 67.
“Which is good with these tough conditions,” said Huh, who is tied for second at 12 under along with first-round leader Sebastian Muñoz (70 at PC).
Another shot back is Mackenzie Hughes (68 at SC), who described the difference in playing conditions the past two days as “night and day,” and rookie Taylor Moore, who made an ace at the 17th hole at the Seaside Course.
“It’s a pretty perfect club, 8-iron from about 178 with wind off the right. Just started at that right bunker and let the wind do its job, and got a fortunate bounce,” said Moore, who shot 65. “It looked like kind of like a fringe bounce.”
Moore, 28, finished the 2020-21 combined season No. 6 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings after recording a win and 13 top-10 finishes. Baseball was his first love and he starred as a middle infielder, a good contact hitter who knew how to find the gaps. He was offered a baseball scholarship at Arkansas before switching to golf.
“My dad coached college baseball for 20 years, so I grew up going to the field every day and that was kind of my childhood and first love,” he said. “So it was a tough choice at the time for sure.”
Both Gooch and Moore call Edmond, Oklahoma, home. Could this be the week one of them breaks through for a win? Gooch, for one, knows his time will come.
“Guys like Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth and all these guys that have won early and won often, they’ve kind of put an expectation on a different level than what I think the average golfer understands out here. I know I’m going to win, I know I’m going to compete a lot and it’s just a matter of when it’s my time,” Gooch said. “I’m going to keep working, I’m going to keep getting ready so when it’s my time, I’m going to take it and run with it.”
Moore set a course record Saturday, then won his first Korn Ferry Tour event Sunday to lock up his PGA Tour card.
They were going low this week at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Memorial Health Championship.
None went lower than Taylor Moore, who set a course record on Saturday at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois, and then finished the job on Sunday for his first win. Moore posted scores of 66-66-60-65 to win by three shots over Erik Barnes. Andrew Novak finished solo third, four shots back. John VanDerLaan and Grant Hirshman tied for fourth, five shots back.
The red numbers were everywhere you looked at Panther Creek, which was playing at 7,244 yards.
Jared Wolfe shot a 61 on Friday to tie the course record. Moore’s 60 the next day set the new benchmark, and, was part of a record-setting day for the tour, as the overall scoring average of 66.908 was the lowest in any single round in tour history. In addition, there were four 62s posted over the four days.
Moore is the second player on the circuit to card a 60 this season. For the week, he had 26 birdies and one eagle. His lone bogey over the four days came on the first hole on Friday.
But that’s not all. Moore is now guaranteed to finish in the top 25 in points on the tour, meaning he has earned his PGA Tour card for the 2021-22 season.
Taylor Moore opened with a 63 at the nearly 8,000-yard TPC Colorado Championship, tying the course record.
BERTHOUD, Colo. — It could be a familiar script playing out in the TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes this weekend.
We’ve seen this before, whether it’s Will Zalatoris or Nelson Ledesma using a TPC Colorado win to become a regular on the PGA Tour.
Tying a course record was a great start, but that was Thursday. Taylor Moore wants to join that company come Sunday.
Moore followed up his record-tying 9-under 63 Thursday with a solid 2-under 70 in Friday’s second round, and he entered the final 36 holes two shots off the pace.
It sets up something far more important than a course record: a prime shot at the championship and, for all intents and purposes, his PGA Tour card for the 2021-22 season.
Moore will be among the final groups this weekend, and there’s plenty at stake for the relative Korn Ferry Tour veteran.
In one sense, the University of Arkansas product would be an out-of-nowhere victor, given that he’s winless in 93 Korn Ferry Tour starts dating back to 2017.
But Moore’s story really begins this past offseason. Coming off an injury in 2019 plus the COVID-19 pandemic and some accompanying poor play in 2020, Moore was by his own admission in “a rough spot.”
He didn’t look exclusively toward a swing fix or fixate on his physical form. Instead, he turned inward, hiring a mental health coach between the end of the 2020 season and the 2020-21 campaign.
The results have been clear: Moore is one of the Korn Ferry Tour’s most consistent players in 2021.
Golfers compete in the 2021 TPC Colorado Championship at Heron Lakes in Berthoud, Colorado. Photo by Bethany Baker/The Coloradoan
Entering the season, he had four career top-5 finishes on the tour. Moore has matched that already this season and added three more top 10s to sit 21st in the current Korn Ferry Tour standings.
“Obviously, it’s been a great year,” Moore said. “I hired a mental performance coach and that’s been great for me on and off the golf course. So I’d say most of (the improvement) has been mental, but you still have to hit it well.”
And he is this week in Berthoud, as the 63 was his career-best at this level. That included a blistering 29 on the front nine at TPC Colorado, racing up the leaderboard with five birdies and an eagle to hold the 18-hole lead.
Friday afternoon, he started slow but kept pace with a late birdie after sticking it close on No. 16. He followed that with some steely par saves on Nos. 17 and 18.
“It’s a little bit trickier in the afternoon once the wind picks up,” Moore said. “Honestly, I’ve been very pleased with how I’ve played, and I’m in a really good spot obviously to be there (Sunday).”
Those breezy, baked afternoon conditions will be omnipresent, as the final groups tee off around 2 p.m. local time on Saturday and Sunday. Though players and fans may get a break from the worst of the heat after a pair of 95-plus degree days should give way to highs in the upper 80s this weekend.
And what a weekend it sets up to be for Moore, a microcosm of most players’ hopes and dreams on the Korn Ferry Tour.
He’s currently ranked 21st in the 2021 season rankings, and the top 25 at season’s end automatically earn a coveted PGA Tour card.
What would a win this week do for Moore? It would vault him above 1,700 points in the points race, pushing him past the tour’s current “fail-safe number” and all but assuring him a top-25 finish for the season.
“We’re all aware of it when we tee it up each week,” Moore said of his place in the standings. “I try to embrace it, there’s no reason to look the other way on it. I’m just trying not to get ahead of myself, which I have done in the past and learned a lot from.”
And zoom out even more here. Moore was 689th in the world at the end of 2020. Now, he’s already up to No. 234. A win would move him solidly into the top 200.
Remember Zalatoris and Ledesma, this event’s first two winners? Zalatoris’ win last year moved him from No. 272 to No. 172. Ledesma’s took him from outside the top 350 to No. 221 and boosted him toward regular PGA Tour appearances.
Zalatoris is currently No. 30 in the world and has been a consistent performer at the majors since his July 2020 triumph here, finishing in the top 10 at three major championships. Oh yeah, that included a runner-up finish in April at The Masters.
So the springboard is locked and loaded for a player like Moore to take off.
“After my start, I’d obviously love to hold that trophy,” Moore said. “But that comes from taking care of myself and what I can control.
“If I take care of that, I like my chances on Sunday.”
Chris Abshire is the sports and stats content coach at the Coloradoan. Contact him at ChrisAbshire@coloradoan.com. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
Taylor Moore opened with a 63 at the nearly 8,000-yard TPC Colorado Championship, tying the course record.
Taylor Moore opened with a 63 at the nearly 8,000-yard TPC Colorado on Thursday on the Korn Ferry Tour and will take a two-shot lead into Friday’s second round.
Moore’s score ties the course record set by Chase Johnson, who posted a 63 in the final round a year ago when he finished a shot back of winner Will Zalatoris, who did not return to defend this week. Zalatoris is playing in the Scottish Open on the European Tour instead.
Moore played the back nine first and had seven pars and two birdies to make the turn at 34. But he then eagled the 1st, a 624-yard par-5, then carded birdies on Nos. 3, 5 (also a 624-yard par-5), 6, 8 and 9 to come in with a 29.
Wade Binfield birdied six of his first eight holes and posted a 65 late in the day. He’s tied for third with Tyson Alexander, who finished his round of 65 before play was suspended by lightning.
David Duval, who lives in Denver, shot a 4-over 76 and is T-146.
Moore turned pro five years ago and has one professional win. He has seven top-10s in 2021 on the Korn Ferry Tour, including two T-3 finishes. He finished T-70 at TPC Colorado last summer.
Located about an hour north of Denver, the course officially checks in at 7,991 yards, making it the longest ever on the Korn Ferry Tour.
