“I thought the golf course was playing much more hard with the firmer greens and the wind picking up”.
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Not only that, No. 1 Jordan Spieth left the Monterey Peninsula smiling after a rough first three days. Although he won the Reno-Tahoe Open in both 2004 and 2005, the last few years Taylor played often in the minor leagues, the Web.Com Tour.
Australia’s PGA Championship victor Jason Day made a move up the leaderboard with a 68 at Pebble Beach that left him six adrift, calling it “more of an ugly four-under”.
However, bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes checked his progress while further dropped shots on the two par-fives on the back nine saw him finish the day on the same score he started it.
“That was the only good thing”, Iwata said with a smile.
Hiroshi Iwata of Japan was two strokes back after a 69 at Spyglass Hill.
That brief image of shock and dismay – Mickelson on the green, the ball still visible because it’s not in the cup where it’s supposed to be – was reminiscent of a half-dozen or so major championships he felt certain he was going to win.
With a tree in play he had to play out to the fairway, but finished with a three-footer for par. “I putted really well, and made a couple long ones”.
“She’s been my rock”, Taylor said. I didn’t think it was going to happen. There were a lot of opportunities, easy up-and-downs that I didn’t capitalize on to keep the round going. “But today, everything kind of just fell into place”.
He missed two good birdie chances on the last two holes, but still wound up a victor. That no longer is a problem. He will also get to play at Augusta in April, which will be his first Masters trip since 2008. Mickelson has gone 52 events worldwide since his last victory at Muirfield in the 2013 British Open that gave him the third leg of the Grand Slam. “As nervous as I was and as disappointed as I am that I didn’t win, this was so much fun for me to get back in the thick of it and feel the pressure”.
“I’m not quite where I want to be yet”, Mickelson said. “But if I was there, I would have been able to finish it off”.
Then along came Vaughn Taylor, a gangly 39-year-old who was ranked 447th in the world, who hadn’t won in over 10 years, and whose usual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am partner, Toms shoes founder Blake Mycoskie, was forced to find a new pro when Taylor lost his Tour card.
On Sunday, he took down Phil Mickelson with a 17-under 270.
Vaughn Taylor chips the ball up to the 18th green of the Pebble Beach Golf Links during the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016, in Pebble Beach, Calif. Taylor won the tournament.
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The world No. 1 looked out of sorts all day en route to a two-over 74 at Pebble Beach for a one-under total of 214, just making the cut.
