Nick’s Amateur Years

It's hard to keep track of Nick’s many accomplishments over the years.  He is just that good.  As a junior golfer, Nick started to excel well beyond his peers, piling up wins over his Ledgeview Junior buddies on the putting green as well as in several local and provincial junior golf events.  At 18 years of age, the hard work paid off with wins at both the BC Junior and Canadian Junior championships in 2006 (where he lapped the Canadian field by 11 shots). 

The next year Nick went on to win his 2nd national title - The 2007 Canadian Amateur.  For the next four years, Nick would go on to have a storybook career with the University of Washington Huskies where he racked up five tournament wins and a ton of top 5 finishes under the guidance of coach Matt Thurmond.  He would finish Tied for 2nd at the NCAA Div.1 National Championships in 2008.

His outstanding play both in College and throughout the summer earned him the coveted Mark McCormack Award in 2009.  An award that is given to the #1 ranked Amateur in the world at the end of the US Amateur.

If that wasn’t enough to prove that Nick was the top Amateur in the world, he would go on to qualify for the 2009 US Open at Bethpage Black (2nd year in a row) where he would finish as Low Amateur in the event.  His record score of 65 in the 2nd round of the US Open still stands as the lowest round of golf by an Amateur in any US Open.

Nick continued to shine in Amateur Golf in 2009 and 2010, winning several high-profile events.  His Amateur career would be complete when he was given the illustrious 2010 Ben Hogan Award offered to the Best College Player in the USA.  So at the end of the summer in 2010, Nick Taylor had done all the legwork needed in Amateur Golf to prepare him for the next step in his golf career. 

It was time to turn Pro.

Nick’s Pro Debut with VGT

Nick made his decision to turn Professional in the fall of 2010 at the VGT TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP at Kings Links by the Sea. It was, and still is a very special day for VGT to declare that Nick Taylor's Professional debut (and first cheque won) was on the Vancouver Golf Tour.  Although Nick didn’t win, he put in a very solid showing in his Professional debut with a T6 finish, and cashed his first Pro cheque for $550.  I’m not sure if he kept a copy of this cheque, but knowing how special a player Nick was going to be, I certainly did!

Nick went on to play on the Canadian Tour (now PGA Tour Canada) from 2011 to 2013 and while having a modest start early on in his Canadian Tour life, would end up with an impressive 10 top 10’s over the 3 years.

With only 12 events on the Canadian Tour schedule from March to November, Nick filled in his off-weeks playing the Vancouver Golf Tour, where he carded his first-ever Pro win at the Vancouver Open Pro-Am. 

He would return to play the Canadian Tour in 2012, and with only 8 events to play on a diminishing CDN Tour circuit, Nick loaded up his off-weeks again with more Vancouver Golf Tour starts to stay sharp in preparation for the 2012 Canadian Tour season. 

He would end the CDN Tour season 11th on the money list with three top-10 finishes.  But he had yet to see his first win on the CDN circuit. 

Back on the VGT Nick kept gaining confidence with top finishes, and found his second win at the 54-Hole West Coast Golf Group Invitational.  With his consistently great play in only 8 VGT events, Nick would take 3rd spot in the Year-end Order of Merit earning him the Most Improved VGT Player honors.

Nick’s best year to date as a young Professional came in 2013 on the heels of a brand new series VGT launched called the VGT MAJORS SERIES.  Along with 16 additional events, VGT staged six brand new 36-hole “MAJOR” events in May and June specifically designed to prepare the elite players for the rigors of the upcoming PGA Tour Canada season as well as Q-School.

And it worked. For Nick Taylor especially!

At the end of our MAJORS SERIES, Nick had racked up 4 big wins and a runner-up finish out of 6 MAJORS.  He added 2 more wins in our 18-Hole events for a total of 6 Official Season wins out of only 10 events played. 

With the PGA Tour Canada schedule about to kick off in 2013, Nick was about to prove to us how pivotal those six wins on the VGT were for his confidence. 

That year, Nick would go on to finish T4, T7 and T5 in his first three PGA Tour Canada events in 2013.  He would finish with two more top 10’s (T7 and 5th) for his most successful year on the tour.  His 7th place finish on the PGA Tour Canada Order of Merit earned him a valuable spot into the Web.com Q-School Finals that fall.

But Nick wasn’t done preparing.  After the PGA Tour Canada season, Nick came home and played two of our fall VGT events.  Naturally, he shot rounds of 64 and 65 to win them both, and closed out our VGT season with a total of 8 wins out of a possible 12 VGT events played. 

REMARKABLE!

This is by far the most impressive season that VGT has witnessed by any Professional (8 wins and over $34,000 in earnings: a stroke average = 66.2).  No-one has touched these records since!

Nick’s Road to the WEB.COM & the PGA TOUR

With the final 2 VGT wins to add to his confidence, Nick headed down to WEB.COM Q-School finals to attempt to earn status on the WEB.COM TOUR (now Korn Ferry Tour), which is the springboard towards the PGA Tour. 

Although he played some very steady golf through the week, he still needed to ratch it up a notch on the final day to get his card. In classic Nick Taylor form, he came through with one of the most impressive rounds of 63 to earn full status for the WEB.COM in 2014!

Fast forward less than one year from Nick coming back to play in 2 of our winter tour events.  And this was the moment we all rejoiced when Nick Taylor played his way onto the PGA Tour at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.   Strangely enough, in true Nick Taylor fashion, he made it through with yet another brilliant final round of 63!  The kid is clutch.

And then, just four weeks later in his 4th PGA TOUR event, Nick Taylor continued to prove how confident he was becoming on any tour, clutching up on Sunday for his first PGA TOUR win at the Sanderson Farms Invitational!!  The win would give Nick 2 full years of exempt status on the PGA Tour.  What a moment for BC Golf, for VGT and for Canadian Golf on a whole!

At the end of the 2-year exemption, Nick had some close calls losing his PGA Tour card between 2017 and 2019.  But he always found a way at the end of the season to retain his status.

One thing for sure about Nick Taylor.  He has never given up trying to improve.  And so after a few tough years, and in the midst of some changes to his swing, Nick Taylor re-found his confidence in 2020 and found his way back to the winner’s circle, re-asserting himself as one of the most resilient Pros on tour.  This time taking down USA’s favorite son Phil Mickelson at the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.  This win was a game-changing moment for Nick’s confidence beating lefty in his home state in front of a lefty home crowd!  What a moment!!

And if that is where Nick Taylor’s PGA Tour career ended, it would have been one hell of a ride!!  But he was far from done yet!

After a couple of pretty lean years (from the fall of 2020-2022) that Nick would attest to being very challenging due to Covid-19 travel restrictions (and being away from his wife Andie and their new son Charlie), Nick Taylor

continued to work on areas of his game to become not only a more consistent player, but a player he knows he can be - one of the very best in the world.  And what I mean by that is getting back to the winner’s circle.

2023 –Nick’s Impressive Play leading-up to the RBC Canadian Open

I had the fortunate opportunity to interview Nick on a ZOOM CALL at the Western Canada Golf Expo late this February – A week after he had just finished runner-up at the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open.  The fact that he agreed to take some of his precious time for a local interview just sums up Nick’s character.  He is as genuine as they get, and he has never forgotten his roots.  And he is one of the most humble guys you will ever meet.  In the interview, Nick alluded to a recently implemented (claw) putting grip he’d been working on in the winter of 2022, that has given him a ton of added confidence to his putting game.  And the hard work paid off big time in Phoenix where he did everything in his power to win that tournament.  The only person getting in Nick’s way from his 3rd PGA Tour win was the #1 player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, who matched Nick’s impressive closing round of 65 to edge him out by 2 shots!  Regardless of the outcome, one thing was clear.  Nick Taylor was not afraid of the moment and was extremely confident he could hang with the current best player in the world – on Sunday – in the final group!  

Nick continued his impressive play this spring with his 2nd Runner-Up finish at the Zurich Classic team event where he partnered with fellow Ledgeview Alumni Adam Hadwin.  They shot an incredible alternate shot score of 63 on the final day for their 2nd place finish.   Another proud moment for Abbotsford & the Ledgeview Golf Club seeing their ‘boys’ playing so well.   And another magical 63 for Nick Taylor!!

With another three top 10 finishes this spring leading up to the RBC Canadian Open, Nick Taylor was having his most consistent year on the PGA Tour – by far!!

So to see Nick’s round of 75 on day one at the Canadian Open was more surprising than seeing him follow it up with a 67 (-5) on Friday to make the cut.   I was so happy for Nick to rally and make the cut, as it would have been such a shame not playing the weekend having such a great year.  But, I was excited to see him make the cut.  Because what I do know about Nick is once he gets in the right head space, he is a tough guy to bet against (just ask all his junior buddies from Ledgeview that lost all their allowance money from as teenagers)!

Nick’s confidence and determination continued to exude on Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open where he recorded yet another Nick Taylor milestone – setting the course record of...you guessed it – 63 at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club. 

At the time of Nick signing his card, he was at the top of the RBC CDN Open leaderboard.  And by the time all 50+ golfers behind him had finished, he sat just 3 shots back of the leader C.T. Pan, a former UW Huskies team-mate of Taylor’s.

With Corey Connors also in the hunt on Saturday night, Canada was in a complete frenzy! 

We were all thinking the unthinkable.  Could this be the year the 69-year curse was erased?  Whether it happened or not, one thing for sure – as a nation so desperate to have its first Canadian win its own title in 69 years, we were all going to tune in!! (and the ratings showed it)

Nick was interviewed after his Saturday record round of 63, at the time sitting in the clubhouse with the lead.  And his two answers to specific questions made it clear to me why he has not only lasted 9 years on the PGA Tour, but found a way to win on multiple occasions. 

The first question aimed at him was his ability to play some of his best golf on Sunday when paired with some of the best in the world, specifically alluding to his Pebble Beach win over Phil Mickelson in 2020 and going head-to-head with Scottie Scheffler in Phoenix.  Plain and simple, Nick made it clear “I don’t think I am afraid of the moment.  I just keep my head down and keep doing what I have been doing to give me success”.

And then he was asked the same hard question that had been thrown at a number of Canadians throughout the week, AND throughout history at the Canadian Open: “How are you going to handle the pressure of Sunday with so much on the line, with the 10’s of thousands of fans here, and the pressure to be the first Canadian to erase the 69-year curse?”  And Nick’s answer was telling.   “It's easy to get wrapped up in it, but I am going to use the energy of the crowd to help pull me through.  The crowd will be on my side this time, and I think I am ready for this moment”. 

So when people asked me on Sunday if I thought Nick could pull it off (after seeing his interview), I had only one answer.  Unequivocally, yes!   

And in true Nick Taylor fashion, when he birdied his final two holes to get in a playoff, and when he center-cut that impossible 72-foot eagle putt for the win (in front of one of the largest crowds I have ever seen), it didn’t surprise me one bit. 

Because we’ve been witnessing greatness from Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor for the past 20 years.

Nick’s win not only re-wrote 69 years of history being the first Canadian to win our National Open since 1954, but it will arguably go down as one of the all-time greatest moments in Canadian Sports history.  His emphatic 72-foot eagle putt for the victory will be embedded in our minds (and replayed on You Tube) for many years to come!  (and so will the body check on Adam Hadwin’s Champagne celebration)

Nick’s historical Canadian Open win makes him the first Canadian to get his name inscribed on all three of Canada’s national trophies (Junior, Amateur & Open).

A moment that is forever cemented in Canadian Sports history!

Congratulations Nick!  You are our true Canadian hero!!

Fraser Mulholland
President & Commissioner Vancouver Golf Tour
fraser@vancouvergolftour.com
778.866.4653
Twitter & Instagram: @VancouverGolf