By Jeremy Harness
UPI photo: Vaughn Taylor winner of the PGA Tour at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am on Sunday
The last time Vaughn Taylor won on the PGA Tour, Jordan Spieth was in middle school, and Tiger Woods was near the height of his powers as the dominant force in the game.
Taylor, who turns 40 in less than a month, used a lights-out back nine that included four birdies in a row at holes 13 through 16, to chase down 72-hole leader Phil Mickelson and propel him to his first tour win since 2005.
He did wait 11 years for this moment, but after completing his round of 65, he had to wait just a little bit more. Upon holing out for par, Taylor, leading by two strokes at the time, still had to hang out a little while the last two groups finished their round to know his fate.
For a moment, it looked as if he and Mickelson, who floundered for much of his round on Sunday en route to an even-par 72, until making a valiant comeback attempt on the final two holes, were headed to a sudden-death playoff.
Mickelson made an 11-footer to save par at the 16th as well as a 12-footer for a birdie at the 17th to close to within a stroke of the lead heading into the par-5 18th. After a fine chip shot, he had a five-footer – a distance from which tour players make 82 percent of the time, while Mickelson had drained all of his previous 23 putts inside of six feet this week – for the birdie and to tie Taylor.
However, the attempt lipped out, leaving the veteran doubled over and crowning Taylor a champion at long last.
To add to the excitement, the victory means a berth in the Masters, which left the native of Augusta, Ga. – where the tournament is held every April – ecstatic.
“I mean, are you kidding?” asked Taylor, who is not a member of the PGA Tour and got into this tournament on a past-champion exemption. “I’m so thankful. So lucky to be here. So many people have helped me get here, the list is endless. So, I’m just super excited.
“I worked so hard and just kept getting knocked down and knocked down. And I just can’t believe it actually happened. It’s amazing. I’m just at a loss for words right now.”
Mickelson, who struggled to find the fairway all week long and is in the process of making changes in his swing, was not as sharp with his short game on Sunday as he was in catapulting to a two-shot lead in the previous round, and it cost him.
“I played a little tighter than I wanted to,” Mickelson said. “I made a few more mistakes in the short game around the greens. I didn’t salvage some pars the way I wanted to, and it just tells me I still need a little bit of work.”
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