Phil Mickelson’s Return To Winner’s Circle Halted By Vaughn Taylor
- Dan Hauser
- 15 Feb, 2016
Vaughn Taylor has largely become an afterthought in the professional golf world over the past 10 years. Sure, he was on a Ryder Cup team. But that Ryder Cup team was the 2006 team that most American golf fans would like to pretend never existed after they were embarrassed 18.5 to 9.5 at the K Club in Ireland. Taylor does boast two wins on Tour, but they both came at the Reno-Tahoe Open, an event held opposite a World Golf Championship and is usually lacking top name talent. Without a PGA Tour card for the last three years he has been roaming around the lesser tours, having played on the Web.com Tour the past two weeks in South America. He even showed up to Pebble Beach this week with just a regular carry bag so he didn’t have to pay the extra fee for a heavier bag on the airplane.
This is why golf is great though. Any week, anything can happen. Taylor wasn’t even supposed to be in the field this week. He was the first alternate and only got in after Cal Pettersen withdrew. He then crashed the party in a big way on Sunday when he put together a string of four straight back nine birdies on his way to his first PGA Tour win in over 10 years.
”Just absolutely amazing,” Taylor said. ”Didn’t know if it would ever happen again, to be honest. Just lost a lot of confidence, lost a good bit of my game. I just kept working, grinding and kept at it. And I can’t believe it actually happened today.”
A win wasn’t even on Taylor’s mind when he showed up at Pebble on Sunday. The 447th ranked golfer in the world was simply looking to finish in the top 10 so that he wouldn’t have to rush to LA for the Monday qualifier. Now, he is a PGA Tour winner once again and can set his schedule for the next two years.
Taylor, the longtime Augusta, Georgia resident now gets to play in his “home town” event for just the fourth time since he turned pro in 1998. In his previous three trips to Augusta National, he has missed the cut twice and finished in a tie for 10th in 2007.
”Playing in the Masters is my Super Bowl,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s win came at the expense of Phil Mickelson, who was looking for a little career turnaround of his own this week. It seemed like everything was set up perfectly for Phil too. He came into the final round with a two shot lead and looking for his first win since the Open Championship in 2013. 2013 was also the last time Mickelson held a 54-hole lead when Justin Rose ran him down at Merion in the U.S. Open.
It only took Phil five holes to lose the lead when he got off to a slow start and got chased down early by Jonas Blixt who seemed to be firing on all cylinders out of the gate. Even with the off day, Phil still managed to hang around the top of the leaderboard and found himself two shots down with two to play. He birdied 17 and was looking at a five and a half footer for birdie on 18 to force a playoff. He somehow lipped the putt out bending over in agony as Taylor got the win.
”It never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t make that one,” a dejected Mickelson said.
For Phil, it’s back to the drawing board and he can look no further then the guy that beat him on Sunday to see that another win on Tour is closer than he thinks.
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About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
