Inside The Huskies

Life of the Party: Former UW Golfer Taylor Wins Phoenix Open in Playoff

The ex-Husky toughs out a big victory on the second extra hole in the desert.

Dan Raley

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The network cameras focused on two Taylors on Sunday.

There was the globe-trotting, football-loving Taylor Swift, who showed up at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas as the NFL's most famous girlfriend to watch the Kansas City Chiefs pull out an overtime victory.

Three hundred miles away, golfer Nick Taylor stepped over all of the discarded beer cans and plastic cups at the extra-rowdy Phoenix Open to rally from 3 shots down with four holes left in regulation and win on the second hole of a playoff as the sun went down. 

Taylor, 35, is a former University of Washington golfer (2007-10) and a Canadian originally from Abbottsford, British Columbia, who finished his amazing final day in the desert by going birdie-birdie-par-birdie-birdie-birdie to beat Charley Hoffman. This marked Taylor's fourth PGA Tour victory.

Taylor the golfer is known for the improbable. Seven months earlier, he became the first from Canada in 69 years to win the RBC Canadian Open when he dropped in a miraculous 72-foot putt to beat Brit Tommy Fleetwood on the fourth playoff hole in Toronto, giving his country one of its most memorable sporting accomplishments.

Taylor fed off the sometimes over-the-top energy of the party-minded Phoenix Open that forced organizers over the weekend to close the gates and prevent people from entering the overcrowded grounds and shut off alcohol sales.

Nick Taylor tees off as the sun begins to go down in Phoenix.
Ex-Husky Nick Taylor tees off as the sun sets before he won the Phoenix Open in a playoff :: Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports

"The finish was pretty dreamlike, and hitting all those putts was a lot of fun," the ex-Husky golfer said. "The atmosphere was incredible all week."

He found his rhythm at just the right time, closing with a 6-under 65 that included a 9-foot birdie putt on the par-4 18th to force the playoff. He and Hoffman finished at 21-under 263.

Both players birdied the first extra hole and next hit the green on No. 18 a second time. Hoffman left his putt short, and Taylor birdied the hole for the third time in less than an hour as the sun dipped below the horizon.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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