Nick Taylor simply wouldn’t let the wind push him off the top of the leaderboard.
The 31-year-old wobbled a bit in the middle of his 2-under-par 70, but went virtually wire-to-wire to claim his second PGA Tour victory by four strokes over Kevin Streelman and by five over defending champion Phil Mickelson in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at famed Pebble Beach Golf Links www.pebblebeach.com.
“This is amazing,” said Taylor, whose only other victory came in the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship. “It was an up-and-down day because of the wind, but I had confidence I could win because I’ve done it before. To do it here playing with Phil was great.
“I was nervous before the round, but made some nice putts early and it settled me down. I just managed my nerves from there, even though I hit a few poor drives. I had to fight to keep my card a few times in recent years and that helped me today.
“This is just an incredible feeling.”
Taylor, who became the first Canadian to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, holed a 47-foot bunker shot on the seventh hole, and after his five-shot lead was down to two after a double-bogey 7 at No. 14, he chipped in for a birdie to right the ship on the next hole en route to a score of 19-under 268.
Streelman sank a 12-foot eagle putt on the sixth hole and birdied three of the last five to cap a 68, while Mickelson lost his chances to break the tie he shares with Mark O’Meara by winning five times at Pebble when he made three bogeys coming home in a 74.
“It was difficult when the wind blew about 20-30 miles an hour on the back nine,” said Streelman, who teamed with wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals to win the pro-am portion of the tournament for the second time in three years by five over Mickelson and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young at 33-under.
“I was able to hit some nice shots to the middle of the greens and make some putts.”
Said Mickelson: “It was a lot of fun to play today with a chance to win playing in the last group, but I just got outplayed. It’s been great to be in contention the last two weeks and I’m looking forward to building on this for the rest of the year.”
Jason Day of Australia fell out of contention with a double bogey and four bogeys on the back nine of a 75, but still finished eight back in solo fourth, his seventh finish of sixth or better at Pebble without winning.
Maverick McNealy of Portola Valley and Stanford made a nine-foot eagle putt on the second hole of a 68 and was two more down in a tie for fifth with Daniel Berger, who shot 69, plus Matt Jones of Australia and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, who both finished at 72.
Jordan Spieth, who won at Pebble Beach in 2017, posted the low round of the day with a 67 that included three birdies on each nine, and wound up 11 strokes behind in a tie for ninth with Lanto Griffin, who made bogeys on three of the last four holes to come in at 73.
Eighth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA made a bogey on the last hole to shoot 73 and tied for 11th, while fifth-ranked Dustin Johnson, a two-time AT&T champion, stumbled to a 78 and tied for 32nd.
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