HONOLULU — Nick Taylor will be tough to beat in the playoffs. Getting there is the hard part for the Canadian, who produced another clutch highlight reel at the Sony Open on Sunday.
Until the final shot, Taylor chipped in from 60 feet for eagle on the par-5 final hole at Waialae to shoot a 5-under 65 and enter a playoff with Nico Echavarria .
He made a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole. He then hit a near-perfect wedge from 46 yards to set up a 3-foot birdie putt for victory. That last shot was probably his easiest shot in the final hour.
“I'm kind of surprised it turned out this way,” Taylor said.
The same could be said for many others, starting with 30-year-old Chilean Echavarria, who shot 65 with a 15-foot par save, a 12-foot birdie and two shots from the final bunker. Taylor was tied at 16-under 264.
Behind them were Steven Jaeger and J.J. Spahn, and the Sony Open looked to be going against them on the back nine until Jaeger's tee shot went out of bounds on the 16th and Spahn bogeyed the bunker on the 17th. Both men failed to birdie the par-5 18th hole to enter a playoff.
Echavarria was surprised it was just a two-man playoff game.
“If Nick doesn't donate the money, I'll win the contest,” he said.
Echavarria didn't miss a beat, winning the PGA Tour title for the third consecutive year. The bunker shot on the 18th hole was very creative and bold, resulting in a birdie. On the first stretch hole on No. 18, his second shot looked about 20 feet from the edge for an eagle putt, but the wind pushed it up the hill into the rough, forcing him to move up and down.
On the second stretch hole, No. 18, he was 40 feet away from eagle, and his first putt was soft and 7 feet short. He missed the birdie putt, extending the playoff.
“I misjudged the lag putt on the last hole. I didn't expect it to be so slow. Didn't account for the wind,” Echavarria said. “The wind blocked it and my lag putt was a little bit off today, which is my strength. But, I mean, just one bad putt doesn't define a great week.”
Taylor never looked like a winner, especially after missing two 4-foot birdie putts on the 15th and 16th holes, until he had a garland around his neck and the trophy in his hand. It was his fifth PGA Tour title and his last three in the postseason.
Last year, he beat Charlie Hoffman with a clutch putt in a playoff in Phoenix. It was at the 2023 Canadian Open that Taylor made a 70-foot eagle putt in front of an enthusiastic crowd soaked by rain to win the National Open Championship.
The win puts Taylor back into the Masters, a bonus after a dismal end to last season. He is back to No. 29 in the world rankings and will compete in all of this year's signature events. None of that seemed possible when he fell two shots behind with two shots to go after two brief misses.
“It's just one of those places you try to go until they don't let you play anymore,” Taylor said. “I was one to seven over par, making back-to-back birdies there. It's always packed here, but I did a good job every day and hung in there.
“Luckily for me, something really good happened in the end.”
Both Jaeger and Spahn left Waialae with many regrets. From the moment they turned the corner it was a duel between them, until the last three holes where they both played brilliantly.
Jaeger made a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 14 to catch up with Spahn, and then Spahn made a par putt from 30 feet to stay tied for the lead.
Jaeger finally caught up with him after hitting no fairways on the back nine except for an iron shot off the 15th tee. He hit driver to cut off a dogleg on No. 16, but the dogleg went so far left that it was never detected and was considered out of bounds.
“I was hoping to get back on 16. That ball was on the wrong hole,” Jaeger said.
Jaeger performed well, bogeying a provisional ball and falling just one shot behind – Spahn missed a 10-foot birdie putt that would have given him a cushion. Then Spahn bogeyed the 17th hole from a bunker.
Meanwhile, Echavarria and Taylor unite in an unlikely way.
Jaeger and Spahn needed birdies on the par-5 closing hole to advance to the playoff. Jaeger hit 3-wood off the tee but failed to clear the bunker, and his second shot hit the edge, sinking him into the rough about 178 yards away. He drove across the green and shot a 67 in par.
Spahn's shot on the 18th fairway went wide to the right, which was the worst place to be because the leeward chipped the pin to the right. He performed well, hitting the putt to 10 feet but missed the birdie putt for a 68.
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