Nick Taylor produced the shot of the season at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, as his 72-foot eagle make gave him a historic victory over Tommy Fleetwood.
Sony Open: Nick Taylor’s unbelievable chip-in may end up being shot of the year on PGA Tour
Nick Taylor may have already pulled off the shot of the year.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
The putt — and his celebration — were so iconic that RBC Canadian Open organizers changed their logo to mirror Taylor’s silhouette, emphasizing the significance of the shot.
Fast forward to Sunday, and Taylor did it again. He chipped in for an eagle on the 18th hole, which got him into a playoff with Nico Echavarria as both players finished at 16-under par for the championship.
Taylor then defeated Echavarria on the second playoff hole at the Sony Open in Hawaii, which marked the fifth win of his PGA Tour career.
“I’m a bit stunned this worked out this way,” Taylor said.
Aren’t we all?
What’s remarkable is that Taylor was not even supposed to be in that position.
“It was a grind of a day. I didn’t really look at the leaderboards until maybe the 13th or 14th hole. I had a sense of what was going on,” Taylor explained.
“When I missed the short putts on 15 and 16, I really thought I needed to get to 17 [under]. That’s kind of the number I had to start the day. You know, the chip-in on 18 was awesome. In that situation, I was thinking about was holing it. I felt like par or birdie wasn’t going to change a whole lot with [Echavarria] having a birdie chance there. I read it great and went in, and in the playoff to have those two nice ups and downs to hang in there. [Echavarria] was hitting it great all day and knew he wasn’t going to give it to me. Fortunate he missed that putt there.”
When Taylor arrived on the 18th tee, DataGolf gave him a 1-in-250 chance to win or 0.04%. He had made seven straight pars, two of which came because he missed a pair of birdie putts from within five feet. His confidence was low, but his chances of winning were even lower.
And then he poured it in from beyond the green, putting himself in a playoff.
“It hit very close to my spot,” Taylor added of his shot.
“We had a little read to the left with the wind and the slope. Five feet to go, it was one of those things like, wind, don’t blow it too far left type of thing and it went right in. Definitely one that I landed pretty close to where I was trying to.”
Come August, we will look back on this shot as one of the best of the year. And who knows, considering the dire circumstances Taylor faced, it might still stand alone at the top.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
