By now you’ve heard Nick Taylor has broken a seven-year drought, becoming the first Canadian-born golfer to win on the PGA Tour since 2007 with his victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
The 26-year-old staged a comeback Sunday, draining eight birdie putts to earn his first Tour win—and a bronze rooster.
Taylor was born in Winnipeg, and raised in Abbotsford, B.C. His former coach at the University of Washington, Matt Thurmond, gives us the goods on the first-year Tour player.
Seven things you should know about Nick Taylor:
1. Putting might be the worst part of his game. Taylor led all golfers Sunday with 4.594 strokes gained-putting, but that’s not usually his strength. “I’d say it’s the opposite,” Thurmond says. “He’s always been a tremendous ball-striker. He has a great short game. His putting, I’d say, has always been just OK. Sometimes hot. But he’s getting better and better. And watching him yesterday, his putting, all the fundamentals, looked phenomenal.”
2. Taylor eats a lot of Froot Loops. Well, he did in university, and coach Thurmond suspects that hasn’t changed. “I tell my guys all the time, these guys that are health freaks? I say, ‘Nick Taylor ate Froot Loops every morning before he played.’
“He’d always tell us how much better the Canadian Froot Loops were than the U.S. Froot Loops, and he was right. Whenever he went home he’d come back with a few boxes of Canadian Froot Loops. The U.S. ones aren’t even close. It’s like a whole different cereal.”
3. Despite the fact he’s a first-year Tour player, it should not surprise you to see Taylor win. “That’s just short-sighted,” Thurmond says. In 2009, Taylor tied the record for lowest round ever for an amateur at the U.S. Open, firing a 65. He was in contention, too, finishing T36th. He was also the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world for 21 weeks.
4. It’s probably surprising that Taylor won on Tour this soon. The PGA Tour rookie earned his card for this 2014-15 season via his finish in the Web.com Finals, but Taylor had been struggling of late. “I knew this day would come, but it did come on the heels of barely making a couple of cuts, and he hasn’t been lighting it up by any means,” Thurmond says.
5. Taylor is incredibly well-liked. “He’s such a special person, and you probably felt that yesterday,” Thurmond says. “It was big for Canada, because it’s a Canadian, but there’s something deeper with Nick. People just really, really like Nick. You can’t find anybody that doesn’t like Nick Taylor.” A nice guy story: When he comes over to Thurmond’s house, he always spends at least an hour playing Legos with the coach’s kids. “He’s like that with everyone; he makes everybody feel important,” Thurmond says. “He never acted like he was a star in any way. He’s very humble.”
6. If you were watching Sunday, you might’ve noticed Taylor didn’t look rattled or nervous. Says Thurmond: “He can handle pressure as well as anyone I’ve ever seen.”
7. There’s a possibility Taylor’s Twitter bio — ‘Top-5 Mario Kart N64 Players in the world’ — isn’t an exaggeration. “He might literally be one of the Top 5 in the world,” Thurmond says. Who knows if he’s been practising lately, but certainly Taylor’s Official World Golf Ranking has improved since his win: He moved up 356 spots, and is now No. 210.
