Vaughn

Taylor

The three-time PGA TOUR winner earned one of those trophies at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am (2016). He’s returned to find three paydays in six tries since then, most notably finishing 21st during the 2021 edition. Taylor is playing on Past Champions status so starts will not be easy to come by. He went 0-for-3 in the fall and can remain off the fantasy radar for the foreseeable future.

Out of the late wave and playing with Troy Merritt, last year’s co-runner-up, and alternate Robert Garrigus, the 46-year-old was 3-over thru nine holes when he called it a day. He opened with birdie-3 at 10 (5'1"), bogeyed 13 (missed par-saver from 7'0"), and walked it off with a one-putt bogey-6 at 17 and a 3-putt double bogey-6 at 18 (from 53'0"). The Augusta State alum, who arrived 167th in the FedExCup standings, was making his third appearance at the Rocket with a best of T46 at the inaugural in 2019, and is a mid-tourney WD for a 13th time in 455 events, first since the Mexico Open eight starts ago, where he WD (shoulder) prior to R2 after opening with 4-over 75.

Taylor put on a clinic today as he split 10-of-14 fairways and hit the first 17 greens in regulation before missing the last, at the par-4 ninth. It was an all-around effort as he walked off the course ranked 16th or better in each of the four sub-categories of strokes gained. “Been struggling a little bit physically and haven’t been putting very well, but coming into here I told myself, you know, I know this course, how to play it, just go do it.” Taylor arrived with an 8-for-14 record on the season, currently just 176th in the FedExCup race. He’s making his 15th appearance at this event with top 20s in two of his last four visits.

The 32-year-old van Rooyen last played at the RBC Heritage, where he finished T-10 for his first top 10 of the season in 12 starts. He’s also had two notable finished on the DP World Tour this year, placing T-4 at the Slync.io Dubai Desert, two strokes out of the playoff won by Viktor Hovland, and he was T-12 the week prior at the Abu Dhabu HSBC. He missed the cut at TPBC Craig Ranch in last year’s Byron Nelson. This week’s event marks just the second PGA Tour start this season for the 39-year old Norris, who broke through for his maiden DPWT title over last month at the Steyn City Championship in his native South Africa. He has two other top 10s, finishing T-3 at the Joburg Open in November and T-9 at the Ras al Khaimah Championship in February. Also getting in as sponsor exemptions are James Hart du Preez and Vaughn Taylor.

Taylor opened his week with a birdie-free 75 (+4) to find himself outside of the top 120 on the leaderboard. He split 11-of-13 fairways but lost 1.98 strokes on approach, another 1.09 strokes around-the-green, and 1.69 strokes putting. This will go in the books as his 12th career mid-tournament WD on the PGA TOUR (447 starts).

Taylor is making his third appearance at the Corales, arriving with an MC and WD on his tournament resume. He flipped that script today as he split 11-of-14 fairways and pelted 15 greens in regulation (T2). The highlight of his day came at the closing, par-4 18th where he stuffed his approach inside of 10 feet while hitting from the fairway bunker around 155 yards away. Taylor missed the cut in his most recent start (Valspar Championship) but did find a T7 two starts ago, at the Puerto Rico Open, another event played on a coastal course with paspalum greens.

Despite garnering a scoring average of 69.56, Waialae Country Club has not been kind to the 45-year-old. Missing the cut four times, Taylor has yet to connect on a top-10 finish with his closest effort coming in 2020 when he finished in a tie for 12th. He followed it up with a T-25 last year when he posted +4.9 Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, perhaps signaling at a certain comfort level developing. He will need to lean on his last two years here as his recent form has been poor, last finishing inside the top-10 of a tournament at the Valspar Championship back in May of 2021. He is scheduled to begin his Sony Open at 12:20 p.m. EST alongside Russell Knox and Andrew Putnam.

The straight-shooting ASU product was set to make his 12th appearance at Waialae Country Club but he won’t make the trip after all. Reavie owns an 8-for-11 record at the Sony Open with a T8 in 2017 and T3 in 2019 as the highlights. His next chance to return to action would be next week at The American Express at PGA WEST.

This is the 45-year-old’s 10th mid-tourney WD in 435 events, second of the season in 29 starts, joining the opposite-field Corales back in March, where he WD prior to R2 (back) after a 6-over 78 in R1. He checked in this week off consecutive paydays at the opposite-field Barbasol (T42) and the John Deere (T34), and is projected to drop two spots to 145th in the FedExCup standings. The Augusta State alum was 7-over thru 12 holes (1 birdie, 4 bogeys, 2 doubles), 8-over total, and checked out after playing holes 9-12 in bogey, double, bogey, double. His lone top 10 so far this season was a T6 at the Valspar nine starts ago.

Coming off two consecutive made cuts at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and the Barbosal Championship, Taylor arrives in Minnesota in good enough form. Riding stellar iron-play through which, he has gained north of three-strokes on approach in four out of his last five starts, Taylor desperately needs a strong stretch of golf to end his season. About 74 points behind Bo Hoag, who occupies the 125th spot in the FedEx Cup standings, Taylor will need to string together quality starts if he expects to play at Liberty National in a few weeks. He is set to begin his 3M Open tomorrow afternoon at 1:28 p.m. CDT alongside D.A. Points and Ben Crane.