Canadian Nick Taylor second at Phoenix Open after going shot for shot with Scottie Scheffler

The only person in the way of a third Canadian winning on the PGA Tour this season was perhaps the worthiest of champions.

Scottie Scheffler repeated as the winner of the WM Phoenix Open on Sunday after a final-round 65, returning to world No. 1 in the process. He topped Nick Taylor by two shots.

Taylor, of Abbotsford, B.C., hung on in the Sunday showdown until Scheffler rolled in a 21-foot eagle on the par-5 13th. Taylor hit his approach on that hole into the rough behind the green and still made birdie but remained one back and couldn’t jump Scheffler over the final five holes.

There was a small opening on the raucous par-3 16th after Scheffler hit a poor tee shot, but he rolled in a 15-footer to save par while Taylor pushed his six-foot par attempt wide for his only bogey of the day. The Canadian lipped out a birdie try on 17 but closed with an 8-foot birdie on the 72nd hole and shot a 6-under 65.

“I played great today,” Taylor said. “I putted great all day, hit a lot of great shots, so I don't have a lot of complaints.

“I feel like I put a lot of good swings in the right moments, just didn't turn out.”

Scheffler became the seventh person in tournament history to win back-to-back titles. His win a year ago was the first of four on the season, which ended with him winning player of the year honours.

The tournament, held in Phoenix on the same weekend as the Super Bowl for the fourth time, was deemed one of four designated events on the PGA Tour schedule for 2023, part of the Tour’s attempt to combat the bottomless pockets of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. It featured a $20-million (U.S.) purse. Scheffler won $3.6 million and topped a field that included eight of the top-10 ranked golfers in the world.

Taylor, lives just six kilometres from TPC Scottsdale, earned $2.18 million, more than the combined total of his two career first-place cheques (at the 2014 Sanderson Farms Championship and the 2020 Pebble Beach Pro-Am). He was looking to join George Knudson (1968) as the only Canadian winners of the Phoenix Open.

The 34-year-old Taylor switched caddies in the fall to fellow Canadian and long-time pal David Markle — who, like Mackenzie Hughes, Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith, is an alum of the Kent State University golf team — and began working with Canadian-Irish short-game guru Gareth Raflewski about a year ago. Raflewski helped Taylor to transition to a new claw putting grip. Taylor was third in strokes gained around the green in Phoenix.

“It’s taken awhile for the change to take, but nice to see it happening now,” Raflewski told the Star.

Taylor’s second-place finish comes a day after Stephen Ames won for the third time on PGA Tour Champions. He captured the Trophy Hassan II on the senior circuit by five shots Saturday afternoon.

Two Canadians have won already on the PGA Tour this season: Hughes at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October and Adam Svensson at The RSM Classic in November.

“I feel like we’ve been getting strong and stronger on Tour,” Taylor said of his fellow Canadian male pros. “It’s great for us all to play together and have the brotherhood like we have. I feel like we’re all playing well, so it’s exciting.”

Fellow Abbotsford native Adam Hadwin was in the penultimate group Sunday but couldn’t get on a run and shot an even-par 71 to finish tied for 10th, his third top-10 of the season. Conners finished tied for 50th while Pendrith was tied for 57th.