Vaughn Taylor wins his first PGA Tour Champions event in dramatic fashion

It was a tough week for the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament. They had to be lucky enough to avoid a hurricane. Then they had to dodge hurricane-adjacent thunderstorms, which were so numerous that tee times kept changing in an effort to get play concluded around the weather.

But Sunday was like it had never happened, except that the course was soft.  

Sunday was also a battle for PGA Tour Champions rookie Vaughn Taylor, who had to fight his way through a two-hole playoff with Champions Tour veteran Alex Cejka. It eventually took a birdie at to reel in the title, which softened the blow for Cejka.  

“I started like, I don't know, eighth, 10th position, so to make it all the way to the playoff, I'm very satisfied,” he said. “To lose against a birdie, there is nothing you can do.”

Taylor’s last victory came in 2016 at the PGA Tour's famed AT&T Pebble Beach event, more than 3000 days in his rearview mirror. Perhaps he has something for oceanside wins since the 18th at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast is on the ocean just as the 18th at Pebble Beach Golf Links is, and that’s where his 2016 win happened.

The difference is at Pebble Beach surf dramatically pounds and splashes rocks, while on the 18th at Hammock Beach’s Nicklaus Course, waves sketch a long, seafoam green line as the Atlantic stretches out to the north and south as far as the eye can see.  

Taylor is just six months into his career as a Champions Tour player. He wasn’t sure what to expect from his swing, especially after hip surgery in 2022. But he got a putting tip from Doug Barron last week.

“It was interesting to hear what he said. You know, I didn't know whether to do it or not,” Vaughn admitted. “I worked on it all week, just a simple drill.”

What, pray tell, did Barron tell him to do? (And will it help us?)

Barron told him to hit up on the ball and told Vaughn he was hitting down on it.

“My ball was hopping a lot last week, so this week even with all the rain and -- still I rolled it great. Ball was hugging the ground,” he added. It hugged it enough to go 17-under par.  

Vaughn is still getting his tournament legs underneath him after not much play in the last few years.

“I didn't realize how rusty I was for tournament golf,” he admitted a day earlier, adding that it’s definitely different than playing at home with his friends.  

He also noted that the adrenaline helped him.

“You're running a little more adrenaline, a little more nerves at times, and your body feels different, swing feels different,” he explained. “You got to reacclimate to those feels and build on them.”

In addition, momentum helped him, the kind he got by making five birdies in a row from the 10th through the 14th in the final round.

“Momentum is everything in this game. It can help you and hurt you,” he explained. “If you get a couple (birdies) in a row or just get things going in a positive direction it can completely flip your pessimistic mind and it can turn that off.”

That run allowed him to leapfrog several other players. He would have beaten Cejka outright except for a bogey at the17th. However, Cejka’s birdie at last hole in regulation is what eventually got him into a playoff with Taylor, but neither one knew that at the time because Cejka teed off more than 30 minutes before Taylor.  

“I already showered, changed to shorts,” Cejka said about the delay between his finish and Taylor’s. “I was already literally in the car. I had to hop out and change again. Didn't really hit balls. Like two, three balls on the range.”

For Vaughn, the victory changes his outlook.

“I really had a lot of thoughts of just not trying anymore and teaching, to be honest,” he said after winning. “Been thinking about how could I get certified as a teacher. This kind of changes that.”

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