Golfer Nick Taylor aims to author another Canadian heritage moment at Paris Olympics
Representing Canada the latest feather in cap of 36-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C.
On the 10th hole of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, crowds began to swell behind Nick Taylor.
Through the back nine, the roars grew louder, rowdier and increasingly partisan.
By the 16th hole, Canadian Masters champion Mike Weir was back at Toronto's Oakdale Golf and Country Club. His round had finished much earlier, and he'd gone back to his friend's place for a quick nap, but he hurried back to the course with a gut feeling that he was about to witness something special from his fellow Canadian.
At the 18th, when Taylor's par putt dropped to secure a playoff, cheers could be heard throughout Ledgeview Golf and Country Club in Abbotsford, B.C. — the course on which Taylor grew up.
And when Taylor finally defeated England's Tommy Fleetwood after four extra holes amid pouring rain, punctuating the victory with a miraculous 72-foot eagle putt and a putter toss, a farmer in Saskatoon likewise threw his hands in the air and accidentally jerked his tractor into his crops, leaving a hole that remained a year later.
WATCH | Nick Taylor on being an Olympian:
In victory, Taylor became the first Canadian man to win his national open since 1954. Over the 14 months since, he has witnessed firsthand the effect of authoring one of those so-called Canadian heritage moments.
"I don't think I've probably fully grasped it yet," Taylor said at the 2024 Canadian Open in Hamilton, Ont. "It's hard to think of words instead of obviously saying how cool it is, but I appreciate all the people that come up and tell those stories because it is a lot of fun to hear."
Now, the 36-year-old will have the chance to etch his name into the history books yet again when he and Corey Conners head to Le Golf National in Guyancourt, France, to represent Canada at the Paris Olympics. The men's tournament begins Aug. 1, while the women — including Canada's Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp — tee off one week later.
All four Canadians in France will have the opportunity to break a drought even longer than the one Taylor shattered at Oakdale. It's been 120 years since a Canadian won an Olympic golf medal, dating back to George Lyon's victory in 1904. Of course, golf was not contested at the Olympics for 112 years immediately after.
But Taylor's Canadian Open victory revealed a part of golf seldom seen these days, as national pride overtook the constant chatter about money that's consumed the sport since the Saudis brought many of its biggest names to LIV.
WATCH | Taylor sinks iconic 72-foot eagle putt to win Canadian Open:
"It was a very special occasion, and you don't get that every day, but I think when you do it just shines a light on the coolest moments that sport and the game can give," Fleetwood recalled.
Weir concurred: "It was kind of unique. There were so many players around because there was that charter plane going to the U.S. Open. A lot of Tommy's buddies were cheering for him and all of us Canadian guys were cheering for Nick. It was a really cool scene, so it was a great memory."
Abbotsford remains home
Taylor was born in Winnipeg, but moved to Abbotsford at three years old. His golf career began at Ledgeview, where he grew up alongside fellow Canadian pro Adam Hadwin.
To this day, each of Taylor and wife Andie's families still reside back in Abbotsford. Brad Clapp, the general manager at Ledgeview, said Taylor and brother Josh came out for a 6:10 a.m. tee time just a couple weeks before The Open Championship in Scotland.
"We work really hard to make him feel comfortable in these buildings. He should feel like this is his place of solitude and peace when he comes home and relaxes on weeks off," Clapp said.
Taylor went on to have great success playing out of Ledgeview. He won the Canadian junior championship, and he and Henderson are the only people to ever win both the Canadian national amateur and senior opens.
Those accomplishments continue to make an impact at Taylor's home club.
"Being able to have juniors that can grow up and chip and putt on the same greens as Nick and those other guys, to see their newspaper clippings and some of the memorabilia that we have in the club on display here, really helps to connect the belief that they could be the next Nick Taylor or Adam Hadwin," Clapp said.
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Taylor has also received an honorary degree from the University of the Fraser Valley in his hometown and won a community champion award in Abbotsford.
"Nothing's really changed from how good of a person he was in junior golf here at Ledgeview, which is why he's so respected by the members. He's just a good, down-to-earth human being," Clapp said.
A year after Oakdale, during the Wednesday pro-am in Hamilton, it took just a little longer for Taylor to reach each subsequent tee box than his playing partners.
Between every hole, fans lined the ropes asking for selfies and autographs. Taylor never turned anyone down.
And come Thursday's first round, he found himself in a group with two-time Canadian Open champion Rory McIlroy. He said he and McIlroy walked past someone with a Canada-themed golf bag earlier in the week.
"Rory said, I wish I had as much passion as Canadians do about their sport," Taylor said.
In September, Montreal will host the Presidents Cup — a U.S. vs. international (non-Europe) event — where both Taylor and Conners appear primed to make the team captained by Weir, who once beat Tiger Woods in a match on the same course.
The Tokyo men's tournament introduced a new wrinkle to golf with a seven-man playoff for bronze, eventually won by Taiwan's C.T. Pan. American Xander Schauffele claimed gold, while Slovak Rory Sabbatini scored silver. Conners placed T13, two shots out of the playoff.
Taylor, who won the four-hole playoff at Oakdale and followed it up by winning in extra holes once again at the WM Phoenix Open in September — drawing Canadians' focus away from the Super Bowl in the process — seemingly knows what it takes to play up to the moment.
"It's taken work to be able to get in that mental state of focusing on that present moment. … When I look back at the Canadian Open, I take confidence from that, which only helped me when I was at Phoenix," Taylor said.
"I hope for less dramatic finishes in the future if I win again, but it's been a lot of fun to be in those scenarios."
But those scenarios have been few and far between for Taylor since his most recent win. He missed the cut at all four of the year's major championships and didn't play the weekend in his Canadian Open title defence in Hamilton. His best finish in a solo event since Phoenix was a T12 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
A knack for winning
Caddy Dave Markle was iconized alongside Taylor on Oakdale's 18th green, embracing his player in his arms after the putt dropped.
Markle, who lost to Taylor in the 2007 Canadian amateur championship and played on the same college team as him in 2008 at the University of Washington, said Taylor always had a knack for winning.
Now, Markle and Taylor will take their lifelong golf journey to Paris.
At the Scottish Open a week before The Open Championship, Markle said he received a call from his wife that a package arrived for him back home. She opened it to discover Canadian Olympic gear.
"Once Nick and I get there, it's going to be a tremendous honour and a week unlike any other. But at the same time, you kind of want to make it the same, and not put it on a pedestal. The beauty of the Olympics is three guys are going to win a medal," Markle said.
If Taylor is one of those three, it will be the latest feather in his cap of accomplishments while representing Canada.
"The Canadian Open kind of validated a lot of things for him," Markle said. "He could do whatever for the rest of his career. He has that moment in Canada where he was the guy to break the drought and do something that hardly anyone's ever done before and create a pretty special moment for a lot of Canadian sports fans.
"The rest is kind of gravy, you know?"
