Pebble Beach, CA, Feb 10: Phil Mickelson did not quite manage to hold on to his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, as Nick Taylor outplayed him for his second career PGA TOUR win.
Taylor after getting to a five-shot lead at the turn carded 2-under 70 for a four-shot victory over Kevin Streelman (68). Mickelson, who got to within two shots with four holes to play, shot 74 and was sole third. The five-time winner at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has also been runner-up twice. He has finished third in his last two starts – it was Saudi Arabia last week on European Tour and now here at Pebble Beach.
Taylor finished at 19-under 268, earning a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR.
Mickelson was not the only player to struggle. Dustin Johnson shot 78. Matt Every shot 80 and Jason Day closed with a 75.
Anirban Lahiri had earlier missed the 54-hole cut, as did Arjun Atwal.
Wire-to-wire winner, Taylor, who won in his fourth start as a PGA TOUR rookie at the 2015 Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi, also gets him into the Masters Tournament for the first time and also with the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in May.
Taylor started the final round with a one-shot lead over Mickelson and they were level, as Mickelson got up-and-down from a bunker on the par-5 second. But seven holes later, Taylor was five ahead as Mickelson double bogeyed eighth and bogeyed ninth. Despite a birdie early on back nine, he also bogeyed 12, 14 and 16 as Taylor cruised through to a win.
Yet, Taylor, too had his problems with the wind. After turning in four-under, he bogeyed 11 and 12 and double bogeyed Par-5 14thas he took five to reach the green. The gap became two, butt Taylor birdied 15 and 17 to ensure there were no hiccups.
The three bogeys on back nine took the sails out of Mickelson and he fell back and admitted Taylor outplayed him.
Additional notes from PGA Tour
Things to Know
- Nick Taylor wins the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by four strokes to earn his second PGA TOUR victory and first since 2014
- Taylor is the first wire-to-wire victor at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am since Phil Mickelson in 2005
- Taylor is the tournament’s first international winner since Vijay Singh (Fiji) won in 2004
- Taylor becomes the sixth Canadian with multiple official PGA TOUR wins
- Phil Mickelson becomes the third player in PGA TOUR history with at least one top-10 in 30 consecutive seasons
- Kevin Streelman and Larry Fitzgerald became the fourth team to win multiple titles in the Pro-Am competition
Miscellaneous Notes
- Jason Day(4th/-11) posted his fourth straight top-five finish at this event (4th/2020, T4/2019, T2/2018, T5/2017) and first top-five on TOUR since a T5 at the 2019 Masters Tournament
- Jordan Spieth, winner of the 2017 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, carded the day’s best score (5-under 67) and improved from T55 to T9. He carded just three final-round scores in the 60s in 2018-19 (best: 67, THE NORTHERN TRUST), and this was his first final-round score in the 60s this season
- Maverick McNealy carded weekend rounds of 66-68 (MP-PB) to finish T5 after being T89 through two rounds; his 4-under 68 was Sunday’s only bogey-free round
- With a T5, Charl Schwartzelearned 96 FedExCup points towards his Major Medical Extension; now has 10 starts remaining to earn at least 166 FedExCup points to equal No. 125 on the 2018-19 FedExCup points list (Pat Perez/376)
