Tommy Fleetwood missed out on a golden opportunity to secure his first PGA Tour win when Canada’s Nick Taylor made a 72-foot putt on the fourth play-off hole to seal the Canadian Open at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto.
In taking the title Taylor became the first player from the host nation to win the event since Pat Fletcher in 1954, thus ending a 69-year hunt for a triumph from a home-grown golfer.
“I don’t think it’s going to sink in for quite some time what happened today,” said 35-year-old Taylor. “This is for all the other Canadian guys through the years, and this is also for my family at home,” To break that curse, if you want to call it that, I’m pretty speechless.”
Speaking about the winning putt, Taylor, who now has three PGA TOUR career wins, added: “With the rain coming down, we knew it was going to be slow. To even get it there was a bit of a surprise honestly, but for it to drop was amazing.”
Taylor overturned a three-stroke deficit on the final day to post a six-under 66 and set a clubhouse target of 72, which was matched by Fleetwood. The 35-year-old from Southport had a chance to seal it on the 72nd hole when needing to birdie the final hole, a 499-yard par-five which he had made birdies at on the three previous rounds. Bizarrely, Fleetwood opted for an iron off the tee, then proceeded to push his lay up approach into thick rough some 80 yards short of the green, leaving him a virtually impossible up and down for the win. In the circumstances he did well to find the green with his third, but the 30-foot putt down the slope for the win missed by two feet, forcing the tournament into extra holes.
Fleetwood matched Taylor’s birdie on the first play-off hole with a gutsy 20-foot putt, with both players making pars on the following two extra holes to extend the contest. Taylor then claimed a thrilling victory with his dramatic 72-foot eagle putt at the 18th hole as Fleetwood watched on helplessly,
“Nice moment for Nick and the home fans here,” said Fleetwood, who has now finished runner-up in five PGA Tour events. “It’s great to be a part of that Sunday and that play-off. I had my chances – I made a couple of mistakes coming in and missed a few chances to close it out in the play off, but it just wasn’t to be this time. We have a major this week, so I need to put this behind me and move on.”
English duo Tyrrell Hatton and Aaron Rai shared third with overnight leader CT Pan and Eric Cole fired a round-of-the-day 63 to end in sixth spot on 14 under, while Rory McIlroy’s bid for a third consecutive Canadian victory faded after a disappointing 72 left him in tied-ninth.
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Nick Taylor WITB
Driver: Titleist TSi3 (10°)
Fairway woods: Titleist TSi2 3-wood (15°), TaylorMade SIM2 Max 5-wood (18°)
Hybrid: Titleist TSR2 (21°)
Irons: Titleist T200 (4), Titleist T100 (5-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (46°, 54°), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58°)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x