Taylor rallies to win Pebble Beach for 1st win in a decade

But this win changes things in a big way for the 39-year-old, who earns a two-year PGA Tour exemption with his victory. Mickelson carded a two on the par-three No. 17, but missed the birdie putt on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff.

Finally, Taylor received word that Mickelson had reached the 18th green with a makable putt to tie for the lead. “I just have to give it my best next week”. But just as I think Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer used to ignore the competition when they played, I expect Rory and Jordan to be focusing on their own game at the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust Open and, if anything, to be grateful to have an opponent to push them. “But right now, I’m not quite there yet”. But he struggled most of the day, making four bogeys, and stepped to the No. 17 tee trailing Vaughn Taylor by two strokes. “When he was finally safe, he called his wife, Leot, who remembers him being ‘in hysterics.’ She remembers him thinking he would never make it back home to her and their young son Locklyn again”.

Ko closed with a 2-under 70 for a two-stroke victory.

Taylor’s snaking, 40-foot birdie putt on the par-4 16th was especially memorable.

Seven strokes ahead after opening with rounds of 62 and 66, the 58-year-old German star finished at 15 under 201 at TwinEagles. Mickelson is all about winning, though in his 25th year on the PGA Tour and already a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, it’s all about the majors. “I could just feel it. I had to keep my emotions under check, and I kept just trying to stay calm, and I can’t believe it happened”.

“The positive is that I’m having more fun playing golf right now than I’ve had in years”, he said.

Mickelson efficiently pieced together a 6-under 66 in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, though it only looked easy on the card.

Even for a player blessed with perhaps the best short game of all time, it was simply too much scrambling to manage.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in that position, it’s been a while since I’ve led a tournament, and it’s been a while since I’ve felt like I was playing this well, where my expectations were a lot higher”, he said. He also won in 2011 and 2013, was second in 2012 and tied for second in 2014.

Mickelson might not have won his first tournament since 2013, but he proved this week that the beginning of his season has been no fluke.

England’s Felicity Johnson, South Korean amateur Hye Jin Choi and Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen tied for second. None of the six players behind him on the leaderboard was among the top 100 in the world, and they had combined for four career PGA Tour titles.

Schwartzel, 31, left his clubs down in early December following the Nedbank Challenge, and did not return to action until last Thursday when he teed it up at Pretoria CC.

A second-round 66 had Lee within five shots of the lead at the halfway mark, but he slumped to a three-over 74 the next day and could only improve slightly on the final day.