Vaughn Taylor: Outsider is shock victor at Pebble Beach Pro

Golf, as tennis, is built on personality, recognition, and certainly, success.

But people had wondered the same thing about Taylor for more than 10 years. Even more mystifying was the way it returned. The doubters included Taylor.

Vaughn Taylor, ranked 447th in the world entering the tournament, beat Phil Mickelson by one stroke to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

But Mickelson already looked shaky on some shorts putts, misfiring on four from 8 to 10 feet, and he powered the birdie putt hard enough onto the edge of the hole for it to spin out.

Swede Jonas Blixt (69) was a further stroke back in third at 15 under.

A three-under 69 took England’s Justin Rose into a tie for sixth.

Of course, there was gloom for Mickelson and his supporters.

Mickelson said he didn’t drive it as well as he had earlier in the week, but he stayed patient and scrambled his way to the top. Taylor was going nowhere. “I lost a good bit of my game”.

In addition to struggles on the course, he endured a frightening boat accident while fishing on a river near his home in 2014 – one in which he feared he would drown. “I thought I hit it OK today”.

“It was a gift from God”.

Taylor qualified for the first major of the year in Augusta through Sunday’s win.

Taylor, whose last PGA Tour win came when he defended his title at the Reno-Tahoe Open in August 2005, made four birdies and two bogeys on the front nine before shifting his game to the next level on the back nine, which he started with a nine-foot birdie putt at the 10th.

“I played a bit tighter throughout the round than I wanted to”, he said.

“As nervous as I was and as disappointed as I am that I didn’t win, this was so much fun for me to get back into the thick of it, to feel the pressure, to make a couple of clutch putts on 16 and 17. The list is endless”.

Vaughn Taylor celebrates after making his putt on the 16th hole.

“Oh my God”, he said. “I mean, are you kidding?”

Taylor shot to the top of the leaderboard with a run of four consecutive birdies from hole Nos.

As for Taylor, the good life awaits. Oh man, a lot of dark days and nights. “I was trying to mentally prepare myself to go to a playoff”. “I just flushed it. It was kind of going in from the start”. Murray hit a respectable shot and made a decision to celebrate by launching his club down to the that world-famous 7th green (or maybe it was an attempt to deposit it in the ocean). Taylor, who prior to the victory didn’t have full status on the PGA Tour or Web.com Tour, was actually using a TaylorMade Purelite stand bag during the tournament rather than a typical staff bag. It’s incredible. I didn’t even have my tour card.