MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2025

Nick Taylor

Quick Quotes

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Q. Nick, nice back nine there. Talk us through the round and those two birdies there at 15 and 16.

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, hung in there well. Felt like I hit it decent all day. The front nine, kind of a sloppy 5 on 3 and then my drive was a foot from being fine on 5 and that's kind of a bad spot; made a mess of it.

Hung in there well, which I was proud of. Could have -- 11 and 12 being 3-over, could have gone the other way pretty easily, but hung in there and it was nice to get it back to 1-over.

Q. The emotional ebbs and flows of a round, how much are they amplified at a tournament like this?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I think going into it, what I've learned is you've got to stay with it as long as you can. It's obviously a very tough golf course from the first tee shot to the finish.

If you hang in there mentally as long as you can, hopefully good things happen, but if you start pressing out here, that's when things can start going a little fairways.

Q. Do you have any conversations with your caddie before you start the round about how you want to stay in these major championship rounds?

NICK TAYLOR: No, we had a game plan and kind of stuck to it. Again, staying patient probably 9 through 12 was key. I made a really good save on 9 and again a sloppy three-putt on 10, but to hang in there and close out the round was a big day for that.

Q. Does this golf course feel more difficult off the bat because of all of the emotions from waiting to play and for months and months and the excitement and then you get out there and get smacked in the face by a difficult first tee shot?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, a little bit. I think everyone loves playing this tournament more than most, so the anticipation is definitely there. But today there wasn't a lot of wind. There was some gusts at times, but it was all over the place, which is a caddie's nightmare, it's a player's nightmare.

That's what made it really difficult, so staying patient from that standpoint was key.

Q. You had a good back nine, now you get to turn around pretty quickly. Is that better than having to wait?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I don't think it quite matters. I like the way I swung it that back nine, so if I can take the momentum into tomorrow and get off to a nice start, yeah, that'll be nice.

But tomorrow is a new day, but keep the momentum going would be nice.

Q. You've talked about how bad you want to play well at major championships with some of the recent past. When you're 3-over on the back, does anything creep into your mind and resist the urge to press?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, certainly.

Q. How do you do that?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, it takes time. Thoughts are thoughts. It's hard to stop thoughts. But if you can recognize them, be aware of it and get back to what you're trying to focus on is definitely what I've been working on the last handful of months.

I did a good job of that today, and again, there's nothing ever a guarantee when you do that, but you're going to give yourself the best chance to finish strong or make good things, so I feel like I got better as the day went on, which is nice.

Q. With some more experience, is there a particular shot you look forward to hitting the most on this golf course, one particular tee shot, one approach shot?

NICK TAYLOR: I've hit the draws off the tees nicely this week. It gave me a chance to go for the greens on 13 and 15. But it was such a hard shot today because the wind was all over the map. It was supposed to be hurt off the left on 13 but it was pumping down from where we were, and in that area, you want to trust the compass, but the way it was going, I ended up going with a shorter club and it actually went long, and 15 was similar, it was supposed to be almost helping off the left. When I hit it, it started gusting into us and I got it -- I was kind of short right in a pretty good spot, but if I was on line it probably would have been back in the water. It was really tricky, but I was able to pull off shots off, which was nice.

Q. You probably haven't had a chance to look at the leaderboard; you're only five back of second place. When you look at that do you take solace in the fact that --

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I think as the day went on you're aware of how difficult it was out there. It wasn't that easy to hit it close. So again, battling back to 1-over, we had Justin was ahead of us and played an incredible round, but like you said, it's a long way to go.

There's really no rain in the forecast from what I've seen, so it's only going to get firmer. I don't know what Scottie was last year, 12 or 13 or something. So there's a lot of golf left. The comeback was key.