SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 15, 2026

Nick Taylor

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here we are again.

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. Thought it was supposed to be harder this year with deeper rough and little wind and...

NICK TAYLOR: Well, I think we got lucky with the forecast this morning. I expected some more wind. I read I think Michael Kim had a tweet about the direction of the wind this year, which was pretty accurate in the sense a lot of the wind is doing with the dogleg, so it felt like some of the tee shots maybe weren't as challenging.

I hit it great, but, again, this course fits my eye. Again, with the wind was even a little more so today. Irons were really sharp and was able to read the greens well.

Q. First competitive round since the when?

NICK TAYLOR: I played the Nedbank in December. I was saying earlier I think I kind of timed the offseason well. I didn't want to like play nothing for four months, so I had a couple tournaments after two months off to have something to gear up towards and take time off.

I felt like that was about a month before this. Geared up to that, played decent, and took what I needed from it. Yeah, felt like my game was sharp coming over here. You never know. Coming to do a course I'm comfortable with definitely helps.

Q. So you weren't surprised by how well you hit it today?

NICK TAYLOR: No. Practice is practice. I'm pleased. It was nice the last week and nice it translated to a competitive round.

Q. What was your best shot today?

NICK TAYLOR: I hit a lot of great shots on par-3s.

Q. Did you birdie 7?

NICK TAYLOR: I did birdie 7.

Q. Dang.

NICK TAYLOR: I birdied three of the four par-3, buts. The 4-iron I hit on 4 was probably one of the best shots today. Yeah, irons were really tough.

Q. You were on top, pin high?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah. That's one you take a three and run to the next tee.

Q. Just kind of choke on the putt or what?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, pretty much.

Q. What do you have going forward?

NICK TAYLOR: Skipping Torrey Pines. Everything else on the west coast. Five to six weeks. Busy but good.

Q. Have you thought much beyond that having gone through the system we are at now?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I'll do Palmer and Players. I've never really got a great formula before Augusta. I think I might add Valero this year that I've skipped the last couple years. That I'll kind of see. I felt like once Augusta hits it's laid out for you, for me at least, through the British Open.

Q. When you're speaking of the majors, did it weigh on you at all the kind of...

NICK TAYLOR: Missed about 100 cuts in a row?

Q. Yeah.

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, certainly crosses your mind. It was probably more of a mental battle at Augusta last year to get that over with. Again, I still missed a couple cuts in majors, but I felt like both of those were some sloppy-ish mistakes. Wasn't necessarily -- you know, like didn't feel like I belong.

So felt like I made a lot of strides last year in the majors. U.S. Open I was kind of up there going into the final day playing with Scottie.

I took a lot from it. It's still something I want to build on this year, but I was happy with the progression over the last two years.

Q. It's kind of fluke-ish I have to that many missed cuts in a row in a major. Did you...

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah. I don't know if it's fluke-ish.

Q. It happens.

NICK TAYLOR: It happens. They're hard golf courses.

Q. It's not like... (talking over one another.)

NICK TAYLOR: I did it all certain ways. I've played poorly the first out. I had bad stretches coming in to miss by one or two. It wasn't just one thing. I felt like I built on that.