CONSTELLATION FURYK & FRIENDS PRESENTED BY CIRCLE K

October 11, 2026

Vaughn Taylor

Hammock Beach Golf Resort & Spa

Press Conference

Q. First one from me. What is going through your mind right now?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: I'm in disbelief to be honest. I keep just thinking about the whole week, the whole day, the whole year, just everything.

I can't believe I'm standing here right now to be honest.

Q. What were the emotions like walking up the 18th in regulation and for the playoff?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, I was just trying to, you know, tell myself to hang in there. You know, don't give up; stay strong. You know, trying to calm my nerves.

But I just wanted to finish strong and not give it away or do something stupid and lousy. Just kept fighting, trying to keep my emotions in check.

Q. Talked about it being a tough year. Injury-related? Results-related? Anything else?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Just a little bit of everything. Life. It's been a tough few years. Had some, you know, issues. Had a hip surgery. Just haven't felt very -- didn't know if I was going to play. Kind of went into this year kind of with an unknown, so...

So I've had a lot of help to get me here, and it feels good that the work paid off.

Q. What was the hip surgery, '22?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: It's been almost three years.

Q. '22, '23?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah.

Q. Were you able to play much before you turned 50?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: No. That was the problem, yeah. I wanted to play some Korn Ferry before I came out here but didn't think I could physically do it.

So, you know, I had to understand what was actually going on with my hip. This year I've had a lot of help in understanding what was going on, so just that in itself kind of made me believe, hey, I can physically do this.

You know, just need to work on my mental game and get comfortable.

So just kind of how things have been going.

Q. Big win.

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Absolutely. This is huge for me. I really had a lot of thoughts of just not trying anymore and teaching, to be honest. Been thinking about how could I get certified as a teacher. This kind of changes that.

I just didn't know how was it going to go. You know, thought I want to give back to the game and thought teaching might be something that would do that.

So we'll see. Maybe hold that off for a little longer.

Q. Can you compare the winning feeling today to back at Pebble Beach ten years ago?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Absolutely. A little bit different, you know, the way it ended. Making a winning putt is a heck of a feeling. Kind of goes back to Reno. My first year I won there I made a putt to get into a playoff and made a putt to win in the playoff.

Very similar to those feelings. Kind of you're going through what you're doing and then it's all of a sudden, boom, it's over. Hits you pretty hard. It's a great feeling. A lot of adrenaline.

Q. Jim kind of alluded to it, but at the turn what were you telling yourself to climb back up the leaderboard there?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, you know, I just couldn't get it going. Made two birdies on the front and followed them up with bogeys, so I just kind of couldn't get some momentum going. I knew ten was probably reachable, so I definitely wanted to get a birdie there. And then hit a great shot into 11. Great shot into 12. Got away with one on 13; made birdie there.

And, you know, things from there were just kind of -- just what you -- what I needed and what you look for in golf sometimes. Just get hot at the right time and that kind of happened.

Q. I was going to ask, did you just need to see one birdie to kind of flip the switch?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, that's the biggest thing in golf, is just momentum. I mean, momentum is everything in this game. It can help you and hurt you, and just if you get a couple in a row or just get things going in a positive direction it can completely flip your pessimistic mind and it can turn that off.

Q. Mentioned yesterday it took you a while to get settled. This season when did you start to get settled? Or wasn't it until this week?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Just right now, to be honest. I haven't been settled all year. I thought as the year was going on I would just get more comfortable, but I wasn't handling it very well on Sunday and just in my own head mostly.

Just putting too much pressure on myself, treating it like life or death. So tried not to do that today. I tried to just give up control and just play. I've been putting the work in and just leaving it up to God really.

I tried my hardest to just put it in His hands. It's funny, I think we were on 12 or 13, I heard music from a church nearby. Think it was Joy to the World was playing. I'm like, wow, this is pretty cool. I just took that as a sign and just leaned on Him.

Q. Can you take us back to the 54th tee box? Did you know exactly where you stood and what was going on with Michael Wright and that situation?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: I thought I was one back after 17. I thought he made par, and I obviously made bogey. I thought I was one behind and then watched him putt out and I could tell that was --

Q. Up here?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah. Looked like par or bogey. I don't know what he made. So when I got to the green I asked my caddie, how do we stand and he told me what was going on.

Q. One more. You said you wanted to calm your nerves. Breathe different or what did you do?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Oh, yeah, just breathing is a big part of it. Just breathing, relaxation, just, you know, over and over and over. Just talking to yourself, trying to stay positive.

One thing that stuck in my head today was my son, I talked to him last night. He just told me to keep fighting. He said, fight dad, fight. So that was going on in my head, too.

Q. One more. Where did you feel the most pressure? The last putt? Tee box, second shot? All week.

VAUGHN TAYLOR: All week? Probably -- I don't know, probably 16 fairway maybe.

Q. Why is that?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: I just knew where I was at and got a little nervous, kind of hung one out to the right there. Same thing on 17. Just wasn't quite as calm as I wanted to be there; didn't hit a good iron shot and led to a three putt.

But I just kept hanging in there. I knew hopefully I'll have a chance here on 18.

Q. What did Jim say coming up this fairway?

VAUGHN TAYLOR: I just asked him how he was doing. I haven't seen him in a long time. I knew he had surgery and he's been out for a while. He's just such a friendly guy. He's been a mentor to me and just always, always takes his time to talk to me.

He's just a great guy, so I just wanted to say thanks and see how he is doing.

Q. That putting lesson from Doug Barron, not much of an adjustment I would imagine.

VAUGHN TAYLOR: Just did a little drill. I was in it a little disbelief with it. I was like -- because I've been putting well the last couple months. I just had an off week last week. Just -- I was going to chalk it up to just had one of those weeks.

It was interesting to hear what he said. You know, I didn't know whether to do it or not. It was kind of like, do I continue doing what I was doing or give this a shot?

I worked on it all week, just a simple drill. You know, the ball rolled really well on the greens, so that was kind of the thing. My ball was hopping a lot last week, so this week even with all the rain and -- still I rolled it great. Ball was hugging the ground.