The Break: WM Phoenix Open (Taylor's Version)

Nick Taylor won the Phoenix Open a year after coming up just short

Author

Ryan Ballengee
February 12, 2024

Phoenix Open (Taylor’s Version)

A year ago, Nick Taylor fought valiantly at TPC Scottsdale but came up just short against Scottie Scheffler, who won the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the second year running. He came back this year as a trendy 170/1 long-shot to win in golf’s biggest party after winning the RBC Canadian Open last summer to end a 69-year drought for Canucks in their national championship.

This year’s marathon final day started with a similar feeling, with Taylor and Scheffler among the contenders for a Super Bowl Sunday win. And then 47-year-old sponsor exemption Charley Hoffman decided to take charge of the event. It appeared he had the event won as he finished on 21-under 263 ahead of the final groups. But Taylor was not done. He birdied three of the final four holes, including a 9 foot, 6 inch putt on the last to force a playoff with the Seagull.

In overtime, both players traded birdie 3s on the 18th hole in the opening playoff hole. Then Taylor shut the door on Hoffman’s fifth PGA Tour win with another birdie on 18 the second time around in the playoff. Taylor now has four PGA Tour wins, a deadly putter and all the momentum he could for as a multiple-time winner in the last nine months. Hoffman didn’t get a win that would bridge him to the PGA Tour Champions, but his consolation is a nearly seven-figure check and entry into this week’s The Genesis Invitational at Riviera.

Tiger Woods returns this week and hosts a 70-player field who will compete for a $20 million purse on the best course on the PGA Tour. The iconic Los Angeles club won’t have either of its last two defending champions as Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann are now on LIV Golf.

Seeing (Sunday) Red

Tiger Woods and TaylorMade Golf will unveil a new Woods-inspired apparel brand, Sunday Red, ahead of this week's The Genesis Invitational. For Woods, it'll mark the first time in his professional golf career that he isn't wearing a Nike swoosh on his clothing inside the ropes. It'll seem bizarre, like something is off.

However, this is not unprecedented. The greats of the game -- Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan and Player, for example -- founded their own brands and used their stature in the game to try to earn a foothold in a difficult market. Obviously the world is different in so many ways than when Nicklaus and Palmer up-and-started their own brands. For Woods, Sunday Red is competing with the mainstream apparel providers but also dozens, if not hundreds, of direct-to-consumer brands that make small-batch runs thanks to Alibaba and act like they're running a big business.

Still, Woods -- even at the twilight of his caeer -- is a huge draw. Multiple generations of golf fans have grown up knowing what Woods' Sunday red means and the connection to excellence. However, that alone cannot be the foundation of a strong apparel line. Sunday Red will have to encapsulate and represent Woods in fashionable terms, with items that not only reflect Woods' tastes but meet golfers of all ages where they are. I'm excited to see the shape that takes today.

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