HONOLULU — Nick Taylor of Canada delivered another theatrical finish Sunday, this time chipping in for eagle on the 18th hole to get into a playoff at the Sony Open before winning with a superb pitch that set up birdie to defeat Nico Echavarria.
Taylor had never looked like a winner at Waialae, especially after missing two short birdie chances down the stretch. That changed suddenly when his eagle chip from 60 feet rolled in on the par-5 closing hole for a 5-under 65.
Echavarria joined him with a great bunker shot for a tap-in birdie on the 18th and a 65. They finished at 16-under 264.
Taylor has five PGA Tour titles and won the past three in a playoff. He had to hole a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th on the first playoff hole to stay alive.
Playing the 18th again, Taylor went from a fairway bunker to 46 yards short of the cup. His pitch was close to perfect, landing on the front of the green and rolling with the grain and wind to just inside 3 feet.
Echavarria was just on the collar at the back of the green, but his 40-foot eagle putt came up 7 feet short and he missed the birdie putt.
“I’m a bit stunned this worked out this way,” Taylor said with a smile.
So was Echavarria, who won in Japan last fall and finished one shot behind at Sea Island at the end of last year. His approach to the 18th on the first playoff hole looked to be about 20 feet away on the fringe until the wind gave it a nudge off the green into the rough.
“I misjudged the lag putt on the last hole. I didn’t think it was going to be that slow. Didn’t consider the wind,” Echavarria said. “The wind kind of held it and my lag putting today was a little off, which is a strength of mine. But, I mean, just one bad putt can’t define a great week.”
The victory sends Taylor to the Masters again, a big perk after a dismal end to last season. He had won the Phoenix Open with clutch putts in a playoff last year. His best playoff win was at home in the Canadian Open in 2023 when he made a 70-foot eagle putt.
Stephan Jaeger and J.J. Spaun both left Waialae with plenty of regrets. From the time they made the turn, it looked like a duel between them to decide the winner, and they put on a great show until the final three holes.
Jaeger holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 14th to catch Spaun, who then followed by making a par putt from just inside 30 feet to stay tied for the lead.
Jaeger didn’t hit a fairway on the back nine except for an iron off the 15th tee, and it finally caught up with him at the end. He hit driver to cut off the dogleg on the 16th but it went so far left that it was never found, presumed to be out-of-bounds.
“The one on 16 I would like to have back. Wrong hole to hit that shot,” Jaeger said.
Jaeger did well to make bogey off a provisional ball to stay only one behind — Spaun missed a 10-foot birdie putt that would have given him a cushion. And then Spaun made bogey from the bunker on the 17th.
All the while, Echavarria and Taylor rallied in improbable ways. Echavarria made a 15-foot par save on the 15th, a 12-foot birdie on the 16th, saved par from a bunker on the 17th and then hit a splendid bunker shot across the 18th birdie to get up-and-down for birdie.
Taylor looked like he had lost his chances by missing a pair of 4-foot birdie putts. He was two behind when he holed his 60-foot chip for eagle on the 18th hole.
Jaeger and Spaun needed birdie on the par-5 closing hole to join the playoff. Jaeger hit 3-wood off the tee and didn’t clear the bunker, and his second shot hit the lip and left him in the rough some 178 yards away. He went over the green and made par for a 67.
Spaun from the 18th fairway missed to the right, the worst place to be because the pin was cut to the right with the wind at his back. He did well to get it to 10 feet, and then missed the birdie putt and shot 68.
On a day when 15 players were separated by three shots at the start, those four were the only ones who seriously threatened at the end.
Hideki Matsuyama, who won with a PGA Tour record 35-under par last week at Kapalua, closed with a 66 and finished at 11 under and tied for 16th in his bid to become only the third player to sweep Hawaii.
