Nick Taylor moved into a tie for second place at the PGA Championship on Saturday, putting him two strokes behind solo leader Alex Smalley and within reach of a Sunday finish that could put him alongside Mike Weir in Canadian golf history.
He and fellow Canadian Corey Conners were paired together at Aronimink Golf Club and started the day tied for 30th at one-over par, then fed off each other early with matching three-under 32s on the front nine. Taylor said he and Conners had a lot of momentum over the first 10 or 12 holes and called it a relaxing day, even as Aronimink continued to play like a brutal major venue in cool temperatures, strong winds, thick rough, severely undulating greens and punishing pin positions.
That the round held together at all mattered as much as the score. Taylor has been first in scrambling and sixth in putting through the tournament's early rounds, a combination that has helped him survive a course where clean looks have been scarce and mistakes have been expensive. Aronimink has demanded the sort of patience and touch more often associated with a U.S. Open than a PGA Championship, and Taylor has found a way to keep pace without needing to overpower it.
The result leaves him in a position Canadian men's golf has rarely seen. Mike Weir remains the only Canadian man to win a major, and Taylor now has a chance to join him if he can turn Saturday's surge into a final-round charge. For now, the bigger story is that after beginning the day far from contention, Taylor is suddenly one of the names at the top of the board, with a major title in sight and one round left to try to claim it.
