Taylor’s journey to Canadian Open championship began in Winnipeg By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 5:51 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 13, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/06/2023 (851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nick Taylor is the talk of the sports world after sinking an improbable 72-foot eagle putt to win the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open on Sunday in a playoff, becoming the first homegrown talent to do so since 1954.

It was straight out of a Hollywood script, triggering a jubilant, chaotic scene that will go down in history. A true “where were you when” moment in this country, up there with the likes of Paul Henderson’s Summit Series-winning goal and Joe Carter’s World Series-winning home run.

Fun fact: Taylor’s roots are actually planted here in Winnipeg, where he was born 35 years ago. To help tell the tale, the Free Press caught up with his proud father, Jay, who spent more than an hour taking us through every step of this journey.

They may be long gone, having moved to British Columbia when the future national golf champion was just three years old, but there are multiple reasons Manitoba will always hold a special place in their hearts.

“We absolutely loved Winnipeg. Both our boys were born there,” Jay Taylor said in a phone call on Monday night from Los Angeles, where he’d just arrived a few hours earlier to watch his son compete at this week’s prestigious U.S. Open.

He admits a smile comes across his face every time a reporter, a television broadcaster or even the a PGA Tour course official introducing a player at the start of every tournament refers to his son, Nick, as being “from Winnipeg,” despite the fact his hometown is officially listed as Abbotsford.

“My reaction to that is, that’s right. He was born in Winnipeg,” he said. “Did he he mostly grow up and play in Abbotsford? Absolutely. But we didn’t leave Winnipeg because we hated it. Family, at the end, kind of ruled the roost.

The bond remains strong. This is where Jay met his wife, Darlene, way back in 1974, shortly after their families both settled down here. Both their fathers were travelling preachers, so moving around the country was a big part of their lives. Winnipeg would become their home for the next 17 years.

The couple became friends while attending the same bible college, eventually marrying in 1980. Jay was working for the city, first as a bus driver, and later as a supervisor. Darlene was an instructor at the Manitoba School for the Deaf.

Their first son, Josh, was born in 1985. Nick followed in 1988.

At one point, numerous family members were also here, but they slowly started trickling towards the west coast. Weather was a big factor.

“It got to a point where we wanted to be a little closer to family. You know, you’d go visit them for Christmas, and they’d be mowing the grass there in December,” said Taylor. “It was a tough decision to make. We left a lot of friends behind. We had bought a house in Whyte Ridge in 1986. We still have good friends there we keep in touch with. I got some great text messages this week from people in Winnipeg.”

The majority of them are saying something along the lines of “OH MY GOODNESS CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??” Taylor, for the record, can not.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve watched the video,” he chuckled. “What strikes me is all the different angles, and the consistent thing you see is just the joy on people’s faces. It’s almost universal across the board.”

The Taylors were, at one point, planning to be in Toronto for the event, just as they were last year. But they called an audible recently when Nick qualified for the U.S. Open. Rather than travel from B.C. to Ontario and then to California, they opted to cut out the trip east.

Whoops!

“Obviously, we would have loved to have been there,” said Taylor. “But there was some family there. Josh was there with him. I have an uncle who is 93 years old and came out all four days to watch. He’s so happy for Nick, and he had his daughter and grandchildren out. We were well represented.”

They had an unobstructed view of all the white-knuckled action on their television, rather than having to peek through the sea of humanity at Oakdale Golf & Country Club where thousands of fans packed the course to witness history.

Once the winning putt had dropped, Jay and Darlene headed over to their daughter-in-law’s nearby home in Abbotsford. Andie, who married Nick in 2014, has her hands full these days with their two young children — Charlie, 3, and Harper, two months old.

They had much to discuss and celebrate, including the way all the other Canadian golfers in the field gathered at the 18th hole to support their son — including long-time friend Adam Hadwin, who was mistaken for a rowdy fan and tackled by an over-zealous security guard. Taylor also can’t say enough about runner-up Tommy Fleetwood, who is a good friend of Nick’s off the course.

Taylor would love to say he passed his golfing talent down to his baby boy. He’d be lying.

“I did enjoy golfing while living in Winnipeg. The guys I worked with, we used to go around Windsor Park, John Blumberg, Cottonwood. We’d go out to Falcon Lake, and Clear Lake,” he said. ‘I’ll be perfectly honest with you. I never broke 80 on any legitimate golf course.”

It’s natural to wonder if Nick would have become the athlete he is today had the family not re-located to B.C. Taylor doesn’t subscribe to that theory, rattling off the names of great Manitoba born-and-raised golfers such as Glen Hnatiuk, Rob McMillan, Todd Fanning, Adam Speirs and, most recently, Aaron Cockerill.

What isn’t in dispute is the fact Taylor’s decision to sign his boys up for a membership at a local Abbotsford course when they were young ultimately paid off. First Josh, and then Nick, fell in love with the sport, ultimately giving up hockey and baseball to pursue it. Both ended up going to U.S. colleges on scholarships, with Nick ultimately turning pro in 2010.

One of his first events happened back in their old hometown of Winnipeg, when Taylor caddied for his son at the Manitoba Open in 2011 as a cost-saving measure in those early days. Dad is no longer needed on the bag, of course.

In his nearly two decades here, Taylor became a regular viewer of the Jets down at the old Winnipeg Arena. A favourite memory is when former WHA Jets goaltender Joe Daley brought Taylor on to the ice one day for a twirl while Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson were in attendance.

“Any thought I ever had in my mind that I knew anything about playing hockey was put to bed in about 20 seconds,” said Taylor. “It was just unbelievable.”

He tried to never miss a game when Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers were in town. How neat it was to learn Monday that, among the many who contacted his son to congratulate him about his epic victory was the “Great One” himself.

“This whole deal. Certainly from the perspective of Canadian golf history, this is as crazy as it gets,” said Taylor.

Nick won the Canadian Junior in 2006, the Canadian Amateur in 2007 and now has completed the career Canuck hat-trick with his memorable 2023 Open triumph. Next up, perhaps a PGA Tour major as early as this weekend?

Regardless of what the next chapter holds, Winnipeg will always be the place where his story began.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg