PGA Tour rookie’s dramatic first made minimize story will make your week

Taylor Dickson is aware of what a spot within the Sony Open means higher than maybe anyone else within the subject.

Dickson, 32, has performed precisely 10 years {of professional} golf, and Thursday morning on the Sony Open was his first day as a full-timer the PGA Tour. Earlier than Thursday morning, he’d fought by 10 years within the golf wilderness — 5 on numerous mini excursions, and 5 extra competing on the Korn Ferry Tour — and gotten just one sponsor’s exemption into final yr’s Myrtle Seashore Traditional.

That is maybe why Dickson’s household determined to hop on a flight to Waialae for the second week in January: Taylor had lastly made it, and the Sony Open could be his massive debut.

A dramatic qualifying expertise by the Korn Ferry Tour Championship gave Dickson’s one of many KFT’s coveted few PGA Tour playing cards for 2025. He would be capable of play most tournaments on the Tour within the new yr, which left just one query: The place first? The season-opening Sentry is a Signature Occasion with a restricted subject, which took it out of the query. However the Sony Open, the second occasion of the Tour season, was up for grabs.

It takes a village to climb by the ruddy depths of professional golf into the high-priced pleasure of the PGA Tour, and it appeared solely becoming that Dickson’s village could be there in particular person as he took on the largest accomplishment of his professional life. A few dozen members of the Dickson crew joined him in Waialae, and he rewarded the cheering part with an opening-round 69.

It appeared the excessive would finish there for Taylor. He began his second spherical on the Sony Open with two early bogeys, pushing him to 1 over for the event and 4 photographs off the cutline. It seemed like Dickson was headed for a missed minimize, his grand PGA Tour debut over after simply two rounds.

However then a humorous factor occurred: Taylor Dickson began making birdies. The primary got here on the seventeenth, a par-3, then after the activate the first, a par-4. Then, on the eighth gap, one other par-4, Dickson drained a lengthy putt for one more birdie, incomes an incredible ovation from his small gallery of supporters. He walked to the ninth gap, his 18th, with the stakes set: a fourth and ultimate birdie on the par-5 and he would make the minimize on the quantity at 3-under, a par or worse and he would go dwelling early.

Dickson did his job from tee to inexperienced on the ninth, placing himself 20 toes from the opening with a putt for birdie. He surveyed the putt up-and-down, and at last struck it, sending his ball to the opening. A number of seconds later, it fell in, and the gang on the ninth gap went bezerk, together with Dickson, who tossed his putter within the air in celebration.

“Simply rolled it in, and folks went nuts,” Dickson mentioned afterward with a smile. “I kinda went nuts. Threw my putter within the air, didn’t catch it — unathletic — however it’s superior man.”

As he made his method from the ninth inexperienced again to the clubhouse, Dickson’s fan membership swarmed with hugs.

“It’s my household, they’ve been with me the entire time,” he mentioned. “And it makes the week higher, little doubt. We’ll be taking part in the following two days and it means the world. We’re gonna have enjoyable.”

Now Taylor Dickson has secured his first PGA Tour paycheck of 2025, and has the prospect to make a run on the weekend in his first full-time PGA Tour begin. It was the comeback of the week on the PGA Tour — and the continuation of a profession constructed on a single unifying premise.

“Simply know by no means give up, simply preserve going.”

You’ll be able to watch Taylor’s dramatic run to the cutline within the video beneath.