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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2016

Vaughn Taylor

Augusta, Georgia

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome back to Augusta National for the first time since 2008, Augusta native, Vaughn Taylor.
Vaughn overcame a six‑shot deficit and posted a 7‑under par 65 in the final round of the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro‑Am to claim his first PGA TOUR victory since 2005 and his third career total.
His best finish at Augusta National was a tie for 10th in 2007.
Maybe before we begin, if you can give us the flavor of how you feel coming back to Augusta National.
VAUGHN TAYLOR: It's been a great feeling. Came out yesterday and just really found myself in a really, really good mood, was upbeat. Just feels great to be on the grounds.
Today is a little bit different than yesterday. There's no gallery and things. Was a little anxious this morning. Still a little jittery, but it's good. I'm having fun and, you know, just really, really appreciate being back.

Q. From when you last played here to kind of the road your career went down, what would you call the low point, and did you ever have any doubts about getting back?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I'd say the low point was probably the week before Pebble (laughter). I got really sick in Bogotá, had a stomach virus. You know, I was playing on conditional status on the Web and we played like four or five holes, got a rain delay on Thursday. Started feeling sick in the afternoon and just felt terrible that night. I was just laying in bed just praying for it to stop. It was just a combination of where I was, how I was feeling and what status I had. And felt a lot of pressure heading into Pebble, because I knew it was going to be one of my few TOUR starts of the year, and it was tough, a tough couple days there in Bogotá.
What was the second part of your question?

Q. What do you take out of that? What lesson do you have looking back at Bogotá and Pebble?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: It was one of those, when you least expect it moments. Experience in golf for me was when I was struggling or in a bad place, it seemed to take a long time to turn around. And it turned around quickly in one week.
Just tells me, never give up. Always believe, always believe in yourself, no matter what your game feels like or where you're at playing and what's going on.
So you've got to always have that belief that this will be your week and things will turn around, and it actually happened. It was pretty an amazing.

Q. I understand you came back last year to the Masters, practice round tickets or something like that. What was that like, and were you just sort of at that point thinking, you know, I probably won't get back here to play again, or was that more motivation for you to get back?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: You know, thinking about it, my son was a little over a year old, and my wife, we thought it would be cool to bring him out, and hopefully he'll get to come every year. That was kind of what we were thinking. We just wanted to bring him out.
I had always been a little hesitant to come back. I wanted to wait until I got back in the tournament. And just the way I've been playing and the way things were going, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back.
So I said, you know, let's go with him and just have fun. Forget all those other things I was thinking about, and wasn't sure whether I would get back or not. Let's just go with him and have fun, just take him out here and breathe in the air and take it all in. And that's what we did. At that age, it was hard to keep him under control. I mean, he just wanted to run under the ropes and things, so it was more of us just following him around, chasing him around. We were lucky enough to get him to sit down and eat lunch for 20 minutes.
But we probably stayed for a couple hours total and just had a good time. It was just more bringing him out and see what he would think about it.

Q. Did it motivate you, though, to sort of work again to get back?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I would say so. It had been a long time, and I felt really comfortable here, though. I feel like I hadn't missed that much time, so it was a good feeling and a good experience.

Q. With all the excitement of winning, how quickly did you think that day, this takes me back to the Masters? And also, what were you planning to do this week had that not happened; had you gotten that far in your schedule?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I didn't really realize it until Dottie Pepper, I was doing an interview with her after the round and she brought it up. There was so much going on, and waiting on pins and needles to see Phil finish and things. So I had not really thought about it at that time.
But that interview with Dottie was kind of when it hit me. It was like, wow, I'm going back to go Augusta. It was a nice little surprise she hit me with.

Q. Had you gotten that far enough in your schedule to know what you were going to do this week?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: This week I believe is Cartagena on the Web.com. So with my status, I was guaranteed four out of the first five events, and Brazil and Cartagena would have been‑‑ if I wanted to keep my status on the Web.com, I probably would have had to go play those. I could be in Cartagena this week (laughter).

Q. Kind of off of what Scott said earlier, how often did you wonder in the last couple years when or if you would get back here? And secondly, how does this one feel different to maybe the last time you were here, which you were playing some pretty good golf at that point?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: You know, with the way I've been playing, I played well last year, but prior to that, it was a struggle. And I really wondered, I kept telling myself, if I want to get back, I've got to get better. I've got to improve on a list of things, and I was working on them.
But sometimes we don't see results until later down the road, and that's kind of what happened. I knew I had to get better. I knew I had to play better. It kind of came together all in one week, mostly in one day. Sunday was just a magical day. Everything came together and it was amazing.
Back in 2006, 2007, 2008‑‑ it's a lot different this time around. I got there a lot different path than I did this year, and it's special this year. When you're younger, you expect to play well, and you kind of take things for granted. I kind of thought I would be in every year, but that was just being kind of young and dumb.
This time around, it's much more special and I'm really just going to take it in and enjoy the experience.

Q. Since you won at Pebble, I don't think you've made a cut, you haven't played that great. Do you think you've maybe been focusing on this tournament too much?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: It's possible. I've kind of felt a little different since then. My swing's felt different. My game's felt different. So you know, I can't really say for sure, but this has definitely been in the back of my mind since Pebble. I've been working for this week. And all the things that feel funny are kind of my tendencies.
So it's kind of weird how I've been working on them so hard, and then I get them fixed, and then you know, my life changes and then all those things are bothering me again. So it's kind of, just shows you how crazy golf is and how tough it can be sometimes. But I feel like I've got a game plan and working on everything. I'm hoping things will come together this week, too.

Q. You said you wanted to have some confidence going out of Houston. Where is that confidence at now?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: (Laughs). I didn't play well last week at all, probably the worst of the year so far. Didn't play well on Friday at all.
Confidence, it's day‑to‑day. You can get it back as quick as you lose it. If I can go out and play good today and just feel good about my swing and how it feels, you know, I can pick it right back up. I'm just going to kind of not think about the last few weeks and how I played recently, and just focus on this week and how I'm feeling. Hopefully just get in a groove out here and play well.

Q. There's a photo of you on The Augusta Chronicle's website at the 1986 Masters getting an autograph from Billy Casper. Wonder how well you remember that experience and how it compared then to the experience of coming back here as a player?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, I do remember that. It was on the Par 3 course. Me and my dad, we would always love to come out to the Par 3. We came every year for some amount of time. I use to be one of those kids that loved to get autographs and memorabilia and things.
I think we were‑‑ I can't remember where we were standing, I think it was off the pond on No.9 somewhere. It was a really good spot to get autographs. I could hang there for a couple hours, and my dad would go wander around and things. It was pretty cool, my mom‑‑ I think Scott might have pulled that picture out of somewhere, and I hadn't seen it in years, probably since it happened. Good memories, so many good memories out here.

Q. How has the way you view the game of golf changed between that last Masters appearance and this one? And when it did get low and you were at the lowest point, was there a time you thought you were going to give up the game completely?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I never thought I was going to give up the game completely. I was unsure of where I was going with the game, but I knew I'm a golfer and this is what I do well and this is what I want to do. I never gave up hope. It was what I always wanted to do.
And now, I mean, I'm older. I have a family and I think golf is‑‑ it's not secondary, but I realize there's more to life than golf. When you're young, it's all you have is golf, golf, golf, and you live and die by it, the scores you shoot. It's too much on you, I think. I think once you have a family, you realize‑‑ I have a little son that I go home to him and he has no idea. It's just great to have that unconditional love and not have to worry about golf so much. It's great. It's been a big learning curve growing up and having family now.

Q. Without going into a lot of detail, what were the things that you worked on that you had to work on to get back here?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Worked on my core. Kind of neglected working out. I have a little bit of an old‑fashioned view of the swing, and didn't think it was important.
When I got vertigo, my body changed a lot. My neck and my hips just got way out of whack. My body started to change. Just didn't realize how right‑sided I became. So really, that was probably the biggest thing was to just try to get my body back in shape, back in balance.

Q. When did you have vertigo?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I think it was 2007, somewhere in there.
And that was probably the biggest, I think just working out on the core a little bit has kind of helped the problems in my swing.
My putting, I putted really well for three, four years, and then my putting just kind of fell off a little bit. Wasn't as good as it used to be. Showed spurts recently of getting that putting back.

Q. The forecast this week looks strangely similar to 2007, with some cold days forecasted for Friday and Saturday. How much do you think about 2007, 21 holes to play, you were the sole leader of this tournament, and what do you take from that coming back again?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, I was hoping for warm weather just so the course will play shorter for me. I think the long hitters have a huge advantage. I was hoping for warm, fast conditions.
You know, 2007 was a year like I've never seen. It was really, really cold and windy, and there weren't many fans out. It was strange. I've never seen it like that. And the greens were as fast as I've ever seen them. They were scary. They were really scary.
To be honest, I don't really know how I did it that year, because those conditions would be tough for me. But I've played well in those conditions before. So I think heading into this week, if we see that type of weather, I think I'll draw from past experiences and try to get comfortable with it.

Q. Did you know you were in the lead at that point after the birdie on 15 that day?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I did. I can just tell by the crowd's reaction, it was really just a different sound and there weren't many people out at that time because it was so cold. I took a glance, I couldn't help it. I just wanted to look (laughing). I knew something had happened and I was like, yeah, it was really weird and I was kind of looking like this (indicating) and I just couldn't not look at the board.

Q. Have you done any fishing in the Savannah River in the last little bit?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Just a couple days. This winter we got a lot of rain, so kind of the river is in kind of a rebuilding stage, I would call it. Just a lot of rain. So the river has been really high. It's been hard to catch fish.

Q. First of all, where is the Billy Casper autograph now?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: That's a good question. Hopefully my mom has it stashed away with a bunch of other things that I don't know where they are, either.

Q. I'm curious, on that feeling of walking on clouds after Pebble, either that night or the next few days, how much of it was because of coming to the Masters and how much of it was job security?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: You know, it was a lot of both. At that point in time, I think job security was probably more‑‑ people were talking more about, you have two years exempt now. Kind of from having no status to getting a couple years exempt, that was probably the biggest at that moment.
But since then, this has kind of weighed more on my mind than job security.

Q. Looking at that round on Sunday at Pebble, I'm sure you've looked back and things stood out that may not have been obvious at the time. What are a couple of moments where you look back and you go, this has a chance to happen?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: There was a lot of moments that day. The first hole, I mean, I hit it to like three or four feet and made birdie. I birdied 2. Then I bogeyed 3. And there I was telling myself, that was probably a good thing, because I didn't want to‑‑ sometimes you almost don't want to get off to too good of a start, because it gets you thinking far into the future, and that's what I didn't need. I needed to stay in the present.
Then the front nine was kind of like that. I would make a birdie, make a bogey, and would kind of just tell myself the same thing, stop thinking ahead, don't think ahead. Made a few birdies on the back.
15 was probably the biggest moment. I mean, when I saw the ball kind of ricochet off Matt Jones' ball, it was like, man, something special's happening. I could feel it; I felt different than I ever have. Just an amazing, magical feeling that I had inside of me. It was awesome. I think 15 was probably the biggest.
And then the putt I made on 16 was kind of‑‑ that was all just the way I was feeling and kind of just I knew something special was happening. It was awesome. It was amazing.

Q. So you came back last year, but what about those other years? What did you do? Were you home here in Augusta, and how did that feel to not be part of this?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, I kind of did some different things. I wanted to be here mostly. I think I played a couple years somewhere else. But I like being here this time of year. I always wanted to be home, and I think I skipped‑‑ I skipped a few tournaments that week just to be home. I just wanted to be here. I love this time of year, and the weather's amazing. Love watching the tournament.
So it's hard being away, so I always wanted to be home. I just feel like I'm part of the tournament.

Q. How old were you the first time you came here?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: I believe I was nine or ten. I might have been ten actually.

Q. Kevin Kisner said that it takes him 22 minutes to get here. Wondering by how much you win the shortest drive competition?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: (Laughs). It probably takes me, no traffic, I've probably got him by five minutes. We'll call it 17. I came here a few weeks ago and it was 15 minutes and I was really pretty close. I'll give it 17.

Q. What are your impressions of the 18th hole here and what kind of success or not have you had there over the years when you've played here?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: 18, since they backed the tee up, it's kind of like a lot of the holes when they back the tees up, the chute you're hitting through is kind of far up. So visually, it looks very narrow and you've really got to hit a good tee shot, a little fade, ideally.
For me, hopefully I'll be hitting a mid‑iron in, which is not bad. So if it plays wet and long or into the wind, it's going to be a tough hole. I'm going to be hitting long iron in.
But the green there, if you can use the slopes and use your knowledge from the past on that hole, you know you can hit a good shot in there. It's a great finishing hole and it's not the easiest hole on the course for sure.

Q. Just curious, since Pebble, have you ever had occasion to run into Phil, and do you think a guy with lifetime job security in Masters appearances can appreciate what that meant to you?
VAUGHN TAYLOR: We played together last week actually.

Q. That would be a yes, okay.
VAUGHN TAYLOR: Yeah, we were paired together Thursday and Friday. We didn't talk about it much. He told me pretty early in the round on Thursday, he told me congrats again, and that meant a lot. I knew he‑‑ I can tell by his demeanor, he really wanted to win that tournament.
He came up to me right after, when I was giving some interviews, and told me congrats. He looked upset. He looked like he really wanted to win that golf tournament. I thought he would be happy‑go‑lucky about it, but he was fiery and he really wanted to win. It shows the competitor he is and the nice guy he is, as well.
THE MODERATOR: Vaughn, thank you very much for giving us your time. Best of luck this week.

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