BLACK DESERT CHAMPIONSHIP

October 9, 2024

Nick Taylor

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Nick Taylor here at the Black Desert Championship. Just got done with your pro-am. What are your initial thoughts of the golf course?

NICK TAYLOR: Golf course is a lot of fun. I played all 18 yesterday, and obviously the views and the backdrops are spectacular. The course definitely has a lot of risk-reward type shots. The back nine a little more open, but there's still reachable par-5s, drivable par-4 on each side. A little more risk on the front.

The lava rock comes in a little tighter. Essentially I think a lot of guys are going to play the lava rock as out of bounds. Very few cases I think you'll be able to take unplayable or I don't think you'll be able to play it very often.

That will be the tricky part. Relatively generous fairways, but just got to keep it in the fairways to shoot low scores. I have no doubt there will be low scores, but there will probably be a decent disparity if you're missing fairways.

Q. Haven't seen you since Napa. What have you been doing with these two weeks?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I actually had three weeks off, so I had a lot of family time, some practice, in the gym a little bit to try and put on some muscle for the offseason. I don't plan to play a whole lot this offseason or, I guess this fall schedule. I'll do the next three events and kind of evaluate from there.

Yeah, just nice being at home. Obviously with how much we travel, home is almost a vacation, so it's been nice.

Q. Is this your first time to St. George and your family here is joining and what kind of activities will you do together?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, we rented a little townhouse in town. It is my first time here, so it's been fun to kind of explore. The family went to an old dinosaur exhibit yesterday, so they enjoyed that. I think we'll check out Zion at some point. But it's nice to check out new spots and adventure a little bit. Once tomorrow starts it's kind of strictly golf for the next four days, but we'll take our time getting to Vegas next week and do something Monday.

Q. 58 in the FedEx Fall rankings. How important are these events and playing and getting into Pebble and Genesis?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, definitely important from where I sit. That's kind of where I'll reassess after these next few weeks to see if I've solidified my spot in that top 60.

Yeah, get some momentum going into next year is kind of the game plan and work on a few things in the time off that I've had and test it out in competition.

Yeah, it's important to get that top 60 to add a couple of those Signature Events to start the season off right.

Q. You kind of mentioned about the course, the bentgrass in the desert. Talk about the course, the way it looks, the way it plays, and what the challenges are out there.

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, like I said, off the tee, keeping it in play is definitely step one. The greens are quite large but they have small little pockets, and I think being so new, the grass hasn't quite settled yet. So there's going to be a lot of subtle breaks that make it pretty tricky to read.

I think from far away it looks like there's massive slopes and big breaks, but really once you're in those areas where the pin will be -- we've had a lot of little subtle double breakers from 10 feet quite often the last two days when I've played.

There might be some head scratching from a lot of guys, I'm guessing, from that range. But like I said, I think there will be some really low scores every day, but they'll be -- I think I'll be satisfied with a 4 to 5-under, but I wouldn't be surprised if you saw some guys going quite low.

Q. Do you get caught up in the beauty of a course like this when you're playing it?

NICK TAYLOR: I think it's great to be able to disengage from what you're doing and look around you. We're lucky to play a lot of beautiful places around the country, but this is very unique in that sense. Yeah, I think it will be a good distraction, a way to get away from in between the shots.

Q. We don't have too many desert courses on the PGA TOUR. Is it kind of neat to add another desert course to the schedule?

NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, when I think desert, I think I default to TPC Scottsdale or next week in Vegas. But with the lava rock around, it's not really a playable desert. Yeah, there's so many things about this course that are unique. It's a lot of fun to come here.

Q. When planning out your fall schedule, what went into adding this event?

NICK TAYLOR: I heard great things about it. We spend summers up in Vancouver, so it's quite easy to get here from there. With Vegas being next week, it just made sense. I heard a lot of great things about it and the area, so it was pretty easy to add it.