THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome 2023 RBC Canadian Open champ Nick Taylor to the interview room.
Nick, you're coming off a top five at Memorial, a win earlier this season. Can you talk about the state of your game heading into your National Open?
NICK TAYLOR: My game feels good. It's been a pretty consistent year. I haven't been trying to reinvent the wheel at all, just kind of being more consistent off the tee, which has helped. Iron game has been strong this year, and the short game has been solid.
It's come together nicely in some bigger tournaments, which is always the goal to start the year, play as well as you can in the big events, and it's been nice to be consistent.
Q. You're sitting, and behind you the RBC Canadian Open logo is there, I don't know, 30 times. It's right here on the stage. When you look at that, does every single time kind of chuckle to yourself or laugh, or what do you think when you see it?
NICK TAYLOR: It's a range of emotions, chuckle. It brings me back to that moment. I actually drove in with my wife, and we saw the one photo that's the silhouette of that. In that moment I always remember when I see my face, it's when I found Dave and just was like holy-you-know-what in the moment.
It's this cool thing to see it, and it only is good memories. It's pretty fun to see it around here the whole week.
Q. On the golf course itself, first impressions, what kind of test do you think it's going to offer this week?
NICK TAYLOR: I saw the front nine Monday for the first time, the back nine today for the first time. It's kind of hard to gauge. We've played with a different wind those two days. There's some really tough par-4s on that back nine. There's a few scorable holes.
The fairways are bouncing, so it's tough to hit fairways, with the angles of them and some of the crosswinds. The rough is up enough, it will be tough to hit it close out of the rough. I could see low scores each day, but I'm not sure if it's going to be an entirety of the field shooting low scores.
I'm out early tomorrow. One of those where sometimes you might wish you're in the afternoon to see kind of how things are going, but I think there's birdies out there. It's just depending on, I think, the wind in the direction of certain holes. If you're missing a lot of fairways, it will be tough to make birdies.
I don't think it's going to be a shootout by any means, but there will be some low scores.
Q. My first question is pretty straightforward. You're in an all-Canadian group the first two rounds. How exciting is that for you to get to play with two guys that you're friends with and you know really well?
NICK TAYLOR: It's a comfortable pairing obviously. I play with those guys a lot of weeks in practice rounds. So it will be fun. Two Ontario boys, there's going to be a lot of support for the three of us. I'm going to enjoy that.
All of us -- caddies, players, all six of us are Canadian. We just know each other well. It's going to be a very comfortable pairing. So I think hopefully we can get some birdies going early, getting some energy going our way, and hopefully have a few nice rounds.
Q. Pendrith was here earlier, and he said you guys were at an event, and then the group chat blew up when you learned you were going to be in the same group. What was that moment like when you guys saw what the tee times were?
NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, we were out at RBC Day yesterday. I don't know what to expect necessarily with the pairing this year. I'm not entirely surprised they put three Canadians together, but the group chat got going pretty quickly there when we knew we were going to be playing together. Again, it's going to be a lot of fun playing with buddies and being pretty comfortable out there.
Q. I'm just curious about your flow in this early part of the week before the tournament starts. Obviously there's a couple of different demands on you on the Canadian Open week versus any other week. It's ironic that almost every other week on the PGA TOUR all the Canadian guys play together on Tuesday except for this week at the Canadian Open. How have you found you've been able to adjust to this week over the last five years and kind of got better at getting settled and sorted and teeing it up on Thursday again?
NICK TAYLOR: Even the five years has changed a lot. Last year was an entirely different thing than even the year before. More depends on your times. I've been better, but learning to say no at times in the last few years is important.
You want to obviously evaluate everything and try and make the best decisions, but rest is very important these few days, kind of gearing up for Thursday and have enough energy to put your best foot forward.
Just managing that and getting enough work in to feel prepared. So I feel like I've done a pretty good job this year, probably better than last year with just how everything was.
Q. Mike Weir has long talked about how much he would love to have another Canadian win the Masters and join him in the champions locker room. For you, being so close to this group of guys, how cool, how much of an honor, how neat would it be if another Canadian managed to win this national championship?
NICK TAYLOR: Yeah, I think we all pull for each other. I think it's been great for five, six years now of us being a close-knit group, playing so often together but also playing so well. It seems like almost every week one of us is competing trying to win on the weekend.
Yeah, it would be fun. It would be fun to be here rooting them on, like they were for me greenside. I hope to be the one trying to win again. Again, if I were here to witness it too, it would be a lot of fun.
Q. You can take this any direction you want, but what is one thing that you like about yourself?
NICK TAYLOR: Wow. I think I'm determined. I think I've been that since a young age. If it's anywhere from trying to get good grades or being good at golf, I think I've always been determined and be willing to put the work in and learn things and try to get better. So I think that's a good quality of mine.
Q. Obviously a lot of golfers are wired to be critical of yourself and kind of nitpick bogeys and bad shots and stuff. How can it be beneficial in your career to like yourself and give yourself positive self-talk just as you navigate the whole journey?
NICK TAYLOR: Golf is an extremely difficult sport, and I've been guilty of being extremely hard on myself too. It's a quality that I think is important to work hard, to be critical of yourself, but there's a way of doing it in the right way.
When you're tearing yourself down on the golf course, which is easy to do -- I'm sure anyone out here has done that, but it can be wearing if you do it a lot. For me most recently, probably last year at times, it was too much of that, of expecting too much and being hard on yourself.
A positive attitude is huge. Markle, my caddie, is a light of positivity, and he's helping me throughout the years with that. Yeah, a balance is for sure, but the more positive you are, it's only better.
Q. On a little different gear, have you ever been to Oakmont?
NICK TAYLOR: I haven't, no. I've heard some scary thing the last few days.
Q. Is there any type of -- obviously this is not a lead-in to Oakmont. You still want to win this tournament badly. But is there anything you'll have dialed in for that week that's in the back of your mind, like a club or a shot or anything?
NICK TAYLOR: These three weeks, I think with heavy rough, being in the fairways is super key. I think I did a good job of that last week for the most part. It's probably hack-out rough as in just hit a wedge 50 yards down the fairway and play from there. So if you can be up and around the greens as much as possible.
Again, the things I heard about the rough, the difficulty of that golf course, it's going to be a test. Again, I've never seen it, but par will be a good score, I guess, would be the best way to put it.
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