Taylor Pendrith in hunt at PGA Championship after painful 'up-and-down journey'
It's hard to blame the Canadian for occasionally pushing too hard because, in a way, it feels as though he's making up for lost time.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Watching Taylor Pendrith drive a ball is one of those moments where recreational golfers realize just what a different game it is for players with their name on their bag.
The distance looks effortless, powered by the large, but not overly muscular frame, of a man seemingly built to propel golf balls great distances.
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Taylor Pendrith in hunt at PGA Championship after painful 'up-and-down journey' Back to video
Over 36 holes at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, Pendrith routinely was outdriving his playing partners Matthieu Pavon and Tom Hoge by 10 or 20 yards.
“It’s the second major of the year and I’m playing good golf,” he told Postmedia after his round on Friday. “Anytime you’re in the top 20 of a major going into the weekend is a really good place to be.”
On Friday, Pendrith followed up Thursday’s 69 with a 70 to head to the weekend firmly in the mix at the season’s second major at three-under par. He is near the top of the field in strokes-gained off the tee this week, including one drive that travelled 359 yards.
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“Driver feels really good and I’ve been putting it in play nicely, and you’ve got to hit fairways around here to score,” he said. “It’s been pretty clean, I really haven’t made a ton of mistakes. I feel like I’ve hit a lot of greens and my speed has been good. I haven’t really had to grind for too many pars.”
It has been a frustrating couple of months for the Richmond Hill, Ont., native. After top-ten PGA Tour finishes at Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach in February, Pendrith has missed four cuts and finished inside the top 35 just one time.
“Honestly, I felt like I’ve had some really nice days over the past month where I’ve hit it really good and been driving it really good all year,” he said. “I just kind of just haven’t had the results and it’s been more of a mental frustration having to stay patient and trust what I’m doing.”
Swing coach Derek Ingram said much the same thing, catching up with Postmedia while keeping tabs on his player during Thursday’s opening round. Ingram said that Pendrith’s game largely has been good, but sometimes knowing your form is solid can cause a player to push harder than they should in a sport that rewards patience.
The Winnipeg-based coach pointed to last week’s Truist Championship, where Pendrith opened with 66-70 before falling nearly all the way to the bottom of the leaderboard over the weekend.
“Obviously, last week I got off to a good start and had a sloppy finish, and it was really frustrating,” Pendrith said. “It feels good to play two solid rounds here and keep my head down and keep it going.”
In some respects, it’s hard to blame him for occasionally pushing too hard because, in a way, it feels as though he’s making up for lost time.
After playing on the famed Kent State college golf team with teammates Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes, Pendrith turned pro in 2014 only to run into a nightmare of injuries that stalled his career while his good friends’ fortunes flourished on the PGA Tour.
It seemed for a while that his time might never come.
He had suffered through five or six years of issues including, most recently, a painful shoulder injury in the 2022 and 2023 seasons that eventually sapped him of some of his trademark power.
After trying what he called the maximum number of cortisone shots, as well as nearly every non-surgical procedure possible, Pendrith has been swinging generally pain-free for two years and has seen his normal yardages largely return.
Last year, he broke through and picked up his first PGA Tour win at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
With hair greying on the sides and two weeks shy of his 34th birthday, I asked him on Friday if he ever gets reflective about his difficult journey, especially on weeks like this when he’s attempting to live out his ultimate dream.
“Sometimes for sure,” he said. “I feel like people ask me, ‘Oh, do you remember the PGA Championship in 2019?’ I’m like, ‘I was on the Mackenzie Tour then.’
“So, yeah, I think about it. And it’s cool that I’ve had an up and down journey, but to be here, where I’m at in my career now? It took me a while to get here, but it’s awesome.”
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