Nick Taylor Laughs At Pressure, The Absurd PIP Era Is Over, And Making Sense Of LIV Golf's Weird Schedule

The first two events of the PGA Tour season being held in Hawaii are supposed to serve as an opportunity to gently ease into a new year of golf. While the birdie fest that was The Sentry checked the mostly uneventful box to kick things off, this week's Sony Open delivered a playoff for the second straight year and officially got the golf juices flowing for the season to come.

It felt great watching a full-field event for the first time since November. Sometimes the first few events on the calendar can feel like you're buckling up for an incredibly long car ride to a place you don't really want to visit, but that isn't the case for 2025. We've seen Hideki Matsuyama find the winner's circle and now Nick Taylor earning a win that may not be getting the respect it truly deserves.

As for the other big golf stories from the week that was, the PGA Tour's PIP program is officially dead, and LIV Golf released its 2025 schedule that makes about as much sense as Joe Biden does when he's standing in front of a microphone. 

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Nobody Loves Opportunity Like Nick Taylor Loves Opportunity

Nick Taylor had less than a 0.5% chance of winning the Sony Open when he made his way to the 18th tee on Sunday afternoon. Taylor was 14-under with the Par 5 left to play while JJ Spaun and Stephen Jaeger, both playing in the final group, had a two-shot cushion on him as they made their way to the 16th hole.

The next 45 minutes or so turned into an all-time classic from Taylor's perspective, and the horror shows of all horror shows for Jaeger and Spaun. 

Jaeger's nightmare started on the Par 4 16th when he hit his tee shot about as far left as humanly possible, potentially landing in someone's pool, but somehow drained a lengthy bogey putt to stay alive. The pull-hook haunted him again on the more-than-gettable Par 5 finishing hole, leading him to make a bad par and leaving him one shot shy of the eventual playoff.

Spaun battled the quick lefts down the stretch as well. He got a lucky break off the tee on the 16th, but made a bogey on the Par 3 17th after finding the bunker off the tee. A pulled tee-ball on 18 followed by a missed green from inside 160 yards with his third led to a par on the last, and like Jaeger, one shot short of going to extra holes.

Now that those sad stories are over, let's get to the good stuff. Before we get to the Canadian Killer, Nico Echavarria deserves plenty of praise for his play in the clutch on Sunday.

Knowing that he needed a birdie on the 72nd hole to have a chance at getting into a playoff, the Colombian was left with an awkward 30-yard bunker shot. He proceeded to hit one of the better bunker shots we'll see all season given the circumstances.

While Echavarria's bunker shot was about as good as they come, Taylor's chip from over the green was generational. With the leaders back on the tee and having to hole his eagle chip to match Echavarria at 16-under at the very least, Taylor stepped up and delivered the goods.

It wasn't a chip-in to win, but it was still one of those shots every golfer dreams of holing.

Taylor then went on to win the tournament on the second playoff hole against Echavarria, who missed an eight-foot birdie putt to extend things to another extra hole.

Taylor going from having essentially no chance of winning the golf tournament, holing out for eagle when he needed it, then ultimately winning the thing in extra holes and looking cooler than a polar bear's toes during the whole thing should be attention-worthy, but it has become pretty typical for the 36-year-old.

Taylor has now earned a win in three consecutive years, and all three came in a playoff. He took down Tommy Fleetwood in the 2023 Canadian Open which vaulted him into legendary status in his home country. In 2024, he turned into an assassin with the flatstick at the WM Phoenix Open and beat Charley Hoffman in a playoff, and now this playoff victory at the Sony Open.

On top of being a perfect 3-0 in PGA Tour playoffs, Taylor is now a five-time Tour winner with victories at Pebble Beach and Sanderson Farms. His track record shows he's a player that if he's hanging around come Sunday then there is a good chance he's going to deliver in the big-pressure moments. Spaun and Jaeger let him hang around, and they found out.

Hey, LIV Golf, Quick Question: What Are You Doing?

LIV Golf recently announced its schedule for what will be its fourth season, and while a schedule release isn't worth spending too much time on, this one does beg the question of what exactly is the Saudi-backed league thinking.

LIV is set to kick off its season February 6-8 in Saudi Arabia putting them up against the PGA Tour's WM Phoenix Open. The next week, LIV will play an event in Australia opposite the Tour's Genesis Invitational. The second week of March the breakaway circuit heads to Hong Kong and will be competing against the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Tour.

The cherry on top of the boneheaded schedule decisions is March 14-16 with LIV Golf in Singapore. Back in the States, the PGA Tour will be playing a little tournament known as The Players that same week.

LIV Golf's 2025 schedule is a head scratcher. (Photo by Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The higherups at LIV understand that, from a viewership standpoint, its events can not hold up to the Tour's. LIV also has to, and should, be doing its own thing without worrying about anything going on with the PGA Tour, but to start the season up against some of the most-watched tournaments on the Tour's calendar is questionable, to put it mildly.

LIV has gained legitimacy year after year while maintaining its edge and being different from the Tour, which the majority of its fans find attractive. It will continue to do so this season as well, but at a potentially slower rate simply due to the scheduling conflicts that could have been avoided.

The PIP Program Is No More: The End Of A Truly Absurd Era

The PGA Tour introduced the Player Impact Program (PIP) in 2021 to reward its 10 most impactful players with cold-hard cash. It was also created the same year that LIV Golf was founded, serving as a way to try and keep the biggest names in the game from leaving the Tour to join the new, very rich global league.

The nitty-gritty of the PIP was the Tour trying to kill two very large birds with one stone made up of millions of dollars. It was a way for the Tour to grow the game by urging players to be a bit more active in front of the camera and across social media, and in return they'd potentially be paid multiple millions of dollars for doing so which sweetened the pot for them to stay with ‘the good guy’ and not go chase guaranteed paydays with LIV.

The program did its job, until it didn't.

Tiger Woods will miss the PGA Tour's PIP program, that's for certain. Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, and Bubba Watson all jumped to LIV after reportedly collecting a combined $18.5 million after the initial season featuring PIP. Jon Rahm hung around for a couple more years and reportedly earned $18 million over three years in PIP money before his surprising jump to the Saudi-backed circuit.

Meanwhile, Tiger Woods finished first in the PIP standings in 2021 and 2022, earning a total of $23 million in the process. He essentially earned that money by having the resume he does and having a pulse, given that he played in six total events and made four cuts in those two seasons.

Rory McIlroy dethroned Woods in 2023 to win the $15 million prize before Woods took the crown back in 2024 earning $10 million in the process. Woods played in five tournaments during the '24 campaign and made one cut.

Getting even more nitpicky, the payout structure never made any sense either.

In 2024, third place through sixth place took home $4.5 million each while seventh through 10th made $3.5 million. Should there not be a gap, even if it's half a million bucks, between each finish?

The Tour had to do something in 2021 with the threat of LIV, there is no arguing that, but we'll look back on PIP as one of the wilder concepts in Tour history.

In its four-year span, Woods reportedly made $45 million, McIlroy took home $35 million, Jordan Spieth picked up $24 million, and another five players made at least $10.5 million along the way.