Taylor Montgomery

In talking putting, one of the best putters on the PGA Tour could be Montgomery. He learned it the hard way, playing in high stake money games in his birth city, Las Vegas. His father Monte, was an excellent player and general manager of the famous Shadow Creek course in Las Vegas. At an early stage, Taylor found himself in many money games with high rollers, which helped him earn some money while going to UNLV. He graduated with a communications degree in 2017 and turned pro, playing on mini-tours. After turning pro, he won the Major Series of Putting. He received a prize of $75,000, and also won another $15,000 for winning the team portion of the tournament with his former UNLV teammate Kurt Kitayama. This prize money helped to bankroll Montgomery's golf career. At the end of 2019, made it through Korn Ferry Tour qualifying. Montgomery played well in the Covid shortened 2020 and was 23rd on the Korn Ferry Tour points list at the end of the year. Unfortunately, with the season shortened, the tour combined the 2020 and ?21 seasons, which meant another year on the Korn Ferry Tour. He started strong losing a playoff at the first event he played 2021 LECOM Suncoast Classic. At that time, he was 14th on the points list but struggled with his game for the next four months. By the time he played in the 2021 Utah Championship in August, he had dropped to 29th on the points list. With a T-2nd at the Utah Championship, he climbed back into the top 25 to 24th. But in the last event before the playoffs, Montgomery shot 77-68 to miss the cut and watch two players pass him up. He missed the top 25 and his PGA Tour card by a shot. He still had a good shot at getting his card in the Korn Ferry Tour finals. In the last event, the Korn Ferry Tour Championship, he was ranked 14th on the finals points list. After a first-round 70, with six holes left in the second round, he was a shot inside the cut line. Montgomery played those six holes in 12 over and missed the cut. Two days later, Justin Lower got up and down for par on the 72nd hole to pass him. So despite long odds, Montgomery finished 26th in both the Korn Ferry Tour?s season-ending qualifying event and the Korn Ferry Tour regular season points list. That meant he had to endure another year on the Korn Ferry Tour. After a slow start, which found him 38th on the points list, Montgomery played great in his remaining ten events, finishing in the top 13 in nine and the top four in six, securing his PGA Tour card for 2023. We mentioned how good a putter Montgomery is. His putting average rank was T-1st in the 2020/21 Korn Ferry Tour season and 3rd in 2022. In his rookie year on the PGA Tour in 2023, he got off to a great start finishing 3rd at the Fortinet Championship. He finished in the top 15 in eight of his first nine starts, his worst finish was T-57th at the Houston Open. With rounds of 65-66 he finished 5th at the American Express, three shots back of winner Jon Rahm. SInce then his game has cooled down, his best finish was T-17th at the WGC-Dell Match Play.