[PHOTO: Maddie Meyer]
For so long it appeared as if the Sony Open in Hawaii was going to be won by J.J. Spaun or Stephan Jaeger, yet after 72 holes it was Nico Echavarria and Nick Taylor that fought it out in the sudden-death playoff, with Taylor winning on the second extra hole.
That seemed almost anticlimactic after the pyrotechnics the pair produced on the final hole. Echavarria hit a marvellous bunker shot from 30 metres on the par 5 to two feet, setting up a birdie (which followed another fine bunker shot on the previous hole). Taylor went one better, holing a pitch shot for eagle to reach 16-under as well. Both shot final-round 65s.
Taylor ranked fourth in strokes gained/approach the green as well as fourth in greens in regulation with his Titleist T100 irons. He was solid on the greens as well, ranking ninth in putts per green in regulation with his venerable TaylorMade Spider Tour Red putter.
“The putter has a T-line alignment on the red-coloured head,” Taylor told Golf Digest in 2021. “I used the Spider in 2017 and only had a single dot on top. I went away from that and then in 2018 I was struggling on the greens, and I went back to the Spider at Wyndham and shot 63 in the final round to keep my tour card and I’ve used it ever since. The ‘T’ helped me not only get lined up properly, but in hitting the centre of the face every time. Now that I’m using a line on my ball as well it almost looks like a grid when I look down at it.”
Still, it was his Titleist Vokey SM10 wedges that made the difference, in addition to the hole-out at the end of regulation he used them to hit pitch shots on both playoff holes that first kept overtime going and then ended it.
The clubs Nick Taylor used to win the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii:
Ball: Titleist Pro V1x
Driver: Titleist TSi3 (Fujikura Atmos Blue 6X), 10 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10. 15 degrees
5-wood: TaylorMade SIM2 Max, 18 degrees
Hybrid: Titleist TSR2, 21 degrees
Irons (4-9): Titleist T100
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM10, (46, 54, 58 degrees)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour Red