With birdies in four of his last five holes, Taylor Pendrith is 18 holes away from his first PGA Tour win. The Richmond Hill, Ont., native heads into Sunday tied with Tony Finau at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. If it’s anything like Saturday, the final round should be a bird party.
“Obviously this course has shown some low scores, so you just have to keep making birdies if you want to stay there,” Pendrith said.
No one on the course has made more birdies this week than the Canadian, who has 25 through three rounds, including eight on Saturday, as he and Finau battled back and forth throughout the day.
After bogeying the par-4 13th hole when his tee shot sailed left and ended up behind a tree, Pendrith rallied, adding birdies on the next three holes: a par-5 , a par-3 and a par-4. He made one over on the final hole, hitting a 10-footer to move to 21 under par.
“Thirteen, he just hit a bad tee ball and maybe had a little bit of a bad break right behind the tree,” Pendrith explained. “To get three holes in a row after that was a big boost and obviously I set myself up well for tomorrow with those three holes, and to get one on the last was great.”
Finau, who won the 3M Championship last week, tried to keep pace with the Canadian, making seven birdies as the two long hitters went back and forth all day.
“Obviously he made a lot of birdies and I finished the round with a lot of birdies, so that was fun,” Pendrith said. “We’ve been going back and forth. Tony’s been bombarding him and I’ve been hitting him far as well, so it’s been fun, kind of similar games I guess, and we’ve been attacking him really well.”
For the day, Pendrith missed just three fairways and just two greens. He has been getting performance in the bag finishing fourth in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, second in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and third in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Pendrith’s career has been one of resilience. He attended Kent State University where he roomed with Corey Conners for four years. Both seemed headed for big things after graduation, but while Conners followed a steady path to the PGA Tour and a high spot in the Official World Golf Ranking, Pendrith battled injuries and saw time between the PGA Tour Canada and the Korn Ferry Tour. After two years on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 and 2021 when COVID halted any junior tour promotion, he finally graduated to the PGA Tour this season.
But bad luck continued to plague his career. After a strong start that included a maiden victory at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October when he held the lead through 54 holes, Pendrith broke a rib during the Players Championship, putting him on the shelf for three months and a half Now, in his comeback, he has put himself in a position to consolidate his talent with a victory.
“I probably have more pressure just because I’ve never won before and Tony is a multiple winner and he won last week and he’s playing really well,” Pendrith said. “I have a good chance tomorrow to tie with him on Sunday, so there are 18 holes of golf left and who knows what will happen. I feel like my game is in a good place, I’m driving it well, I’m hitting my wedges well, it’s nice to see some putts go in. We’ll see. It’s going to be a fun experience and I’m looking forward to competing and seeing what happens.”
Although the two were four shots ahead of the rest of the field, Finau cautioned that with the golf club giving up the low rounds, it could be easy for the two favorites to be turned by a player back in the field.
“Taylor is playing great golf,” he said. “I can’t say I’m away from the guys, this is the type of golf course where somebody can shoot eight, nine, 10 under, but if we have a good round tomorrow, it could be a two-up race and I’m looking forward to back to the challenge.”
A win would give Pendrith a package or rewards that include a $1.5 million check. He would earn a two-year exemption from the Tour, as well as an exemption from the Masters and the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He had also become the 16th Canadian to win on the PGA Tour and the first since Nick Taylor’s victory at Pebble Beach in 2020.