Nick Taylor would rather wear golf clothes any time. But the Abbotsford, B.C., golfer was in a tuxedo Monday night at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, Tex., for a very good reason.
Three words: Ben Hogan Award. And a few more words: the top honour in U.S. college golf, the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in college football.
Taylor, 22, was presented with the prestigious award that goes to the top men's player in the past 12 months. The University of Washington senior was the world's No. 1-ranked amateur for 21 weeks last year. He was low amateur at the U.S. Open, finishing in a tie for 36th place. He had nine top-10 finishes in 12 tournaments during the college season now ending.
As much as the award was for Taylor, it was also for his parents Jay and Darlene, and for what goes into the making of a golfer and a golfing family. They had been in El Paso, Tex., last week to attend their son Josh's graduation from the University of Texas. Josh, a fine player himself, had caddied for his brother in the 2009 U.S. Open, and was back in Abbotsford when his brother received the Hogan award.
"The boys have competed against each other, won trophies together, and have taken turns carrying each other's bag," Jay said the other day. "This is very much a family thing."
The Hogan award has been presented since 1990. Taylor is the first Canadian winner. Of the 21 recipients before Taylor, just eight would be recognizable by name to golf-watchers. Even then, only keen followers of the game would know most of them.
The most prominent former Hogan winners are Ricky Barnes, Hunter Mahan, Bill Haas, Ryan Moore and the young California hotshot Rickie Fowler. He's not yet won on the PGA Tour, but he's come close and could break through any time. Barnes finished second in the U.S. Open last year. Mahan, Haas and Moore have won PGA Tour events.
"I didn't really expect this," Taylor said during his acceptance speech. "Growing up in small town Abbotsford, Canada, golf is not the first sport you think of. It's always hockey."
Taylor has the game to win on the PGA Tour. He's a fiery young man whose eyes seem to flash with anger when he makes mistakes, especially mental errors.
"He deservers any and every award he gets," Taylor's college coach Matt Thurmond said. "He is an amazing player, person and teammate. I suspect many more awards await him."
Taylor's parents have seen it all with him: the ups, the downs, the spectacle that is college and amateur golf and the U.S. Open - golf's highest level.
"The full roller coaster ride that golf is," Taylor's father said. "But I tend to remember the good shots and the putts that dropped."
As positive as he is, he was feeling jumpy as he and his wife watched the video of his son's accomplishments.
As the presenter spoke the words, "And the winner is," Taylor, looking back, said, "I would be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous and heart-stopping tense."
Then came, "From the University of Washington." The Taylors knew their son was the winner of the award named after the golfer most people acknowledge as the purest ball-striker in the game's history. Hogan lived in Ft. Worth and won the Colonial, now called the Crowne Plaza Invitational, five times. His win in 1959 was his last on the PGA Tour. This year's tournament starts Thursday.
"The first reaction to 'From the University of Washington,'" Jay said, "seemed more like relief, but when I turned to see Darlene's face, joy and pride would be just the start. … The ultimate golf mom, she organizes everything, walks the course in rain or sun, always positive, never complains each year as her kitchen reno turns into another trip to some tournament she's never heard of."
One of the perks of the award is an exemption into the 2011 Crowne Plaza. Meanwhile, Taylor will play the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship next week, the last tournament of his college career. The U.S. Open qualifier is the next day. Then come exams, and graduation. He'll play the U.S. Amateur in August, and then turn pro.
"Nothing to it, eh?" Taylor said. "We have been convinced for quite a while that we are out of our minds. Monday night felt pretty good, though."
Of course it did. Taylor and Hogan in the same sentence? Come on. Any parent of a golfer would want to hear that.