Taylor Montgomery breaks down his impressive third-round performance at the 2025 Utah Championship. He discusses staying aggressive off the tee, capitalizing on scoring opportunities, and feeling confident with his irons. Montgomery also shares how he’s handling the pressure heading into the final round with a shot at victory.
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Taylor, I mean, great round obviously with the wind kind of kicked in the last hour and a half or so. Just walk me through the highlights and maybe how things change later in the round. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was definitely a lot tougher today. I mean, anytime in the afternoon compared to the morning, just the greens get a little crustier and bouncier. Uh, and it just makes it that much tougher to hit it close. I feel like I hit a few good iron shots off the tea. I it was a different wind and the left to right wind kind of tricked me a little bit today and I still hit a few good drives and ended up in the first cut. But you really need to be able to hit it in the fairway just to control your distance and spin and stuff like that. But the wind wind made it so much harder. I mean you took holes. I mean this course is you look at every hole and you’re like a I can birdie it. And then today it was just a grind for pars and my putter bailed me out in the back nine for sure last probably 12 holes which was uh nice to see some of those go in general. How hard is it to hit? Well, the first two days the wind was I I liked the wind direction because the right to left holes that kind of make you draw it except for 10. 10 was a left to right uh wind, but most of the holes kind of fit my eye and the way that I kind of saw the shot. But today, the wind changed and uh wasn’t able to hit as many fairways as as I wanted to. I I felt like I hit a good drive on 13 and it just kept on going and going and almost win the water. So, do you think you’ve done good job maybe going into tomorrow? You talked about it too much sometimes, I think, to win. You think that you did a good job sort of managing that today? Yeah, I I felt like I definitely did. Um, if you’re able to make 10 12 footers for pars on a lot of the holes, I feel like you got to be able to controlling control your mind somewhat. Uh, it was just really hard out there, I thought. Um, compared to the first two days, it was it was a lot different. What do you think are some of the biggest things you’ve learned from the couple times you were in contention, got close, but didn’t just didn’t quite finish a couple of those tournaments? Just uh being patient. I mean, I know everybody says that, but it’s kind of it’s true. It’s not a sport where you can go up and hit somebody. It’s a sport where you got to like stay calm, relaxed, and uh think your way around the golf course. But that’s the I think that’s the hardest part about the game of golf is being able to control your mind and uh keep your emotions under control. What do you think you’re most excited for tomorrow? Oh, just anytime you put yourself in contention. It’s just another stepping stone and another uh chance to get a win and uh just another time to be able to perfect your craft under the highest amount of pressure. The uh putts on 16 and 17 were all world. What walk us through your process? I’d like you to take us step by step through your thinking on both of those putts. They were incredible. Well, the process with my putter is pretty pretty solid for the most part. I I kind of visualize like how the ball would roll and then I look at it from both sides. But when I start putting bad is when I don’t like visualize the speed before I hit it. Uh that kind of gives me the tempo of my stroke. And uh when I’m putting bad, I tend to like punch at it a little bit. I think a lot of guys do. Uh especially this week, the greens are they’re fast, but they’re the uphill putts are so slow. And those are the ones that I have a tough time getting to the hole. And when I putt my best, I feel like a one two sensation. And uh everybody talks about tempo. Uh that’s kind of just what I feel and I kind of calculate that feeling by visualizing the speed. People climbed the leaderboard, but for the top of the leaderboard, birdies were hard from the getgo before the wind came up. What was different out there for you today? Well, I think it’s uh every day out here just typically higher elevation golf in general and the way these greens are uh they’re bent with poana and the morning time everything’s kind of going to stick and you can land it next to the hole and and kind of attack some pins. Whereas the afternoon they get crusty, bouncy. even your good shots, you you don’t know whether a seven iron is going to bounce and roll 30 feet long or it’s going to hit and stop. And that’s the trickiest part. And then when you’re around these greens chipping, you’re uh your spin and launch and everything has to be precise because if it’s they’re bouncy. So if if there’s no spin compared to other greens, it’s just going to keep rolling and rolling. And even some good chip shots you’re going to hit to 10 15 feet. So you’ll be in the final group again tomorrow which means end of the day after everybody’s walked all over all that again. What will your approach be tomorrow to close this out? Um I I don’t think it changes much. Just if I can go through my process ball striking I think I can uh lift the trophy at the end. I mean, anybody can can win on this golf course. It’s especially when it’s playing in the afternoon like this, that’s hard. Like, there’s still birdie opportunities if you hit really quality shots, but if you miss the greens, I mean, it’s you’re not I know I got a lot of them up and down today, but you’re not going to do that the whole tournament. I was just wondering, when we talked to Black Desert last year, you seem like you’re in a low place in your career. Did you ever think with the injuries that you had that you be in a position like this again. Um I mean I Yeah, I would say I thought so. I just didn’t know like when it would happen. I mean I I worked about as hard as you can really. And it’s nice to be in this position to have a chance to win. I’ve worked on the ball striking a lot and it just it comes and goes. I’m not the most consistent, but I do hit a lot of quality shots. It’s just the the bad ones that I need to clean up. And if I have the right feeling at the top of my swing, I feel like I can hit any shot, but sometimes I just don’t have it. And finally, what’s it like for you to have a legend like your dad on the bag? Oh man, him and I go back and forth, but uh we love each other. We’ve always had fun, and that’s just how we are on the golf course. Uh we talk a lot of trash to each other, yell at each other, but off the golf course, we are the complete opposite. So, it’s kind of a nice balance. It’s kind of fun. We yell at him every once in a while on the golf course and he calls me an idiot and we kind of move on. Knows the game. Oh, he’s a he was a great player himself. He was an all-American at UNLV and and then he had me and I mess everything up. How was he keeping up today? I know he had the blister going on yesterday. Oh, yeah. Yeah, his feet are a little sore, but he’s fine. He’s fine. We got to get him in shape. What did he end up doing with the blister last night? Oh, he he always asked me for band-aids in the morning and then uh he used a needle or something and like popped like all the blood or whatever was going on. He’s like, “You should have seen him.” I’m like, “No thanks. Just let him walk in the fairway.” Nah, we’ll stay in the rough. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you guys. Yeah, you got it. Thank you.
