Winner report
Vaughn Taylor beats Cejka in play-off for first Champions title
Five straight birdies on the back nine and another at the second extra hole gave the 50-year-old rookie the Constellation Furyk & Friends at Hammock Beach, his first win since Pebble Beach in 2016.
Vaughn Taylor won the Constellation Furyk & Friends on Sunday, beating Alex Cejka with a birdie at the second play-off hole on the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach in Palm Coast, Florida. It is his first PGA TOUR Champions title and his first win anywhere since the 2016 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where he beat Phil Mickelson by one. Taylor closed with a 68 to finish level with Cejka on −17 (65-66-68, 199), and took US$330,000 from the US$2.2 million purse.
He began the final round three behind the 36-hole leader, Mathew Goggin, who had come through qualifying to get into the field. He made no headway on the front nine, then birdied the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th to tie for the lead. According to AP, he then three-putted the 17th. Cejka had already posted 199 with a second successive bogey-free 65, holing a birdie putt at the 18th to set the target.
Michael Wright birdied the 15th and 16th to reach −18, but made a double-bogey six at the last and finished third on his own, a shot outside the play-off. Goggin closed with a 73 to share fourth.
Both players parred the 18th the first time round. Second time round, Taylor hit his approach to a few feet and rolled in the putt. “That’s the biggest thing in golf, is just momentum,” he said afterwards.
Taylor turned 50 in March and is in his first season on the over-50 circuit. According to AP, he has had only limited status this year and has been managing a hip injury. Before Sunday his best finish was a tie for seventh. The win gives him an exemption until the end of the 2027 season, and he is projected to climb 16 places to 21st in the Charles Schwab Cup standings with one regular-season event left. The top 72 after next week’s SAS Championship qualify for the first event of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs. Goggin is projected to rise to 74th, just outside that line.
Taylor’s three PGA TOUR wins came at the Reno-Tahoe Open in 2004 and 2005 and at Pebble Beach in 2016. He played in the 2006 Ryder Cup.
Final leaderboard
| Pos | Player | Score | Rounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vaughn Taylor | −17 | 65-66-68 |
| 2 | Alex Cejka | −17 | 69-65-65 |
| 3 | Michael Wright | −16 | 65-66-69 |
| T4 | Ben Crane | −15 | 68-68-65 |
| T4 | Ángel Cabrera | −15 | 67-67-67 |
| T4 | Ryan Armour | −15 | 63-69-69 |
| T4 | Mathew Goggin | −15 | 66-62-73 |
| T4 | Rod Pampling | −15 | 64-65-72 |
| T9 | Tag Ridings | −14 | 66-72-64 |
| T9 | Kevin Sutherland | −14 | 70-65-67 |
| T9 | Paul Goydos | −14 | 64-68-70 |
Taylor won at the second extra hole.
Sources
- PGA TOUR: Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS official leaderboard
- AP via ABC News: Vaughn Taylor wins on PGA Tour Champions for first win in more than 10 years
- Southern Sports Today: Vaughn Taylor captures first Champions title, wins Furyk & Friends in playoff
- The Golf News Net: 2026 Constellation Furyk and Friends final results and prize money
- Wikipedia: Vaughn Taylor (golfer)
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