PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – In the long history and history of golf at Pebble Beach, there is a strong probability that no golf lesson has ever changed the fortunes of a player as quickly as it did for Angelina Booan on Saturday morning in 2018. PURE Insurance Championship.
Booan, a 17-year-old competing in the First Tee Division at this week’s PGA Tour Champions event, started the day with a text message from fellow PGA Tour player Vaughn Taylor. He ended it in a way that still has his voice: With his first hole in one.
The story of the ace heard ’round Pebble Beach began early Saturday morning, when Angelna’s phone buzzed with a text from an unlikely source: Taylor, the PGA Tour pro assigned as his playing partner for the week. Taylor was leading the range, and he wanted to know: would Angelina like to join him for a lesson?
Truth be told, when the text arrived, Taylor had been weighing the best to help his teenage playmate for most of a whole day. He had been paired with Booan during Friday’s opening round, and had calmly cataloged the swing tips, but he was wary of appearing overbearing.
“This is a great event for a junior golfer, especially playing at Pebble Beach,” Taylor said GOLF Sunday. “I was afraid to put too many thoughts in his head.”
Angelina immediately agreed to the meeting, and found Taylor on the range around 10 a.m. Immediately, he focused on a few easy remedies: remember to clean the grooves of his irons before each swing, and making sure that she released the head of the putter during her shot. Before long, however, they had moved on to the big stuff: Angelina’s driver swing, a “beautiful and dynamic” movement, was causing too much length in her backswing with her irons and wedges.
“He wanted me to shorten it,” said Booan.
Angelina, still a teenager, was grateful for the help, but she was suspended: Taylor was a professional golfer who was playing in a real event for real money. She didn’t want her lesson to take over her entire weekend, especially before her second round at an event where she was still very much in contention.
“I think we’re going to work for a few minutes,” Booan said. “But we were there for an hour and a half.”
Of course, Taylor was under no obligation to provide 90 minutes of swing advice to his playing partner. While the pro-junior nature of the tournament naturally encourages kinship between players and their teenage counterparts, there is no expectation that players will take much time out of their typical schedule to help out with their fellow players.
But Taylor didn’t seem to mind. His student was easy to work with – a “kind, down-to-earth” girl who really wanted to improve. It also helped that he was a quick study.
“I mean, he shortened his backswing like what you do,” Taylor said. “That was the coolest part, how fast it changed.”
But then they turned for the 12th hole, a short par-3, and everything changed.
“I shot it at 107, but we agreed that it was probably playing longer with the wind, so we played at 117,” Angelina said Sunday, a smile growing on her face. “I took my pitching wedge, and I cleaned the grooves, and then it landed an inch away from the hole and … it went.”
Retelling the story a few minutes later, Taylor couldn’t hide his own grin.
“I wanted her to know about clean grooves because it’s important to be able to compress and spin the ball,” he said. “Well, his shot landed a foot behind the hole and rolled back.”
It was an ace, the first in Angelina’s golf career. And for the girl receiving Vaughn Taylor’s advice, words can’t do it justice.
“I never, ever forget it,” he said with a laugh. “An ace at Spyglass Hill, I tell you mine grandchildren on this.”
As it turns out, it was pretty special, too, for the guy on the give end of advice – just not for the reason you expect.
“I was her once,” Taylor said. “I mean, we were all junior golfers at one time. To have the opportunity just to help, it’s something I feel like I should do.”
Taylor finished the week at 7 under, good for T9 at the PURE Insurance Championship, his best finish in months. That result, he says, is no surprise.
“Believe it or not, she’s actually a distraction out there,” he said. “Recently I’ve been struggling, I’ve been in my head, being frustrated. So being out there with his type takes my mind of what I’m doing – and sometimes that works in golf.”
Goodness – it is not always commercial. Sometimes, it is multiplied.
