Taylor Pendrith: The Power of Perseverance and Positivity

“When he gets comfortable out here, I expect him to win and have opportunities to win a lot,” says Ingram. “He should have a lot of success on the PGATour for a long time.”

Long before picking up a golf club, the six-foot-two Pendrith honed good habits and displayed a strong work ethic as a teenager playing baseball and hockey. Growing up in Richmond Hill, Ontario, golf was not even on his radar. But one summer afternoon, at age13, Pendrith visited his older sister Jennifer, who was working at Muskoka Lakes Golf & Country Club. Hissibling handed him a driver. Never having swung a club before, the teenager smashed that little white ball and something inside him stirred.

Over the ensuing years, Pendrith replaced the batting cage and slap shots for the driving range. By16, he was competing in tournaments and winning. By 18, he caught the eye of Kent State University coach Herb Page. Pendrith was offered a scholarship, along with Connors, and played four years for the Golden Flashes. In their senior season, the pair was named Co-Mid American Conference Golfers of the Year. After graduating in 2014 with a degree in sport administration, Pendrith turned pro. Between 2015 and 2018, he bounced between the Mackenzie Tour– PGA Tour Canada and the Korn Ferry Tour, the pair of developmental tours that are stepping-stones to the PGA Tour.

Despite a string of injuries (from wrist and shoulder problems to torn ligaments), his focus never waned. Finally, in 2019, healthy and determined, everything clicked. He won twice and had six top-10 finishes on the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada to finish second in the Order of Merit.

The pandemic paused play for a while, but when tournaments resumed, Pendrith was ready. He finished the 2020/21 season number seven in the Korn Ferry Tour point’s standings, recording four runner-ups and 21 top-25s across 37 starts. The hard work, perseverance and patience had paid off. Pendrith was now a member of the PGA Tour. Harry magazine caught up with Pendrith while he was resting at home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Like many of his fellow Tour colleagues, the Canadian chose this part of Metropolitan Miamito put down roots. It offers plenty of exceptional courses, the weather is perfect and, with lots of Tour players always around, you can get in some friendly, yet competitive games in between events. Pendrith is enjoying what he dubs a “home game” this week.

Rather than spend hours at a hotel in a city far away, he and new wife Meg Beirnes can enjoy time together in the house they purchased last June, a mile from PGA National — the site of The Honda Classic. Despite missing the cut the previous week at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles, Pendrith is having a good rookie year on the PGA Tour. At the Butterfield Bermuda Championship in October, he held the lead entering the final round and ended up tied for fifth.

“The biggest challenge and difference on this Tour is teeing it up at courses I’ve never seen before,” Pendrith says. “During the recent West-Coast swing, we played nine different courses in one month, none of which I had played previously. Other than that, the fields are deeper, there are more people out here, and a few more distractions, but if you make some birdies and keep the bogeys off your scorecard, you can get in contention.”

Life on the PGA Tour is a grind. Weeks, let alone days, off are rare. It’s a cycle that finds players going from golf course to hotel and back again on repeat for 35 weeks. Pendrith understands the need to reset everyday. Having his new bride on the road with him this season has helped to strike this balance. “It’s nice to finish the day at the golf course, comeback to the hotel, and go to dinner together,” he explains. “At the end of day it’s my job, but it can’t be golf 24/7. I need to shut it off once in a while.”

Pendrith and Beirnes have found time in the past six months to decompress with nature hikes, beach walks or simply people watching, like they did this past January in Hawaii, marvelling at the surfers at Oahu’s famed Banzai Pipeline beach. An October to remember. The couple were married in Cambridge, Ontario, in October,2021. (“We got lucky with COVID-19restrictions and had a normal wedding,” he comments.)

The event happened after a year spent mostly apart, each dealing with their individual stresses: Pendrith was toiling on the Korn Ferry Tour in cities across the United States and South America while his fiancée worked as one of the countless “COVID-19 heroes” — averaging 70-hour weeks as a registered nurse at Hamilton General Hospital.

Needless to say, the pair are excited to start their new life together as Pendrith chases his dream of adding that missing accomplishment to his long list: a PGA Tour victory. Pendrith is part of a new generation of homegrown golf talent. Only a decade or so ago there were just a few Canadians competing on the PGA Tour. For the2021/22 season, there are nine full-time players. And, many more are currently on one of the developmental tours and are sure bets to eventually graduate to the PGA Tour.

Having so many fellow countrymen competing alongside him each week motivates Pendrith.“There are tons of us out here now and many have already had big success and won,” he says. “I want to join them in the winner’s circle. Though we’re competitors, we all root for each other; it’s nice to look up at the leaderboard every once in a while and see some Canadian flags.”