PGA Tour rookie’s dramatic first cut story will make your week

Taylor Dickson knows perhaps better than anyone else in the industry what qualifying for the Sony Open means.

Dixon, 32, has been playing professional golf for a full 10 years and Thursday morning’s Sony Open was his first day as a full-time player on the PGA Tour. Before Thursday morning, he had been in the golf wilderness for 10 years — five on various mini-tours and the other five on the Korn Ferry Tour — and had won last year’s Myrtle Beach Elite Only one sponsor exemption was granted during the game.

That’s perhaps why Dixon’s family decided to catch a flight to Waialei in the second week of January: Taylor at last Successfully, the Sony Open will be his debut.

A dramatic qualifying experience at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship has put Dixon on one of KFT’s coveted 2025 PGA Tour cards. Where to go first? The season-opening Sentinel Game is a signature event with limited space, making it impossible to attend. But the Sony Open, the second event of the tour season, is up for grabs.

It takes a village to crawl through the ruddy depths of professional golf and into the high-priced excitement of the PGA Tour, and it seemed only fitting that Dickerson’s village be there in person as he achieves the biggest achievement of his career. About a dozen members of Dixon’s team joined him in Waialae, and he rewarded the cheerleading squad with a first-round 69.

Taylor’s peak seemed to be over. He made two early bogeys in the second round of the Sony Open to move to 1 par and shot 4 off the cutline. It looked like Dixon was about to miss the cut, with his PGA Tour debut coming to an end after just two rounds.

But then a funny thing happened: Tyler Dickerson started making birdies. The first is on No. 17, a par-3, and then after No. 1, a par-4. Then, on the 8th hole, another par 4, Dixon hit a long The putt resulted in another birdie, earning a round of applause from the small crowd of supporters. He walked to the ninth hole, his 18th, and the stakes were set: A fourth and final birdie on the par-5 would put him at 3 under, par or worse. The results will advance, and then he will go home early.

Dickerson did his job from tee to green on No. 9, putting himself 20 feet from the hole for birdie. He looked the putt up and down before finally hitting it and putting it in the hole. Seconds later, the ball dropped into the hole and stunned spectators at the ninth hole, including Dixon, who threw his putt into the air in celebration.

“As soon as we put it in, people went crazy,” Dixon said with a laugh afterwards. “I went a little crazy. I threw my putter in the air and didn’t catch it— inactive — but it’s awesome.

Dickerson’s fan club was packed with hugs as he returned to the clubhouse from the 9th green.

“This is my family and they’ve always been with me,” he said. “It makes the week better, no doubt about it. We’re going to play the next two days and it means the world. We’re going to have a lot of fun.

Now Tyler Dixon has received his first PGA Tour paycheck for 2025 and has the opportunity to make his first full-time PGA Tour start this weekend. It’s the PGA Tour’s comeback this week and the continuation of a career built on a single unified premise.

“Just know to never give up and keep moving forward.”

You can watch Taylor’s dramatic run to the tangent in the video below.