Nailed It
The radio call of Nick Taylor's dramatic eagle putt features one of the most randomly hilarious lines you'll ever hear
As far as winning calls go, it doesn't get much better than Jim Nantz's "GLORIOUS AND FREE!" line after Nick Taylor buried a 72-footer for eagle on the final playoff hole to win the RBC Canadian Open. SiriusXM's Mark Zecchino, a Canadian himself, may have done Nantz one better, however.
Zecchino's call got some serious run on social media Sunday evening after the PGA Tour posted an alternate angle of Taylor's winning putt, one that follows the entire putt up the hill while Taylor watches in the background. Because it was on radio, Zecchino essentially called every single second of the moment. "Swing of the putter," Zecchino starts, "comes up with some speed... now up the right..."
What follows is some hilarious screaming from Zecchino when the putt finally clanks off the pin and drops, understandably given how huge this moment was for Canada. But then the veteran play-by-play man doesn't skip a beat. "THE DROUGHT IS OVER! THE DROUGHT IS OVER!" he yells. "NICK TAYLOR WITH THE EAGLE! THE 2023 RBC CANADIAN OPEN CHAMPION! HISTORY! HISTORY!" Zecchino absolutely nailed it, but couldn't help himself from randomly adding "TWO-YEAR EXEMPTION!" at the very end:
Honestly, that is a hilarious line to tack on at the end. While it is always nice to contextualize what a PGA Tour win gets you, a two-year exemption was the last thing on everyone's mind in this moment. That said, his exemption from his 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am victory was due to run out this season, though Taylor was having a good enough year where he'd be fully exempt on tour again next year. With the win, though, he's set for two years. Zecchino just providing the facts with an A+++ homer call. We respect it.