Powered by an ace, Taylor's luck is quickly changing

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A week after finishing dead last in Tampa, Vaughn Taylor is among the leaders at Bay Hill.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Vaughn Taylor found out what a self-fulfilling prophecy was last week.

He was walking down the 18th fairway at the Copperhead Course during the second round of the Transitions Championship, anxious to close out an extremely forgettable round. Thinking out loud, Taylor said, "I've never finished dead last."

So then he proceeded to hit his second shot over the green and leave his chip shot 15 feet short of the hole. Taylor missed the putt for par, and then the tap-in for bogey caught a pitch mark and stubbornly veered away from the hole, as well.

Taylor after 36 holes

Stats Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Total Eagles -- 1 1 Birdies 2 4 6 Pars 14 9 23 Bogeys 2 4 6 Double bogeys -- -- 0 Other -- -- 0 Driving accuracy 50 64 57.1 Driving distance 277.5 288.0 282.8 Putts per round 27 29 28.0 Putts per GIR 1.800 1.692 1.739 Greens in REG 56 72 63.9 Sand saves 0 0 0.0

The double bogey gave Taylor an 83 and a two-day total of 160, which left him at the absolute bottom of the leaderboard. Dead last, one stroke behind Clint Avret, a club professional from Jacksonville, Fla.

"It was just kind of funny," Taylor said wryly, thinking back to the turn of events. "I guess it was meant to be."

What a difference a week makes.

Taylor not only made the cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, he is among the leaders at the midway point. Taylor, who fired a 68 on Friday, is tied with Lee Janzen, Nick Watney, Mark Wilson, Hunter Mahan, Tim Herron and Padraig Harrington for sixth at 2 under.

Granted, Sean O'Hair is still six strokes ahead. But Taylor is just glad to be back in control of his swing, which he realized had been getting "slouchy" after watching it on tape over the last seven days. His misses were heading left as his hands searched for the ball at impact.

"(I've) got to keep my spine angle through the ball," Taylor said. "My rear end just kind of gets tucked underneath me. So I kind of (need to) feel like I've got my butt up against the wall and keep it out."

An "aha" moment in the video room may have gotten Taylor back on track. But it was that 6-iron that went searching for the pin at the 191-yard seventh hole on Friday that got his round untracked. The ball hit about 15 feet short and rolled in like he'd used a putter.

"I just took a little bit off of it and just flushed it right at it and actually didn't know it was in," Taylor said. "All I saw was white, and it just disappeared, and I didn't know that it went in. But I saw the crowd's reaction and figured it out."

The ace was the fifth of Taylor's career and his third on TOUR. He hit it stiff at the par-4 eighth hole, too, rolling in a 6-footer for another birdie, and then added a 24-footer on the ninth hole to make the turn in 31. At that point, he was 4 under and tied for the lead.

"I hit a real solid shot the next couple holes," Taylor acknowledged. "I was playing well before that. I three-putted No. 6, which was kind of giving one away, but it just got me going. (The ace) was just something I needed to get the round jump started, and I hit some really good shots there on 8 and 9 and made some good putts."

The back nine wasn't quite as kind to Taylor, who reeled off five straight pars before making bogey on the 15th and 16th holes when he missed each fairway left. Still, he knows Bay Hill well -- he even held the first and third-round leads in 2007 -- so he's looking forward to the weekend.

"You get on a course you feel comfortable at and your mind is in a different place and you start playing well," Taylor said. He may be living proof, too -- Taylor's two PGA TOUR wins have come on the same course in Reno, Nev.

The soft-spoken Taylor grew up in Augusta, Ga., graduated from Augusta State and still lives in the land of dogwoods and azaleas. He's not exempt for the Masters, though, after a three-year run that included a tie for 10th in 2007.

"I don't feel a lot of pressure," said Taylor, who has fallen to No. 288 in the world. "It's one of those things. I'd love to get in, I want to get in but it's not the end of the world. ... I just want my game to be ready. That's the thing. I've got to keep working every day."

So a win Sunday at Bay Hill, or next week at the Shell Houston Open, are Taylor's only avenues to Augusta National. He's trying not to think about it, though -- at least until sportswriters looking for an angle bring it up.

"Winning is something you can't force," Taylor said. "This is a strong field so you've just got to go out there and try your best on every shot. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Sounds almost prophetic, doesn't it?