It was an impressive win with legends chasing him. British Columbia’s Nick Taylor held off the likes of Phil Mickelson and Jason Day to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his second win on the PGA Tour, six years after his first victory in his rookie year on tour. For Taylor, the former No. 1 amateur in the world, it was the culmination of work and considering how he could improve despite not being able to keep up with the longest hitters on tour.

Taylor is 112^th in driving distance on tour this year, but 20^th in accuracy. Taylor says the game has changed in the decade since he left school at the University of Washington.

“When I was growing up, if someone hit the ball a long way, that’s because they were naturally gifted that way,” he says. “Now there are studies showing you can learn to hit it that way. There are plenty of guys out there who, when you look at their body types, are clearly going to hit the ball a long way. When I grew up—and I grew two inches in college—I wasn’t a big guy, so it was hitting fairways and having a great short game.”

And that’s where he remains—recognizing that he’ll never be able to keep up with Rory and DJ.

“With the technology, if you hit it far, you can figure out how to hit it straight,” he explains. “That’s the philosophy. If you’re in the rough with a wedge and I’m in the fairway with a 7-iron, you’re going to put it closer. If you look at Rory McIlroy and fairway percentages, it looks drastic as he’s 150^th on tour. But that adds up to one more fairway a round than average and for how far he hits it, he’s gaining so much more. When he gets a day when he hits 10 or 12 fairways with that distance … look at the RBC Canadian Open—no one had a chance.”

Instead of trying to keep up with the bombers, Taylor doubled down in the fall, hiring a statistician to examine all elements of his game and determine where his energy would best be directed.

“With my length, I need to hit a couple more fairways,” he says. “Distance would be nice, but I’ve come to the realization I’m not going to get life-changing distance. I need to play to my strengths and that’s more fairways, more greens, dial in my wedges.”

That’s where the statistician comes in. He determined Taylor was giving away too many strokes in his approach game, and so the decision was made to add another TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedge to his arsenal. He also added an unusual club for a tour pro—a SIM Max 4-iron, a club usually associated with high-handicappers. But for Taylor, it allows him to have a long and straight club that will still hold greens.

The goal? Shave one-quarter of a shot off his daily scores, and vault up the FedExCup standings.

“A quarter-shot a round equals one shot per tournament and last year, for me, there are a lot of tournaments where I finished 30^th and I would have been 23^rd,” he says. “Or 23^rd and I would have ended up 15^th. It would really add up. And there’s such a jump in FedExCup points that it would make a difference. It could be the difference between making the second FedExCup playoff, or just the first, or being comfortable you’ll keep your card, versus being stressed. It is a big deal. The difference is so small, but a shot a tournament might be 50 spots on the FedExCup list.”

It is working so far—with his win, Taylor is ranked 13^th on the FedExCup standings.