Taylor turned professional in 1999. He played his early years on the Hooters and Nationwide Tours, getting valuable experience before playing his first full year with a PGA Tour card in 2004. He won four times on the NGA Hooters Tour, and once on the Nationwide Tour at the Knoxville Open. Taylor has three victories to his name on the PGA Tour; his first two victories coming in consecutive years at the Reno-Tahoe Open, an alternate event, in 2004 and 2005. His victory in 2004 was one of five wins by rookies that year and came after holing an 11-foot birdie on the first extra hole during a four-man sudden-death playoff. He had also previously had to sink a 14-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation play to make it into the playoff. In 2005, he led the event wire-to-wire and held a six-stroke advantage entering the final round, to claim a comfortable victory by three strokes from Jonathan Kaye.
After a year that included a career high six top-10s, Taylor qualified to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team for the first time in 2006. He earned a half point for his team with a record of 0–1–1.
Taylor's highest world ranking was 37th in 2007 and career high in the FedEx Cup placing was 35th in 2010.
Taylor started the 2015–16 season playing on both the PGA Tour and Web.com Tour, having only past champion status on the PGA Tour after finishing 151st in the FedEx Cup, just a fraction of a point from conditional status. He made two starts on the PGA Tour before making two starts on the Web.com Tour, where he missed the cut in Panama and withdrew due to illness in Colombia. In February 2016, Taylor won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his first PGA Tour win since August 2005.[3] He started the week as first alternate, only earning entry after Carl Pettersson withdrew, and had not been fully exempt since 2012. The win was also Taylor's first at a non-alternate event and moved him from 447th in the world to 100th.[4]
