By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

(November 11, 2024) - In his 10 years on the PGA TOUR, Nick Taylor has collected more than just his four wins and millions of dollars in prize money. He has also gained considerable perspective.

That comes in handy this time of year, when Taylor is battling to remain in the top 60 on the FedEx Cup points list and gain entry into a pair of Signature events in 2025.

“I have definitely sweated out different scenarios in my time on Tour and this isn’t one of them,” Taylor said in a telephone interview. “I am not out here battling for my card like some guys are.”

This week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship will be Taylor’s final event of 2024. He has no plans to play in next week’s fall-season finale, the RSM Classic in Georgia.

Taylor sits 57th on the points list and with a solid result in Bermuda can lock up his position inside the top 60. That would gain him entry into two early-season Signature events in California, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am and the Genesis Championship. But as Taylor says, “it’s not the end of the world” if he doesn’t.

While securing that top-60 spot is the main reason Taylor has played so much this fall, he is also focused on regaining the form he had back in 2023 when he won the RBC Canadian Open and earlier this year when he captured the WM Phoenix Open.

“If I had finished top 50, I would have played less,” Taylor said. “But I also just want to stay relatively sharp and keep the competitive side going. It’s not that I have really made any changes. My game is not much different than it was a year ago or eight months ago. I am just trying to score better essentially, just get more out of my rounds.

“The best way to do that is playing and getting competitive reps instead of just practising at home. It just doesn’t have the same feel to it.”

Taylor laughed when he was reminded about some past success he has enjoyed in Bermuda. Way back in 2011, he won what was called the Bacardi National Par 3 Championship in Bermuda.

His winner’s cheque that day was $2,000. “I had a sponsorship with Fairmont and they used to have this par 3 championship,” Taylor said. “I won it the first year they had it and I think I finished second the next year. I have always loved going to Bermuda.”

Merritt’s Roger Sloan will join Taylor in the Bermuda field. Sloan is coming off a missed cut at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico and is running out of opportunities to retain some PGA TOUR status in 2025. He enters the Bermuda event 176th on the points list and must get inside the top 150 to retain conditional status for 2025 and inside the top 125 to remain fully exempt next year.

Surrey’s Adam Svensson tied for 39th in Los Cabos and now stands 83rd on the points list. He is not playing this week in Bermuda.

10 YEARS AFTER: Taylor was surprised to learn he had an anniversary to celebrate this past weekend. He earned his first PGA Tour victory 10 years ago — Nov. 9, 2014 — at the Sanderson Farms Championship. “I didn’t realize that,” he said. “Man, that’s hard to believe, 10 years. It has obviously gone by very fast, but also a decade is a long time. A lot of good, bad and ugly golf-wise, but more recently a lot more good, so it’s been fun.”

BARKER ADVANCES: Vernon’s Bryce Barker knew he had to go low in the final round of an Asian Tour qualifying school site in Soboba Springs, Calif. And so he did. Barker fired the low round of the day, a bogey-free eight-under 64 that propelled him into seventh place and earned Barker a spot in the final stage of Q-school. The top 17 players advanced from the Soboba Springs site and heading into the final round Barker was two shots out of the top 17 at two-under par.

“The course was kind of set up to score the final day,” he said in an interview. “One of the par 5s was moved up a bit and the conditions were perfect, with barely any wind. I figured I needed at least four or five-under.” Barker started draining putts early in his round and never really stopped. “Honestly, it was pretty much my putting that got it done,” he said. Barker credits the work he has done recently with former PGA TOUR regular Charlie Beljan with helping with his game and said his final-round 64 will give him confidence that he can deliver in high-pressure situations.

“Especially to do it in the final round when the pressure is on and you have to do it,” he said. “That feels good. Obviously, the total job isn’t done. I have to go to Thailand now for the final stage.” The final stage goes Dec. 17-21 at Lake View Resort and Golf Club in Hua Hin, Thailand. Barker hopes to follow in the footsteps of Kimberley’s Jared du Toit, who won the Soboba Springs Q-school last year and then survived the final stage in Hua Hin to gain his Asian Tour card.

CRUNCH TIME: Du Toit has a spot in the field at this week’s Taiwan Glass Taifon Open on the Asian Tour. Du Toit has missed his last two cuts and currently stands 94th on the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit. He needs to move inside the top 65 on the OOM to remain exempt in 2025. Du Toit knows he has some work to do. “More circles, less squares,” he posted on social media recently from Taiwan.

NATIONAL CHAMP: Vancouver’s Kaylee Chung closed with the best round of her life, a seven-under 65, and won the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship at Koasati Pines Golf Club in Louisiana. “History made!!! I am the first Canadian to win the Notah Begay National Championship,” Chung posted on social media. “I didn’t know I had a 65 in me.”

Chung, who tied for third at the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship this past summer, fired rounds of 75 and 70 before closing with that 65 to finish at six-under par. She then beat Kate Nakaoka of Hawaii in a playoff. Chung, who has verbally committed to play her collegiate golf at San Diego State University beginning in the fall of 2026, won in the 16-18 age group. Victoria’s Anna Wu tied for fifth in the 12-13 age group.