By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

DELTA, BC (December 17, 2024) - British Columbia golfers continued to shine in 2024. Abbotsford, BC's Nick Taylor’s win at WM Phoenix Open highlights our top 10 best stories of the past year.

If anyone was wondering what Nick Taylor was going to do for an encore after his incredible win at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, the Abbotsford native delivered it early in 2024. Eight months after winning his national open, Taylor went out and won one of the PGA TOUR’s flagship events in what is now his second home.

Taylor rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to beat Charley Hoffman and capture the WM Phoenix Open title. That win, Taylor’s fourth on the PGA TOUR, is our selection as the top British Columbia golf story of 2024.

Taylor, who will soon be defending his title at TPC Scottsdale, spoke with British Columbia Golf and reminisced about that win in the Arizona desert.

It came after Taylor finished second to world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler at the 2023 event. “Finishing second the year before and playing great, playing well enough to easily win the tournament, and then coming back the next year to finish it off was a pretty cool moment,” Taylor said.

That final day was an exceptionally long one for Taylor. He had to head to the course early that Sunday morning to finish 12 holes of his third round. “I remember bogeying a couple early to finish the front nine and was able to crawl back a little on that second nine and was tied,” Taylor said.

“It was the second time that week where we literally had 12 minutes from signing our card to teeing up for the next round, so it was a weird sequence. I remember feeling a little out of sorts to start that final round, but making kind of an incredible par on the third hole helped settle me down.”

That par on the par 5 third came after Taylor’s drive went into the native area. He had to take a drop and his third shot went into a fairway bunker. From 125 yards out, he stuffed his fourth shot inside three feet and tapped in for par. Taylor birdied three of his final four holes to force the playoff and then birdied the two playoff holes to beat Hoffman.

His birdie run started on the par 5 15th hole, where Taylor received some criticism for laying up. “I remember after the round getting a lot of heat for the layup, but for years at that tournament regardless of the position I have been in, if I didn’t have a five-iron or less into that par 5, I would lay up because that second shot is so difficult. . . if you miss it anywhere left you really had no chance of birdie. So it never really crossed my mind to go for it, honestly.”

After that layup, Taylor knocked his wedge from 81 yards to three feet to set up an easy birdie. Next came the par 3 16th hole, where thousands of well-lubricated fans were on hand to roar their approval after Taylor deposited his tee shot inside six feet and then calmly rolled in the birdie putt.

Taylor still needed a birdie on the par 4 18th to force the playoff and his putt from 11 feet hung on the lip before dropping for birdie.

Taylor went on to birdie No. 18 twice more in the playoff. The last one, from about 10 feet, sealed the win. “I had a very, very similar putt the previous year on the last hole,” Taylor said. “It didn’t mean as much, obviously, but I have played there enough where I have the hang of the greens. We knew it was going to fall from the left side. A couple of feet short it looked great and to be able to see it go in the centre of the hole was nice. It was a cool moment.”

The Phoenix win helped Taylor realize another dream as he went on to represent Canada at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and made 2024 a year he will never forget.

As for the rest of the top 10…..we present the notable stories below, numbered but not necesarily in order of importance.

No. 2: Amy Lee started 2024 with three British Columbia Golf Championships. By the time the season was over, the 16-year-old Langley resident had added two more. Lee won her first B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship at Balfour Golf Course, where she finished the 54-hole event at 11-under par to win by three shots. She then went on to successfully defend her B.C. Junior Girls title in record-setting fashion. Lee, who also has B.C. Bantam and Juvenile Championships on her resume, blew away the junior girls’ field at Gallagher’s Golf & Country Club. She won the event by a whopping 18 shots.

No. 3: Vernon’s Cooper Humphreys became the first player to repeat as B.C. Amateur champion in 20 years when he won the title this past summer at Ledgeview Golf Course in Abbotsford. Humphreys made it look easy as he pulled away from the field in the final round and won by six shots with a four-round total of 13-under par. The last player to repeat as B.C. Amateur champion was James Lepp, who won the last of his four straight B.C. Ams in 2005. Humphreys, who is now in his freshman year at the University of San Diego, joked about matching or bettering Lepp’s record run. “Maybe win five in a row and then hopefully turn pro,” he said with a smile.

No. 4: Another year, more stellar play from Shelly Stouffer. The Nanoose Bay resident began the season by capturing her fifth straight B.C. Senior Women’s title at Sun Peaks Golf Course. She also won the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay and then came oh-so-close to winning her second U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur title. Stouffer made it all the way to the final at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle before falling 3&2 to Australian Nadene Gole in the championship final.

No. 5: Surrey’s Lauren Kim continued to prove why she is Canada’s top-ranked amateur player. Among her 2024 highlights: A tie for 14th in her debut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur; a win at the Glencoe Invitational in Calgary; a fifth-place finish as defending champion at the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship this summer at Royal Colwood in Victoria; and advancing to the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur Championship. The University of Texas sophomore also played some stellar golf for the Longhorns and ends the year 25th on World Amateur Golf Ranking. She’s a virtual lock to be back at Augusta next spring.

No. 6: Ilirian Zalli had himself quite the 2024. The 22-year-old Vancouver native and former B.C. Junior Boys champion registered eight victories on the Vancouver Golf Tour, won the prestigious Glencoe Invitational in Calgary and then played well at all three stages of the DP World Tour qualifying school in Europe. Zalli just missed gaining exempt status on the DP World Tour, but has full status on the 2025 Challenge Tour. That tour, which is the DP Tour’s version of the Korn Ferry Tour, begins its 2025 schedule in late January in South Africa.

No. 7: Coquitlam’s A.J. Ewart and Stuart Macdonald both recorded wins on the PGA Tour Americas circuit. Macdonald won the Diners Club Peru Open back in late April, while Ewart captured the Elk Ridge Saskatchewan Open in mid-August. Both players received passes into the second stage of PGA TOUR Qualifying School, but failed to advance to the finals. They’ll both be back playing on the PGA Tour Americas in 2025.

No. 8: Austin Krahn’s fine play in 2024 earned the 16-year-old from Christina Lake a spot on Golf Canada’s NextGen team. Krahn successfully defended his B.C. Indigenous Championship title at University Golf Club in Vancouver in early June and followed that up with an impressive win the following month at the B.C. Junior Boys Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf & Country Club in Kelowna. Krahn finished the 72-hole event at 11-under par, two shots better than runner-up Ryan Vest of Vernon.

No. 9: The University of B.C. men’s and women’s teams did what they usually do at the Canadian University/College Championship. They won big. The men beat the field by 50 shots and the women won by 42 strokes. UBC’s Dylan MacDonald and Una Chou won the individual titles. UBC has dominated the competition since it was first played in 2007. The UBC women have won the championship 13 times, while the men have taken home the title eight times.

No. 10: The British Columbia team of Cooper Humphreys of Vernon, James Fahy of Vancouver and Wyatt Brook of Heffley Creek won the Willingdon Cup inter-provincial team competition at the Canadian Amateur Championship in Saskatoon. Team B.C. won the 36-hole competition with a score of nine-under par. That was four shots clear of Team Ontario. B.C. last won the Willingdon Cup in 2015.