Golfer Taylor now playing with ‘house money’
After shooting the round of his life to preserve his PGA Tour status, Canadian golfer Nick Taylor chose to mark the achievement with a modest celebration.
He and his wife, Andie — who just turned 30 — went to Wendy’s for ice cream.
“It was a roller-coaster week, let alone day,” Taylor, from Abbotsford, B.C., said. “We were just so exhausted.”
A winner on the PGA Tour in 2014, Taylor was outside the top-125 on the FedEx Cup standings going into last week at the Wyndham Championship. His 7-under-par 63 Sunday (his low round of the year) helped move him to 119th. That allows him to pick and choose his schedule on the
PGA Tour next year.
Taylor will now play The Northern Trust at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey, the first FedEx Cup playoff event. Fellow Abbotsford golfer Adam Hadwin, who was 70th in the FedEx Cup standings, is also in the field.He feels like he’s got “nothing to lose” this week.
“I’m playing with house money a little bit,” he said.
“I’m still trying to win and move on, but definitely not as much pressure as last week.”
Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont.,
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, and David Hearn of Brantford, finished outside the top 125 and will play the four-tournament Web.com Tour finals to try to improve on their PGA Tour status for next year.
Conners (130th), Silverman (136th), and Hearn (138th) will play out of the category for golfers 126-150 on the FedEx Cup standings and have partial status. Hearn was in that category this season and still played 21 tournaments.
Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Sask., finished 185th on the FedEx Cup standings but will start next year on a major medical exemption after having back surgery on August 3.
Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., is fully exempt next year after his win at The RSM Classic in 2016.
Henderson on a roll
It was a great time for Brooke Henderson’s best round of the year.
The native of Smiths Falls, Ont., fired a 9-under-par 63 Sunday at the Indy Women in Tech Championship on the LPGA Tour. She finished tied for seventh, her eighth top-10 finish of the year.
Henderson has now earned US$945,881 on the season.
She looks to become the first Canadian since Jocelyne Bourassa in 1973 to win the CP Women’s Open on home soil when she tees it up this week at Wascana Country Club in Regina.
She finished tied for 12th a year ago in Ottawa, her best-career result at the national championship.
Solid finish for James
Augusta James had her best result of her Symetra Tour career Sunday.
The native of Bath, Ont. fired a 6-underpar 66 Sunday at the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Michigan to finish runner-up. It was James’ second top-3 result in three weeks.
She’s 28th on the money list of the Symtera Tour, the feeder circuit to the LPGA Tour.
The top 10 on the money list at the end of the year earn LPGA Tour cards.
Canadians at LPGA Q School
There will be 15 Canadians in action at the CP Women’s Open this week, but the field won’t include two of Canada’s brightest collegiate golf stars.
Both Maddie Szeryk and Jaclyn Lee are teeing it up at First Stage of the LPGA Tour’s Qualifying School instead.
Szeryk had a solid final year at Texas A&M University, winning twice and notching a top-20 at the NCAA National Championship.
Lee made a big run up the leaderboard at the NCAA National Championship as well in her final year at Ohio State University, where she finished tied for fifth. She was part of the winning team at the Big Ten Championship.
Both Szeryk and Lee are longtime members of Golf Canada’s National Team.