BC's Nick Taylor Clinging To Lucrative Top-60 PGA TOUR FedEx Fall Spot
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
(October 21, 2024) - Much of the focus of the PGA TOUR’s fall season is centred on players trying to fight their way into the top 125 or stay inside that magic number to retain their playing privileges for 2025.
But there’s another race that gets less attention and Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor is in the thick of it. Players who finish the fall season 51st to 60th on the FedEx Cup points list earn a couple of nice perks in 2025.
They’ll get into two of the big-money Signature events next year — the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on California’s Monterey Peninsula and The Genesis Championship at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
That battle is the reason why Taylor has played so much of the fall season. He has only missed one of the first three fall events and is heading to Japan to play in this week’s Zozo Championship. Taylor tied for 54th at last week’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas and didn’t budge from his 58th spot on the points list.
Taylor is only guaranteed one Signature start next year. He’ll be in the field for the season-opening Sentry tournament in Maui by virtue of his win at this year’s WM Phoenix Open.
While Taylor is grinding it out this fall, his Abbotsford counterpart Adam Hadwin is enjoying plenty of down time. Hadwin made what will be his lone appearance this fall at the Shriners, where he missed the cut. Hadwin finished the regular season 47th on the points list and is exempt into all of next year’s Signature events.
Click HERE to see the FedEx Cup Fall Standings
Surrey’s Adam Svensson and Roger Sloan of Merritt are also playing lots of golf this fall. Svensson is also chasing that top 60 spot, but didn’t do himself any favours by missing the cut in Las Vegas. He dropped three places on the points list to 80th. Svensson is also in the Zozo Championship field this week.
While Taylor and Svensson have locked up their spots inside the top 125 and are just chasing extra starts for next year, Sloan is waging a much more meaningful battle. He is playing for his PGA TOUR life and it’s not going particularly well. Sloan missed the cut in Las Vegas and fell two spots to 174th on the points list. He did not make the Zozo field and is going to require a big finish in the final three fall events to salvage any status for 2025.
Ideally, Sloan wants to crack the top 125, which would make him fully exempt for 2025. That is going to require a top two-or-three finish. Sloan can retain conditional status — which would likely get him about a dozen starts in 2025 — if he can move inside the top 150.