Three Members Of B.C.’s PGA TOUR Foursome Earn Passing Grades
The PGA TOUR wrapped up its 2024 season at last week’s RSM Classic on St. Simons Island in Georgia, where Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor didn’t play but got some good news anyway.
Taylor managed to hang on to his spot inside the top 60 on the Fed Ex Cup points list — finishing 60th — and that means he can add a couple of lucrative Signature events to his 2025 PGA TOUR schedule.
Players finishing 51st to 60th on the points list earned invitations into two California Signature events, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula and the Genesis Championship at Riviera Country Club in suburban Los Angeles.
The 2024 season was a mixed bag for the four British Columbians who had PGA TOUR status. Here’s how we grade their play in 2024:
NICK TAYLOR: Grade: B; Money: $3,249,358; FedEx Cup: 60
You know that feeling when you shoot lights out on the front nine and then play miserably on the back side? Well, that’s kind of how Taylor is feeling about his 2024 campaign. His year started with a bang, beating Charley Hoffman in a playoff to win the WM Phoenix Open in early February for his fourth PGA TOUR victory. Taylor missed only two cuts in his first 13 starts in 2024 and had two top-10s in addition to his Phoenix win in that stretch. Taylor’s second half was miserable. He missed the cut in seven of his last 15 events and his best finish in that stretch was a tie for 25th. Taylor missed the cut in all four major championships as well as the RBC Canadian Open, where he was the defending champion. Taylor did have one summer highlight when he represented Canada at the Olympics in Paris. He will open his 2025 season at The Sentry tournament in early January at Kapalua in Maui.
ADAM HADWIN: Grade: B; Money: $4,052,135; FedEx Cup: 47
Hadwin, who finished off his 2024 season with a tie for 53rd at the RSM Classic, had plenty of positives in 2024. He recorded five top-10s and finished inside the top 50 on the FedEx Cup points list. That means he is exempt into all of the 2025 big-money Signature events. However, that second PGA TOUR win remains elusive. It is going on eight years since Hadwin recorded his first and only PGA TOUR win at the 2017 Valspar Championship in Florida. There were a pair of disappointments this summer for Hadwin, who failed to make Canada’s Olympic team and then was passed over as a captain’s pick for the Presidents Cup International team. With his top-50 status secure, Hadwin only played in two of the PGA TOUR’s fall season events. He has been working on some swing changes for his 2025 season, which will begin at the Sentry tourney in Hawaii.
ADAM SVENSSON: Grade: C; Money: $2,014,512; FedEx Cup: 87
The Surrey native played well enough to comfortably retain his exempt status, which these days is no easy feat on the PGA TOUR. But Svensson took a step backwards after a solid 2023 season that saw him finish the year 37th on the Fed Ex Cup points list. That meant he got to play in all of the 2024 Signature events. The former B.C. Amateur champion is not exempt for any of them in 2025. Svensson recorded two top 10s in 2024 and made the cut in 23 of his 32 starts. But apart from those two top-10s, many of his finishes were of the 40th- or 50th-something variety. He struggled on the greens in 2024 and ranked 171st in putting. Svensson finished his season with a tie for 53rd at the RSM Classic, where he earned his lone PGA TOUR win in 2022.
ROGER SLOAN: Grade: F; Money: $352,344; FedEx Cup: 178.
Barring a top-five finish at the final stage of Q-school in mid-December, Sloan is headed back to the Korn Ferry Tour after a disappointing 2024. The Merritt native missed the cut in 14 of the 25 events he played in and never got any momentum going. His best finish was a tie for 12th at the Wyndham Championship. That was Sloan’s lone finish inside the top 30. He needed a huge finish at the RSM Classic to try and move inside the top 150 on the points list and retain conditional status for 2025, but missed the cut.