PGA Tour golfer Nick Taylor is set to return to his roots in Abbotsford at the annual UFV Cascades Pro-Am at Ledgeview Golf and Country Club on Friday.
For the second straight year, the tourney will be an official Vancouver Golf Tour event – each foursome will feature one pro and three amateurs playing a two-best ball team format.The pros will be battling for a piece of a $5,000 prize purse, while amateurs will be competing for $10,000 in prizes.
The amateur spots in the field are sold out, but fans are welcome to view the event, which begins with a 1 p.m. shotgun start.
Taylor, a graduate of Abbotsford’s Yale Secondary and the former No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, has grown into one of Canada’s most accomplished pro golfers. The University of Washington product broke through on the Web.com Tour in 2014 to earn his PGA Tour card, and wasted little time making his presence felt, winning the Sanderson Farms Championship in November 2014 for his first PGA Tour victory. He posted more than $1 million in earnings in his rookie season and finished 101st in the FedEx Cup points standings.
This year, Taylor sits 110th on the FedEx Cup points list to go with $468,872 in earnings, highlighted by a T5 result at the Puerto Rico Open in March.
“I can't tell you how excited we are to have Nick back again this year,” Cascades golf coach Chris Bertram said. “Time is a precious commodity to PGA Tour players and the fact that he is willing to come out and support our program says a lot about how much Nick cares about his community and growing the game of golf.”
Taylor is but one of the luminaries in an impressive field. Ray Stewart, the former PGA Tour and Champions Tour golfer from Abbotsford, was instrumental in launching the Cascades’ fundraising tourney six years ago, and he’ll be competing against his son Brett, a current VGT pro who played five seasons with the UFV men’s squad and is a two-time team MVP.
Fellow Abbotsford product James Lepp, a longtime supporter of the Cascades golf program who won the 2005 NCAA Div. 1 individual title and two PGA Tour Canada events, is also in the field. A pair of former UFV Pro-Am champions – 2014 winner James Allenby of Langley, and reigning champ Kevin Stinson of Mission – will looking to duplicate their past successes.