By Kent Gilchrist - The Province Newspaper
Published: April, 2009

Behind every great athlete there's a mom and dad, who double as driver, psychologist, cook, travel agent and general jack-of-all-trades.You can toss in liberal amounts of love, physical and monetary support, too. Being a parent in an individual sport such as golf means more sacrifice than a team sport. But maybe the kids deliver a higher level of satisfaction when things go particularly well; even when they're off. At least the tournament is normally somewhere pretty nice.

If you are Jay and Darlene Taylor, the last couple of years following the success of younger son Nick has been a joy that has been tempered somewhat by the fact older son Josh's role has sometimes been to carry Nick's clubs. Just last year, Nick qualified to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, the U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst and the Canadian Open at Glenn Abby. Not bad for a 20-year-old kid with two years of college eligibility with University of Washington. Oh, yeah, he also finished second individually at the NCAA championship.

In 2007, he won the B.C. Amateur and trumped that by winning the Canadian Amateur and then made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur. He is so highly ranked that he has been invited to play in this year's British Amateur without having to qualify.

Things haven't been come quite so easily for 23-year-old Josh, a talent in his own right, and senior member of the University of Texas at El Paso golf team. Josh's is the first name out of Nick's mouth when he's asked who has most influenced him in the game of golf. Nick always wanted to be as good as Josh. And his older brother pushed him to get better, simply by establishing the standard.

"I would much rather have seen them both playing (at Torrey Pines)," said Jay. "The shoe used to be on the other foot. Josh was the guy and Nick followed him around and played in his shadow and got Josh's hand-me-downs. "I remember when Josh went to the Canadian junior in Saskatoon and after checking in came back to the car with a Titleist backpack and box of Pro-V Ones. Neither of the boys could believe it."

The year Josh qualified for Saskatoon by finishing 13th in the B.C. junior, Nick finished last when he was in Grade Eight. But the next year after he went to the Aaron Baddeley world tournament in Fiji, he started really applying himself. "He had a pretty good idea of how difficult and stressful it was going to be (because Josh had been the trail blazer). But that's one of the wonderful things about golf and the peer group at Ledgeview, they're competitive, but they cheer and respect each other."

Tibor Bogdan, father of Lucas, said that once his son determined golf and not soccer was the sport he wanted to pursue when he was 12, knowing what to do was easy. They simply tried to do whatever it was Nick Taylor had done before them.

"The Taylors had learned through trial and error with Josh," said the elder Bogdan. "By the time Nick was going places, they knew the shortcuts. And they were very generous in their advise."

They even recommended Rob Houlding, who has been working with Nick and Josh for several years, as someone to teach the younger Bogdan.

"And I always knew if Lucas wasn't at home," said Tibor, "he'd be at Ledgeview with Nick and Adam (Hadwin, the third muskateer who qualified for the 2008 U.S. Amateur), and he'd be there until they couldn't see because of darkness."

Gerry Hadwin, an assistant pro at Morgan Creek, used to work at Ledgeview and Adam's younger brother Kyle works in the pro shop. "The group of kids that have been there just push each other," he said. "It's just been fun hanging out with them. And Adam shot four under at Chambers Bay 69-71 (to win the qualifyer for 36 holes. He said it was the best he's ever played."

Ah, the memories...they make it all worthwhile.