NEWS AND NOTES
Harry Taylor's Just Wild About Q School
Posted: Wed December 3, 1997
Most of the 168 players who advanced to the final stage of the
PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament arrived in Haines City, Fla.,
this week with the frazzled look that might be expected from
those preparing for the game's ultimate white-knuckle
experience. Not Harry Taylor. He came to the Grenelefe Resort
relaxed and eager for Wednesday's start of the 108-hole final,
after which Tour cards will be awarded to the top 35 finishers.
"The Q school is my tournament," says the 43-year-old Taylor.
"It's the one event I play in every year and the only one where
I've had any success."
Taylor has earned a spot in 17 Q school finals, which ties the
record set by Mac O'Grady. He has earned his card seven times
(most recently in 1994), which is also a record, but he has
never finished higher than 140th on the money list and therefore
has always lost his playing privileges. Still, Taylor adamantly
maintains that he's "not some no-name loser who keeps going to
the Q school."
He certainly has the name part right. Midway through Taylor's
rookie year on Tour, in 1980, Gary Adams, who was then a
fledgling equipment maker, introduced himself at the Western
Open. "I just started a company named Taylor Made," Adams said.
"With your last name, we should get together."
At the time, Taylor Made manufactured only one club, and it was
a novelty item—a driver made of metal. Taylor, who had won only
$1,482 that year, realized that he would probably never earn
enough on Tour to support his family, so that fall he went to
work for Adams. By 1984 he had helped make the metal wood the
Tour's most popular driver. In 1990 Taylor helped Adams launch
Founders Club, and for the last three years Taylor has served as
the director of club design and Tour promotions for Mizumo.
But he never lost the urge to play. He has entered every Q
school since 1983. "Maybe the Senior tour will be my calling,"
says Taylor. "The guys I played on Tour with will have made
their millions, and they'll want to stay home. There's still
hope."
Issue date: December 8, 1997
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