Ten days ago Chance Taylor was the name in Bryson DeChambeau’s Backyard Games that most people had to look up. He is now the first Backyard Games champion. He took a two-time U.S. Open champion to a play-off in his own backyard, beat him, and went home with $100,000.
So who is he?
Gate City
Chancellor Joseph Taylor was born on 29 June 2000 and grew up in Gate City, a small town in the south-west corner of Virginia. He played four years on the Gate City High School team and was district player of the year in every one of them.
He won the individual conference and region titles twice, was named all-state twice, and finished third in the state tournament. Along the way he shot a 61, which his college biography lists as the lowest 18-hole score in Virginia High School League history. He won 40 junior events, including a national junior title.
The 60
He went to Tennessee Tech, where he was named the Ohio Valley Conference’s golfer of the week and won the team’s coach’s award. The fireworks came in the summers.
In 2020 he won the East Tennessee Amateur at Elizabethton by one shot, at six under par. Then, as a college senior, he won the Lonesome Pine Invitational at Big Stone Gap for the third time in five years. He opened with a 67 and followed it with a 60, which broke the course record by a shot. He finished at 15 under par and won by seven.
His reaction was to be annoyed about it. “I wish I could have got a 59,” he told the Johnson City Press. He had missed a putt for it on the 18th.
The accident
Taylor turned professional. The content came later, and not on purpose. “I used to actually make fun of people posting content,” he told Golf.com in April.
Then he posted a TikTok on a whim. It had about 750,000 views by the next morning, and he gained 10,000 followers in a week. A friend pointed out that he could make a living from it, and he has been a full-time creator since. He is married with children, and describes himself as a dad first and a content creator second.
The look
You will not mistake him for anyone else on a tee. Taylor plays in boots, camouflage cut-off shorts and T-shirts with the sleeves removed. He has a thick accent and tattoos to go with it.
The golf under all of that is serious. He is a Callaway ambassador, and by his own numbers he carries his driver 320 yards and his mini driver 285. People tend to underestimate him for about one hole.
Your Golf Tour
Most golf YouTube viewers met him this year on Your Golf Tour, the creator series, where he plays for Team Grant. His results there have been mixed. He gained 2.49 strokes on the field at Pursell Farms, then lost 3.28 at Rams Hill and finished 16th of 20.
It did not matter much. The accent and the cut-offs made him one of the characters of the series.
The backyard
Taylor has said he found out he was in the Backyard Games about 48 hours before it started. The format was ten creators, one-hole knockout matches around DeChambeau’s backyard in Dallas, and a three-hole final against the host for $100,000.
On day two he beat Wesley Bryan, a PGA Tour winner, with a birdie two over the swimming pool. He then knocked out Grant Horvat and Brad Dalke to reach the final.
Against DeChambeau he made a three and a two on the first two holes. So did DeChambeau, who had to hole a chip from more than 30 feet on the second to stay level.
The third hole was the shot over DeChambeau’s house. Both of them hit it to about a foot and tapped in for a two, so after three holes they were still level.
The play-off
It went to closest to the pin. Taylor hit first and finished inside two feet. DeChambeau’s ball did not spin back towards the hole and stopped about nine feet away. “I don’t like my odds,” DeChambeau said.
He was right. Had DeChambeau won, the $100,000 would have gone to one of his followers. It went to Taylor, who said it would pay for “a new big block” for him and a new vehicle for his wife.