The nerves began to flood in around the 15th hole. They were unexpected but welcome.

Adam Hadwin has spent pretty much all of 2025 out of the picture. He’s watched his Canadian brethren win, play in major championships and qualify for Signature Events for 2026. Most of the class of countrymen he associates himself with – Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor and Mackenzie Hughes, for example – aren’t in Bermuda this week because they don’t have to be.

Hadwin does. And if he doesn’t do something special in the next two weeks, he won’t be on the PGA TOUR with them next year.

So as his heart rate began to spike and his palms got a bit sweatier on Thursday afternoon in Bermuda, Hadwin was grateful. For months, there’s been nothing to be anxious about because his golf wasn’t good enough. But the 6-under 65 Hadwin shot to take the first round lead at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship is enough to jump-start the nerves. It might just jump-start a last-ditch effort to save his PGA TOUR card, too.

“I do truly believe that I've got my best golf is still to come, I've got a lot more in me and then I'll be a better player once I get through this,” Hadwin said. “It was just a matter of when I got through this and today's a good start.”

There haven’t been many signs that Hadwin was close to the light at the end of the tunnel. He began the week 147th in the FedExCup Fall, well outside the top 100 needed to keep full status and dangerously close to losing even a shred of conditional status (top 125). He’s made just two cuts since July, one of which was last week – a T53 finish in Mexico. The swing changes he implemented nearly a year ago still haven’t fully clicked.

Hadwin didn’t shy away from the struggles in his post-round interview. Asked to compare his situation to Rafa Campos’ last year, who coincidentally also began the week 147th in the FedExCup standings and went on to win, a reporter tried to politely dance around Hadwin’s trying season and where he found himself in the standings.

“Out of it,” Hadwin interjected. “Call it what it is.”

It took some time for Hadwin to accept that. He admitted his ego was bruised as his issues persisted through the summer and his friends thrived. Taylor won in Hawaii. Pendrith finished top five at the PGA Championship and Hughes went into a playoff in Myrtle Beach. Hadwin, despite playing in all Signature Events because of a top-50 finish a year ago, couldn’t buy a good result. His best finishes were a T9 at the WM Phoenix Open and a T12 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He had no other top 25s, missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship and the PGA Championship – his only major of the year.

The 38-year-old had never been a star, nor could he ever coast to success. But he carved out a niche as one of the most consistent players on TOUR. Someone that nobody was ever surprised to see contend, even if the wins didn’t come as frequently as he hoped. He had maintained his card for 10 straight seasons. Suddenly, that was far from a sure thing.

“I reached a point, though probably too late, probably July, August, where I kind of accepted where I was at, just needed to battle through,” Hadwin said.

So the battle commenced. Hadwin missed the cut at the Wyndham Championship to officially miss the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time in his career. He began the FedExCup Fall at 136th in the standings. Then he missed his first three cuts out of the break. His T53 finish at the World Wide Technology Championship improved his FedExCup standing for the first time since June.

Enter Thursday in Bermuda and a performance that even surprised Hadwin. Neither his pre-tournament practice nor his pre-round warmup indicated he would shoot the round of the day. He had begun to feel more comfortable with his swing in Utah despite the missed cut and continued that in Mexico, but putted “terribly.”

That was far from the case in his first round at Port Royal Golf Course. Hadwin poured in seven birdies, tied for most of the day, and ranked sixth in Putts per Green in Regulation. He erased the lone bogey of his day at the 15th by sticking his approach on the 235-yard par-3 16th to a makeable distance and rolling in the putt. Despite conditions that pushed the wind gusts higher than 30 mph at times and notoriously small green complexes, Hadwin hit 13 greens en route to a relatively stress-free day. The nerves that set in were purely from rust.

“Golf's a funny game,” Hadwin said.

Hadwin hopes to have the last laugh. With a win, he’s projected to move to 71st in the FedExCup. A solo-second would likely put him just inside the top-100. The margins are tight, but they’re self-created. Hadwin dug himself this hole. He’s excited to spend the next three days trying to climb his way out.