A move from the second position back to skip has agreed with Brendan Bottcher so far this season. His new-look team has settled in quite nicely as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt great doing something else, but it certainly feels like I\u2019m back home as well this year,\u201d Bottcher said. <\/p>\n
A national champion in 2021, Bottcher started the previous quadrennial on a new rink before being replaced by Brad Jacobs after two seasons.<\/p>\n
Bottcher briefly turned to coaching, working with Rachel Homan\u2019s top-ranked women\u2019s team for a few months before returning to men\u2019s play as a second on Brad Gushue\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
That foursome disbanded after Gushue\u2019s retirement last spring, but lead Geoff Walker remained with Bottcher, who added the Horgan brothers — Jacob and Tanner — to a squad that boasts a mix of youth and experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new-look Team Bottcher has been going great, and I think you can see it in our results,\u201d Bottcher said. \u201cWe\u2019re having some good success. We\u2019ve played five events now, qualified (for playoffs) in all five, made it deeper into the playoffs in a handful of them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just playing well, having fun, winning some curling games, and I think we\u2019re off to a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bottcher, who won a world junior title in 2012, made his Montana\u2019s Brier debut in 2017. <\/p>\n
After reaching the national final on three straight occasions, he broke through in 2021 on a team with Darren Moulding, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin.<\/p>\n
Walker, meanwhile, who\u2019s also based in Alberta, won the Brier six times with Gushue\u2019s rink.<\/p>\n
He also won a world title with the St. John\u2019s-based side and earned an Olympic bronze in 2022. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just learned a lot, not only from them, but even personally playing a different position than I\u2019ve played the majority of my career,\u201d Bottcher said in a recent interview. \u201cIt\u2019s different and I gained a little perspective and insight to being a front-ender and contributing in that capacity.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Horgans, who are two-time world junior silver medallists, spent the last two seasons on a team skipped by John Epping. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe spent the better part of August all together here in Edmonton,\u201d Bottcher said. \u201cOn the ice every day, off the ice a lot of the time, just putting in all those minutes together. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then really the commitment from the guys (with) Jake moving out to Edmonton and even Tanner spending a pile of time out here. I think that\u2019s really accelerated our season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bottcher guided the team to semifinal appearances in four straight bonspiels before falling to Brad Jacobs in the quarterfinals last month at the Grand Slam of Curling\u2019s Co-op Invitational. <\/p>\n
At this week\u2019s Slam stop in Medicine Hat, Alta., Bottcher was scheduled to open round-robin play Tuesday night against Epping.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old Walker is the veteran on the team. Tanner Horgan, 28, throws second rocks ahead of brother Jacob, who\u2019s 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a nice transition for me being in a little bit more of a leadership experience-type position with these guys,\u201d said Bottcher, who\u2019s 34. \u201cAlthough they\u2019ve done a fair amount of winning, they\u2019re excited to go win the big stuff now. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re excited to go win Slams, go and win the Brier, and to go and do the pinnacle things in our sport. And I\u2019m excited to be a part of that kind of renewed energy with a team that\u2019s young and driven and trying to put all the work in to go and be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
At No. 10, Bottcher is one of three Canadian teams in the top 10 of World Curling\u2019s world rankings. <\/p>\n
He\u2019s joined by third-ranked Matt Dunstone and Jacobs at No. 6. Switzerland\u2019s Yannick Schwaller tops the list, with Scotland\u2019s Grant Hardie at No. 2. <\/p>\n
Play continues through Sunday\u2019s finals at the P&H Masters.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026. <\/p>\n
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A move from the second position back to skip has agreed with Brendan Bottcher so far this season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-956862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}