PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Corey Conners knows exactly what it takes to have success at The Players Championship. And given how he’s started his 2026 season, he’s as motivated as ever to record a great result at TPC Sawgrass and get some momentum going before a busy springtime stretch.
Conners, who has been one of the best statistical performers at TPC Sawgrass over the last half decade, has yet to find his form so far this season. But if history has shown anything, this is set to be the week.
The Canadian trails just Hideki Matsuyama and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in strokes gained at TPC Sawgrass since 2019, and has had back-to-back top-15 finishes at The Players, including a tie for sixth last year — his career-best result.
“It’s one of my favourite courses we play on Tour,” Conners told Sportsnet.ca. “There are a number of holes that fit my eye really well. And there are some that don’t, but I can still attack those.
“Just enjoy being here and it’s a challenging golf course, but once you get some experience you can make birdies and hit good shots and it’s served me well.”
Conners’ best result of the season came at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January, where he tied for 24th. In 2025, Conners had turned things around on the greens, finishing 67th in strokes gained: putting, and that — coupled with his always-excellent ball striking — helped him finish tied for fourth in the final FedEx Cup standings in August.
This year, however, Conners is about 100 spots worse in the putting category, admitting he is “a little bit lost” with the putter. He changed his putter for one week this season, but with a knowing smile, he termed it the “putt-ee” and not the putter.
“I feel like I’m close but just not getting the ball to get in the hole,” Conners said. “Working hard at it. I have been trying to do the same stuff that served me well last year. It’s been getting better. It’s been improving.”
Regardless of how Conners has finished this year, he remains Canada’s top-ranked male golfer — sitting 39th in the Official World Golf Ranking — and by a large margin.
This time of the year — from March through mid-April — has been considered by many (at least if you read through posts on social media) as ‘Corey Conners season.’ His string of results through the Florida swing have long been solid, and both of his career wins have come at the Valero Texas Open the week prior to the Masters in April, where he has recorded four top-10 finishes in six years.
“I’m trying to make the whole season like that,” Conners said with a laugh.
The commentary around this golden group of Canadians has long been, well, when is one of them going to win a big one? It all comes down to putting themselves into contention more often, Mike Weir has long said, and Conners has had the most consistent body of work amongst the group. He has two wins to his credit, but has been long thought of as someone who should be in the mix more often.
The thing is, of course, it’s hard to win on the PGA Tour. The talent is getting younger — Akshay Bhatia, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday, is just 24 and already has three Tour titles — while superstars like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy (who have combined to win the last three Players Championships) show no signs of slowing down.
“A lot of things have to go your way. In my victories, I’ve performed really well but also had things go in my favour whether it was weather or tee times to get off to a good start. Everything has to fall into place,” Conners said.
The Canadian contingent at The Players in 2026 has seen a little turnover versus recent years. Gone are long-time Tour stalwarts Adam Hadwin and Adam Svensson, and in their place are Tour rookies A.J. Ewart and Sudarshan Yellamaraju, who earned their way in via their performances in this season's FedEx Cup standings.
“It’s cool. Good play (was) rewarded,” Ewart, who was the medallist at Q-School in December at the Dye Valley course at TPC Sawgrass, told Sportsnet.ca. “It was a goal of mine when I got through Q-School and I said I wanted to be back here for The Players, so it’s awesome. It makes me want to work hard and get into more bigger events.”
Other Canadians in the field this week are some of the usual suspects in Mackenzie Hughes, Nick Taylor and Taylor Pendrith.
Like Conners, Pendrith said he’s gone through a “frustrating couple of months.” He and his wife, Meg, welcomed their second child (son Parker) late last year, so he didn’t play a tournament for about five months. His best result of 2026 came, somewhat surprisingly he said, in his first tournament back at the Sony Open. He’s otherwise just been trying to put together a complete performance in a single week.
Last week at Bay Hill, for example, Pendrith lost 10.667 strokes to the field with the putter, which was — almost comically — historically bad. In more than 313,000 measured tournaments in the PGA Tour’s ShotLink era, Pendrith’s putting performance was the 26th-worst.
In another example of how unpredictable golf is, it came just one tournament after he was ranked inside the top 20 in the same putting stat.
Pendrith has had a collection of decent results at TPC Sawgrass — a course he loves, he said — including a career high tie for 13th in 2022.
“The last couple weeks I’ve played really nice golf, but things aren’t lining up well. Last week I hit it awesome and really struggled on the greens. The week before I was great on the greens and not so great with my irons. The week before I was not so great with my driver. I’m playing good, but just not getting good results,” Pendrith said.
Whether it’s a rookie or a top-ranked veteran, The Players Championship is always an important event on the PGA Tour calendar. The half-dozen Canadians in the field all know what they need to do to make a little noise come the weekend in northeast Florida.
“I got off to a much better start last year the first few events of the year, but hopefully I’m done learning the lessons from the mistakes I’ve made thus far this season and hoping to turn things around,” Conners said. “And no better place than here.”
Canadian chip shots
Ewart and Yellamaraju are two of 14 golfers who are making their debuts at The Players this week and two of seven 2026 PGA Tour rookies in the field. The Canadian rookies are grouped together for the first two rounds. “It’s comforting for sure,” Ewart said. … Taylor remains Canada’s top-ranked golfer in the FedEx Cup standings at No. 48 on the back of his T13 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, where he was the defending champion. Taylor hasn’t missed a cut in 2026. … Hughes is making his sixth start of the season. He comes into the week off a T23 at the Cognizant Classic, his best finish of the year. … Pendrith is keeping a keen eye on the Official World Golf Ranking over the next few weeks. He ended 2025 at No. 51, where only the top 50 earn automatic spots in the Masters. He was bumped out of the magic number when Ryan Gerard travelled more than 10,000 miles to tee it up in a DP World Tour event in Mauritius and finished runner up. Pendrith, who is currently No. 66, told Sportsnet he’s added the Valero Texas Open to his schedule and will play four weeks in a row in an attempt to qualify. … This year marks the 20th anniversary of Canadian Stephen Ames’ Players Championship victory. Ames won by an impressive six shots after shooting a final-round 67, the best score of the day.
