Corey Conners is one of the game’s best ball strikers. And even though he was late in his golfing journey to learn about links golf, he’s loved how much it brings out his imaginative best.
“You’re always trying to hit something that is different than what we’re used to on the PGA Tour. No two shots are the same. The golf course can play wildly different,” Conners told Sportsnet.ca prior to The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale this week.
“I love seeing shots and feeling shots and executing them.”
Conners is hoping that his recent Open Championship experience — and success — will allow him to end this major season with a bang.
The Listowel, Ont., native finished tied for 10th at The Open last year at Royal Portrush, becoming the first Canadian male to notch two top-10 major finishes in the same season since Mike Weir 20 years prior. Conners opened with a 3-over 74 but rallied to make the cut and then shot 66-66 on the weekend.
“I remember grinding to make the cut. I was still coming off the wrist injury (that forced Conners to withdraw from the U.S. Open) and wasn’t 100 per cent. I remember being discouraged after the first day but finished it off with two great rounds on the weekend,” Conners said. “It’s always fun when things go your way.”
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This year has been a curious one for Conners, who just notched his first top-10 finish of the season at the Travelers Championship last month. He started strong at last week’s Scottish Open before tumbling down to a tie for 52nd. Conners remains Canada’s top-ranked male golfer at 53rd and is one of just 22 players on the PGA Tour to make the cut at all three majors this season.
Conners was in the mix at the U.S. Open before struggling on Sunday to a 3-over 73, dropping him out of the top 10. But he said he felt as confident as he had been all season with his ball-striking and took that into the Travelers the next week, where he closed with a 7-under 63 — the final round’s second-lowest score.
He was third in strokes gained: putting that day and Conners said not only did he find something, feel-wise, with his stroke, but it came after he was forced to switch putters earlier in the week. After just a few holes on Thursday, he realized the head of his putter was loose. He ended up doing a mid-round swap to a different model — the putter he had used through most of last year. The new putter, a Ping Ally Blue Onset (which, Conners said, is a lot like U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark’s putter with a centred shaft), has remained in the bag across the pond.
“I feel like I had some momentum from Sunday and the U.S. Open and gained some confidence and I made a bunch (of putts) the next week,” Conners said.
This week, however, will present a whole new set of challenges.
Royal Birkdale hasn’t hosted an Open Championship since 2017, and even those who did tee it up that year will see a completely different golf course. Basically every hole has been renovated or reworked since the last time the best in the world came to the iconic links layout.
Conners said the key for him — at a golf course he doesn’t know well and playing a style of golf he doesn’t often play — is to spend more time on the golf course earlier in the week than on the driving range. There have been a few times in his Open Championship career, he said, where weather has “come out of nowhere” and he’s been caught not being able to adapt as well as he would have liked.
“You have to try to learn the golf course quickly,” Conners said. “Just having a plan for everything is good and I’ll spend more time being aware of how different conditions could impact different opportunities.”
Nick Taylor rounds out the smaller-than-normal Canadian contingent alongside Conners at The Open. Taylor also has just one top-10 finish on the season, but it too came at a signature event on the PGA Tour schedule. Taylor was in prime position to record his best-ever major finish at the PGA Championship — in fact, he was so firmly in the mix making the turn Sunday he had a real chance to win the whole thing — before stumbling into the house. The Open hasn’t, however, been Taylor’s best event as he’s never made the cut.
Still, for Taylor and Conners, this week at Royal Birkdale marks another — and final, this year — chance to get them into the conversation at one of the biggest events in the game.
“Playing links golf brings a creative to your game. It brings good feel to your game,” Conners said. “You have to feel it and try to have some fun with it.”
Taylor tees off at 5:20 a.m. ET on Thursday alongside past Open Championship winner Brian Harman and Si Woo Kim while Conners goes at 7:58 a.m. with Keegan Bradley and Casey Jarvis.
