NAPLES, Fla. – Corey Conners was doing a putting drill, shirt tucked like Wayne Gretzky’s jersey, with no hat on, and his clubs on a cart. Nick Taylor pulls up and they hug and laugh – talking about what they packed (or didn’t) for this week’s post-round parties. The vibe is relaxed. Such is life when you’ve ascended to this particular tier of PGA Tour stardom and you get to tee it up in these limited-field off season events, where last place pays six figures.
But it’s not just members of the PGA Tour who are reaping the year-end rewards.
This week at Tiburon Golf Club is the Grant Thornton Invitational, the first time since 1999 that the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour are co-sanctioning a tournament (albeit an unofficial one, with just 16 teams) and the men and women are playing for an equal purse.
And Conners’ partner is none other than fellow Canadian Brooke Henderson.
“I think I’m more excited for this week,” Canada’s top-ranked male golfer says, “than any event in a while.”
The two are from Canadian small towns (Smiths Falls, Ont. edges Listowel, Ont.’s population 8,780 to 7,530) and now call Florida home – with Conners on the Atlantic Ocean side and Henderson on the Gulf of Mexico side. They last saw each other at the Olympics in Japan. They last played together in 2013 at the Copa de las Americas (alongside Albin Choi and Augusta James), an amateur event where the Canadian squad won the whole thing thanks to Henderson’s final-round 70, tied for the low round of the day.
“What I remember is that it was over my 21st birthday so I may have had a celebratory beverage after,” Conners told Sportsnet with a big smile.
A lot has changed for both of them in 10 years, of course. Conners is a father now and sports a few shakes of salt in his hair. Henderson’s tenth year as a professional golfer starts in December 2024 and in her time on the LPGA Tour she’s become the winningest Canadian of all time, with 13 trophies to her name. She won once this season, at the opening event of the LPGA Tour calendar in January. It was an up-and-down year, by her own admission. But this golf course is one Henderson is awfully familiar with. It’s the long-time host of the LPGA Tour season’s finale, an event Henderson has finished in the top 10 in four of her last six seasons.
“In our tour championship I’m trying to move up the leaderboard and make a bunch of birdies, especially on the weekend. And making birdies is the goal this week too, so it’s similar in that way,” Henderson said. “But it’s a little different with a teammate and especially in alternate shot.”
The teams will play three distinct formats. The first round is a scramble, the second is alternate shot, while the third is a new modified format where both players will hit their drives and then they will switch balls for their second shots and until holed.
This is a light week for everyone, but don’t think that the Canadians are resting on their laurels when it comes to competing. Both Conners and Henderson’s competitive drive burns bright underneath, although they both don’t show too much emotion inside the ropes. Conners spent multiple days with coach Derek Ingram last week at a year-end training camp alongside members of Golf Canada’s national team, while Henderson comes into the week with a few equipment tweaks, replacing her driver and woods to TaylorMade’s newest – which hasn’t been announced yet – and her putter is now a centre-shafted model.
“I know the PGA Tour guys use this week as a prep to get ready for Hawaii and the new season and I’d like Brooke to look at this as prep,” Dave Henderson, Brooke’s father and coach, told Sportsnet. “We have switched out the driver, switched out the woods, looked at new irons, looked at a new putter to try to get better and tweak things all the time.”
Henderson played in the group ahead of Conners during Wednesday’s Pro-Am (she was grouped with a foursome of fun-having women from Ontario who let out a loud whoop when they found out they would be grouped with Henderson at Tuesday night’s party) and was happy to see how far down the fairways Conners’ drives ended up.
Conners isn’t one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour (he’s 92nd at 300 yards per pop) but he still hits it about 40 yards further than Henderson on average. The men and women are playing from separate tees this week, but Henderson looks at Conners’ length as an advantage.
And the two may be the best ball-striking duo in the field, with Conners sitting 13th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: tee to green, and Henderson inside the top 15 in greens in regulation five of the last six seasons (and inside the top 5 in that stat for three years in a row).
“It’s pretty to watch her hit the ball. She drives the ball great and is really consistent. Just solid all around and very impressive,” Conners said of his partner. “It’s not hard to find her typically on the leaderboard. You don’t have to do a lot of scrolling.”
“Ball striking for sure is both of our strengths,” Henderson added. “Just the sound of Corey hitting the ball on the range – I’m looking forward to listening to it all week. It’s so pure. It’s different. And it’s fun to watch.”
Conners and Henderson aren’t the only Canadians teeing it up this week, as RBC Canadian Open winner Nick Taylor is in the field alongside China’s Ruoning Yin. Yin, 21, won twice on the LPGA Tour this year and even reached number one in the world. Her caddie was previously Taylor’s caddie, and they share a swing coach in Gareth Raflewski.
“It’s cool to have three Canadians in the same group. I’m not sure that’s ever happened before in a tournament I’ve played,” Henderson said. “I know we’ll have a lot of support out there.”
This event pivoted to the men-women concept for 2023 after more than a decade as an off-season team event on the PGA Tour schedule. Tom Hoge and Sahith Theegala won last year’s then-QBE Shootout. Hoge is grouped with Cheyenne Knight while Theegala is with LPGA Tour rookie sensation Rose Zhang. Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson have both teed it up with male partners in years’ past at the previously-named tournament.
While both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour have team events on their schedule, and while the Canadians have had success together before (the official team name is the ‘Dragons,’ which is what Golf Canada’s team nickname is), this is set to be a unique way for both to end their respective golfing years.
“The strategy is a work in progress. We’ve talked about it a little bit but it’s a unique format that we don’t play very often so the biggest thing is having fun, try to enjoy it. There will be no saying ‘sorry,’” Conners said with a laugh. “I know Brooke isn’t trying to leave me in any weird spots. It’s a unique event. And we know it’s going to be fun.”
The first round of the Grant Thornton Invitational goes Friday Dec. 8.
