`I STILL WANT MORE'
How Canadian Corey Conners can take the next step at PGA Championship
TULSA, Okla. — Corey Conners is as consistent as his golf swing.
At the highest level of professional golf, there are plenty of big personalities, big teams, and, yes, big egos. Reaching the pinnacle of such a tremendously difficult and starkly individual sport almost seems to demand a certain level of self-absorption.
All of which makes Conners incredibly unique because Canada's top golfer is none of these. Quite the opposite. He's the guy you hope your daughter brings home for dinner: humble, polite, mild-mannered yet engaging and interesting.
Two weeks ago at the Wells Fargo Championship, Conners more or less apologized for jumping out of the way of a doomed Marc Leishman shank from a greenside bunker that sailed into a pond.
“I wish I didn't move because the ball would've nailed me in the middle of the leg and he would've had a putt from the middle of the green instead of being in the water,” he said after the round.
The affable Canadian makes his 10th consecutive major championship start this week at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla. With three consecutive top-10 finishes at the Masters and a T17 at last year's PGA Championship, the 30-year-old from Listowel, Ont., has definitely arrived. Armed with one of the sweetest swings on the PGA Tour, there are very few better at finding fairways and greens, which makes him a threat every time he tees it up.
“I don't think you can look at a golf course and not think fairways and greens are going to be beneficial,” Conners said Wednesday. “But I think particularly here, particularly in the major championships.”
Speaking of majors, Conners is happy he's becoming a prominent player on tour, and happy that most American fans now recognize his name and swing when they see it, but said that top-10s aren't the end goal.
“I certainly take a lot of pride in getting myself in the mix, playing well on some big stages, but I still definitely want more,” he said. “I want to win a major someday.”
There is no question that Conners has the golf swing to do it. One look at the world golf rankings (where Conners ranks 32nd) and it's easy to see there is a heavy premium on world-class ball-striking. And nobody makes it look as effortless as Conners.
“As a kid, I focused a lot on my tempo, and I think that is definitely something that I really appreciate now,” he said. “It's not really something that I necessarily think too much about or work too much on. It's just sort of ingrained in there. It's definitely nice to have.”
It obviously takes plenty of effort to make a golf swing look effortless, but Conners' caddie Danny Sahl confirmed that he hasn't seen Conners and his coach Derek Ingram do much tinkering with the golfer's much-admired move.
“Ever since I started with him in January of last year nothing has changed,” Sahl told Postmedia. “He's never really thought about his swing and Derek and him do a great job managing that in the off-weeks, and he's been a privilege to work with for sure.”
An easy-going nature and an easy-going swing are certainly great attributes to have on the PGA Tour, but with such consistent success following his breakthrough win at the 2019 Valero Texas Open, the question becomes, when will Conners take his game to the next level? And what will it take to get it there?
The frequent answer seems always to be, work on his short game and his putting, but the truth is he's been doing that and it has been working. After consistently losing strokes to the field on the greens early in his career, Conners finished last season -.008 in strokesgained putting, making him nearly exactly average on the PGA Tour, not a bad place to be when you're among the best in every ball-striking category. This season, through 43 measured rounds, Conners is actually gaining .112 strokes against the field on the greens, ranked 81st, and now better than average with the flat stick.
Following his third top-ten at the Masters in April, I asked Conners if he's getting close to a green jacket. At the time he told me, he hopes so but that a top-10 is a long way from a win. So I asked him on Wednesday what he needs to do to bridge that gap.
“There's definitely a big mental component to it, he said. “I'm getting a lot more comfortable being in positions near the top of the leaderboard, but it's certainly very challenging to win.”
One thing major champions seem to have in common is fiery competitiveness, one that is often plain to see.
It's quite possible that Conners has that fire but that it's hidden by his general affability and naturally calm nature. Sahl confirmed as much on Wednesday saying he sees his player's fiery side inside the ropes. Conners said it is something he has thought about and is actually working on, which sounds quite Canadian, but we'll take it.
“I think Danny and I have done a good job of staying in the moment, and I think definitely something that I've wanted to increase is my fire out on the course,” Conners said. “Just maybe getting a little too relaxed in certain situations where I've learned that it's OK to get a little upset or a little frustrated, but it's also OK when things are going well to be happy about that.”
Don't expect to see any golf clubs thrown or huge fist pumps at Southern Hills this week, but a few more smiles and frowns might be Conners' way of telling us that his time is now.