Canada’s Conners tops eclectic Bay Hill field
ORLANDO, Fla. — Golfer Corey Conners is an outlier, whether he’s emerging from a tiny town in Ontario to reach the PGA Tour or rising to the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes at Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
The 29-year-old Canadian entered the Arnold Palmer Invitational ranked 60th in the world. Yet even players behind him in the rankings, namely No. 62 Jordan Spieth and No. 65 Rickie Fowler, were the ones generating pre-tournament buzz and fanfare.
Conners, meanwhile, quietly went out Thursday and carded a 6-under par to tie superstar Rory McIlroy for the first-round lead, and then backed it up with a 69 to end Friday in sole possession of the lead at 9-under 135 total.
“I haven’t really been in this position a lot,” Conners said. “But I have a lot of confidence in my game and feeling really relaxed the last few days. So try and keep that going.”
The API has drawn more appetizing fields in the past, but two days this week at Bay Hill have delivered a smorgasbord of star power and storylines entering the weekend.
Conners sits a shot clear of 2011 API winner Martin Laird, who ended a seven-year winless drought last year in Las Vegas, and Lanto Griffin, the 2019 Houston Open winner named after ancient Chinese spiritual master Lord Lanto.
Sitting at 7-under are two of the game’s premier talents, McIlroy and 23-year-old rising star Viktor Hovland of Norway. Bryson DeChambeau is in sixth place alone at 6-under, followed by headliners like Spieth, Justin Rose and Paul Casey, along with 22year-old South Korean star Sungjae Im, all at 5-under par.
The top 10 after 36 holes at Bay Hill features five players ranked in the top 20 (McIlroy, DeChambeau, Hovland, Casey, Im), two former world No. 1s (McIlroy, Rose) and players who have combined to win nine major titles (McIlroy, Spieth, DeChambeau, Rose).
With bad weather in the Saturday forecast and cool temperatures expected Sunday, McIlroy predicted the late Palmer’s course could deliver a major championship test this weekend.
“The way the course is playing and with the weather coming in, if you get it to double digits under par this weekend, you’re going to have a really good chance,” McIlroy said. “You just need to be really solid, limit your mistakes.”
McIlroy, seeking his first win since November 2019, was pleased to break par Friday and end the day with a 1-under 71 round featuring four birdies and three bogeys. McIlroy salvaged pars with an up-anddown from a greenside bunker on hole No. 5 and with putts around 10 feet on hole Nos. 7 and 9.
“It could have been the round that I could have shot 74 or 75,” he said.
A day after he coasted to a 67, DeChambeau scratched out a 71 himself as he missed eight of 18 greens and failed on three of his eight up-and-down attempts, leading to three bogeys on the front nine. The reigning U.S. Open champion tightened up his game on the back nine to card two birdies and seven pars, despite tricky conditions.
“The wind was kind of moving all around today,” he said. “So it was difficult to manage.”