Monday qualifier to Augusta trip
Conners wins Valero Texas Open, Masters invite
SAN ANTONIO – Corey Conners came home with six birdies on the back nine to win the Valero Texas Open by two shots Sunday, earning the final spot in the Masters field.
After a lengthy rain delay, Conners opened with four birdies in his first five holes to take a four-shot lead before four consecutive bogeys to fall back to even par for the day.
Conners finished the day with a 6under-par 66 to finish 20 under at TPC San Antonio’s AT&T Oaks Course. Charley Hoffman finished second at 18 under.
It was the first PGA Tour win for Conners, a 27-year-old from Listowel, Ontario. He became the first in nearly nine years to win after Monday qualifying for a PGA Tour event.
Hoffman, the 2016 Texas Open winner, shot 67.
Ryan Moore closed with an 8-under 64, a shot off the course record, and was third at 17-under.
Si Woo Kim, The Players Championship winner in 2017, led the opening three rounds but dropped to a tie for fourth with Brian Stuard (15-under) after an even-par 72.
Conners, the 2014 U.S. Amateur runner-up, will play in his second Masters. Two of the top three finishers last year at Augusta missed the top 10 this week. Rickie Fowler was tied for 17th while 10 strokes back at 10-under with a finalround 69, and Jordan Spieth (72) was 7under.
Stuard finished with 66 to get to 15under. Kevin Streelman closed with an 8-under 64 and was 14-under. He missed tying the course record when, after four consecutive birdies, he hit his approach from the 18th fairway into the gallery and bogeyed.
It was a wild round for Conners, a Canadian who had not won on any of the PGA Tour’s affiliated circuits. He had 10 birdies and four pars that sandwiched four consecutive bogeys on the front nine.
He had a one-stroke lead when he rammed home a 34-foot birdie putt at No. 12 and stayed a stroke up with a tapin birdie at the 14th.
Moore joined Conners at the top of the leaderboard with an 8-foot putt at No. 16 that was his fourth birdie in five holes. Moore missed a birdie opportunity on the next hole when he couldn’t convert on a putt from inside 10 feet. Minutes later, Conners sank a 10-footer to save par at No. 15, then hit to 4 feet to set up a birdie at the 175-yard par-3 16th. His birdie at No. 17 gave him a three-shot lead walking up the final hole.
Conners looked like he would tuck this one away early. He birdied four of the first five holes. Trailing by a shot going into the final round, he benefited from a three-stroke swing on the third hole with a 10-foot putt on the par-3. Kim hit into the water fronting the green and double-bogeyed. Later in the day, Kim was grabbing at his right upper body with an apparent injury.
Conners was two strokes ahead, and with birdies on the next two holes he led by four over both Kim and Hoffman.
But Conners bogeyed the next four, and three of those came after tee shots put him in nice position either from the middle of the fairway or close to it. The other bogey, on a par-3 at No. 7, he hit his tee shot into a bunker, then blasted over the green.
He made the turn and clicked off three consecutive birdies. The last player to qualify on Monday and win a PGA Tour event was Arjun Atwal in 2010 in the Wyndham Championship.