Watch out Bryson DeChambeau. Look out Jon Rahm. Corey Conners is here and looking to take you down in match play again.
No, Conners isn’t about to go all Stephen Ames on his opponents before play begins at the WG Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, but he is hoping to draw on past experiences in the mano-a-mano format.
“We don’t play a lot of match play on tour, obviously, so have to remember some of the good memories in the U.S. Amateurs that I played,” stated Conners.
Conners played in three U.S. Amateurs and among the foes he conquered are DeChambeau and Rahm. He lost the final in 2014 to Gunn Yang of South Korea and was knocked off in the semi-finals of the 2013 edition by eventual champion and current PGA Tour player Matthew Fitzpatrick.
That was a long time ago, of course, and for DeChambeau, about 40 pounds ago.
Conners is making his first appearance in the World Golf Championship event that brings together 64 of the top golfers in the world in a break from stroke play. But good golf is still good golf and will shine through no matter the format, he believes.
“It’s a different game, different beast,” he stated. “I think the top players would still do really well at match play. You’ve got to get the ball in the hole as quickly as possible. I think from my experience in the past, it favours steady players, where if you don’t make a lot of mistakes, don’t give away any holes, I think that’s definitely going to be important.”
Conners might be the epitome of a steady golfer. He is known to wear out the middle of fairways and greens. He’s currently 12th in driving accuracy and 15th in greens in regulation on the PGA Tour. It can be almost monotonous to watch him play.
The biggest difference of late has been on the greens where his putting has been spectacular by his usual standards. Last year, Conners was ranked 175th in putting average on the PGA Tour. This year he’s 43rd.
That has come thanks to a grip change, plenty of practice and some teamwork on the greens in reading the line.
“It’s definitely been a lot of hard work to get to where I am now making that change,” admitted Conners, “and it’s been my main focus over the last, whatever, eight months or so that since making that change, and I think my caddie, Danny, we both read the greens really well and I think that’s helped as well add some confidence, add some trust and it kind of allows me to hit it freely when I’m on the greens when we both agree on the break and we both kind of see the same thing, so he’s added a lot of confidence to that, as well.”
The 29-year-old comes into this week off two strong finishes, a third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a seventh at the Players Championship. Those, along with seven other top-25 finishes this year, have pushed him to 41st in the Official World Golf Ranking. It’s also elevated him into some of the bigger tournaments including this week’s extravaganza.
“I’ve been playing well for a long period of time and sometimes just don’t see the results in tournaments,” said Conners, “but over the last number of events I have found things that have came together a little more consistent I’ve been hitting the ball a little bit better, putting a little bit better, which is a good combination to shoot lower scores.”
Conners starts Wednesday in one of 16 four-player pods with Matthew Wolff, Jordan Spieth and Fitzpatrick. He’ll play each once and hope to advance to the Round of 16. Despite the format change, he won’t alter his usual game plan too much.
“I think almost treat it like preparation for any other week,” he stated. “Build a good plan and for the most part stick with that. Obviously we’ll be aware of what’s going on with our opponent, but I think something that I’m going to focus on is just trying to stick to my game plan and play my game and not sort of get thrown off or change my strategy too much if I can help it.”
His first match will be against Wolff, starting at 11:53 CT on Wednesday.
Mackenzie Hughes is the only other Canadian in the field. He will face Paul Casey in his opening match, scheduled for 2:05 PM CT.
