Canadian PGA golfer Corey Conners talks about his recent run at the PGA Tour Championship, and raising money at the Synergy 8 Golf Tournament In Saskatoon.
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Corey Connor’s with us here. Corey, you’re in the Bridge City in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Obviously for a great cause, but I got to ask, have you spent much time in Saskatchewan? Is this your first trip? You’ve been here before. Uh yeah, I’ve been uh I’ve been here a couple times. Um back in my early pro days and uh playing on the uh the Canadian Tour, PGA Tour, Americas as it’s now called. Um been here a couple times, but uh yeah, excited to uh to be back. um raising money for kids, raising money for the air ambulance. Uh Synergy 8, what they do up there, it’s amazing. I think it’s over $13 million over the years in your state now. Professional golfer, you know, you’ve grinded to get where you have been, but it must be it must be nice to be able to to kind of give back to see the benefits uh especially for kids. Yeah, you nailed it. you know, I feel really fortunate to be able to to do something I love and um you know, love being able to give back and, you know, hopefully helping uh helping them raise more money for such a great cause. Um my wife and I have started a a family uh foundation back in Ontario to kind of help kids and um you know, use some of my time to to help in our local community. But it’s great to be able to, you know, travel across Canada, uh, like I am now and and be able to give back and, uh, try and help out, uh, some other great causes, too. Man, you’re coming off, uh, coming off a week, too. Um, T4 at the Tour Championship. I got to say, I’m a little bit of a DGEN. I had you to win outright, so I was rooting rooting hard for you on the betting line side of things, but uh, a nice weekend for you there. How do you sum up that week? Yeah, obviously finished uh finished in style there. Had a great day on Sunday. Um disappointing opening round really beginning to the tournament. Um felt like I played well, just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. Uh struggled on the greens, but uh fortunately got it figured out. Um I guess better late than never. uh to you know still give myself a nice finish and uh having the low round of the day shooting I think probably my low round of the season uh on Sunday final you know final round of the FedEx Cup uh playoffs was a good way to finish it off. Yeah, that was uh that was something else. Are you are you guys at all like us pigeons, you know, 8 10 whatever handicaps we are. Do you do you dissect your rounds after? Do you sit around with guys and and tell stories that no one wants to hear about shots that you know you should have had or putts that would have went in? Yeah, I think I think so. I mean, more so to my wife probably. She uh she may may not want to be hearing any of that, but she uh she’s good to to listen to sometimes when uh when you got to vent a little bit, you know, after the first day. Yeah. Just kind of maximized my score. There was a lot of things I felt like I did well, but just nothing was going my way. So, um yeah, definitely trying to dissect around trying to figure out what went wrong, but um you know, just didn’t have uh anything going for me, but um yeah, some some of that with with the other guys, but I’m lucky my family gets to travel with me a little bit and uh they were there. So, try uh try and get away from golf when when I’m off the course and be a dad for sure. Uh when you were a youngster, you know, obviously Canadian and all that, who who did you look up to um golf-wise when you were young? Yeah, I think Mike Weir was a huge inspiration for me. Uh was pretty much when he won the Masters in 2003 was pretty much when I was getting, you know, into golf a little more seriously and uh you know, watching what he did there, you know, what it meant for Canada. Uh was was really cool. It was awesome, you know, to watch him kind of be that aspiring age when he won the Masters and um was a big Tiger Woods fan, but had a lot of supporters back home as well. My family was, you know, really supportive and, you know, gave me opportunities to to try and achieve my dreams. But, um, definitely looked up to Mike Weir the most. You, you went to Ken State. What What’s with Kent State really liking Canadian golfers? Like Hughes went there, Pend went there? You was there, you know, scouting that someone was doing or why Kent State so pro Canadian? Yeah, the there’s a legendary coach at Kent State, Herb Page. um retired a handful of years ago but coached there for about 40 years and he was originally from the Toronto area in Canada and was kind of one of the first coaches to recruit north of the border. I think since then some of the other bigger schools have uh taken notice and and are not afraid to recruit in Canada. But um yeah, there was a little bit of a Canadian pipeline. grew up playing golf with those guys a little bit and um you know was was pretty good friends with Mac Hughes in our um junior golf days. So um yeah, it was uh sort of an easy decision, comfortable place with with some familiar faces and uh really great golf program. I think you missed Julian Edelman by a couple years. I’m a big Patriots fan, so that was always like Kent State. Yeah. Yeah, I got to meet him a few times. He uh he’s a he was great to come back there once in a while and and give back. Obviously a big superstar in the in the NFL and um who’s actually quarterback. I’m sure you probably you probably know that being a big Pats fan, but he was a quarterback at Kent State and then came obviously receiver in the the NFL. What I I love asking kind of golf guys this one. When you go back to your days and you were talking about you’re on the on the lesser tours and you’re grinding to get to where you are, what do you remember what the what the what was the longest drive or turnaround that you had to get from event to event to to make it work? Sometimes golfers have some crazy ones. Yeah, I wouldn’t nothing really comes to mind um too extraordinary for me. Um you know, driving down to Florida for the winters my first couple of years um as a pro. Um, but that was just kind of uh at my own pace. I would say I was was fortunate. I had a good college career, was able to get some decent sponsorship dollars uh from the get-go. So, kind of was able to, you know, when I was playing on the the Latin America tour all over South America, was able to fly around there. Um, so not a lot of crazy long drives or or trips, but um some some interesting places in uh in South America or Latin America playing tournaments in Nicaragua, Honduras. Um pretty uh yeah, pretty eye opening, but um pretty cool experiences. Uh Cory Connors is joining us here on the Western Pizza Guest Hotline. Um do you feel is there a sense for you that that you’re kind of playing for Canada every week when you’re out on tour? like it’s not a it’s not a national event by any means, but so many people up here are rooting for you guys with that Canadian flag beside you. Yeah, for sure. It’s really cool. We you know, there seems to be Canadians at every event supporting you, myself and all the other Canadians. There’s a great group of young Canadians right now on the tour and um hopefully that continues to grow. But we we feel the love, you know, from people who are there, from people back home, you know, from people all across the country and uh we’re all really proud to represent Canada and uh we definitely uh you know, feel the support that everybody gives us from across the country. When when you were at the Olympics and and you were representing Canada, was there a moment that you pinched yourself and it was kind of like, gee, I I didn’t think I would ever get to the Olympics. Yeah. you know, it was played in two Olympics now and both experiences have been incredible. I think the atmosphere um you know, just the first T-shot hitting in the tournament and you had the Canadian flag on your shirt and carrying around the Canadian golf bag. Um pretty amazing feeling. Um just yeah, knowing that you’re representing your country and proud Canadian and um is really a dream come true. been fortunate to represent Canada many times in junior golf and amateur golf but to do it at the Olympics kind of the biggest stage um you know in sports is really amazing and very memorable. Couple more here I got to ask you about the RDER Cup going to Beth Paige Black fortunate enough I got to play it a few times. What a track that is. Um what are your thoughts on just that that New York that Long Island um I guess fan base that’s going to be so pro-American? Are you looking forward to watching it? And it’s gonna be pretty wild, isn’t it? Yeah, definitely looking forward to watching it. I think the, you know, the Europeans are in for a wake up with with the atmosphere. Uh, but I I also think if the US team doesn’t perform, I think the the fans there are going to be crazy enough that they might boo their own team if they’re playing poorly. Um, so, you know, they’ll be they’ll be behind the US if things are going well. But um the fans, you know, particularly in that part of the country are are really passionate and it’ll be a crazy atmosphere, I’m sure, the the whole week. But uh yeah, I’m looking forward to watching. I obviously know uh most of the guys on both teams and hopefully uh hopefully it’s a good battle and I’m sure uh they’ll have some fun. Were you surprised that uh Keegan Bradley, maybe you knew this a while ago because it sounds like he he made the decision a while ago. Were you surprised that he he he’s not one of his captains pick that he’s going to play? Hey, it’s kind of a selfless move, right, to to put the other guys in that he thinks can give him the best chance. Yeah, I think Keegan was in a tough spot. I kind of feel for him. I I feel like, you know, maybe if somebody else was captain, he probably would have got a pick. Um I wasn’t expecting him to pick himself at this point. I think he, you know, if it was three months ago, he was in really good form. I think there would have been a no-brainer to put himself on the team, you know, as challenging as that may be. But um I I don’t think he’s played quite as well um you know as he’d like the last little bit been a little bit more inconsistent. Um I know he’s had a lot a lot of things on his mind trying you know having to make these picks that have probably affected his game a little bit. Um but he uh yeah he’ll he’ll be a good good leader for those guys and um I kind of feel feel for him that you know he’s he’s a captain instead of playing. I do think he uh he could very easily be on the team but he was in a tough spot like you said. I I think, you know, he he needed to pick somebody else just how things had been going. And um you know, regardless, they’ve got a strong team. All right, Cory Connor’s last one, and I’m sure you’ve been asked this one a lot, but I’ve never heard the answer, and I’ve never asked you. So, you you only can play one golf course for for the rest of your life or you got one more round of golf to play. It’s you get to play one course. What course are you playing? I got to go Augusta National. It’s such a magical place. It’s pretty pretty easy answer for me. Um, got to play in a number of Masters now and every time you get there, you’re on property. It’s a special feeling. So, it’s it’s unlike anything else. I lied. What What What course did you grow up playing on? Yeah, the Listol Golf Course is uh in Listwell, Ontario. Great little track in in the middle of southwestern Ontario. Um, yeah, 27 holes and um that’s that’s a close second. You know, I grew up playing there. It’s a meaningful place to me. And you know, I enjoy every round that I get to play there. Cory, uh, thanks so much for doing this. Thanks for coming to Saski and and helping out the kids with the Synergy 8 guys and a continued success out there waving that Canadian flag. Thanks very much. Appreciate it. Take care. Thank you. [Music]
