Corey Conners: How One Season can be Life Changing
![MEDINAH, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 15: Corey Conners of Canada plays his shot from the 18th tee during the first round of the BMW Championship at Medinah Country Club No. 3 on August 15, 2019 in Medinah, Illinois. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) MEDINAH, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 15: Corey Conners of Canada plays his shot from the 18th tee during the first round of the BMW Championship at Medinah Country Club No. 3 on August 15, 2019 in Medinah, Illinois. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape/cover/sport/03bf18430e8ae973e52980de70c57e4645652c5cc0eca49e8f599d0c047f2dfb.jpg)
Just a year ago the Canadian, Corey Conners, was playing the Korn Ferry Tour playoffs hoping to get a PGA Tour card.
After Corey Conners secured his card at the end of last year, he has had a year full of unexpected success and he will end it at the prestigious Tour championship.
Corey Conners 2018/19 season started with the right foot as he achieved two top 10 finishes in his first five starts and place himself in a decent position in the Fed-ex Cup rankings. In spite of this hot start, he would carry on to miss 5 consecutive cuts and drop 50 places in the race of the playoffs.
The ghost of last season where he couldn’t make the top 125 and had to fight for a spot in the PGA was wandering around. But when he arrived in San Antonio a week before the Valero Texas Open his career and his life started to change. In a nail-bitting playoff against 6 other golfers, Corey Conners won the Monday qualifier event and earned his spot in the tournament. The rest is a story almost all of us know.
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He played beautifully all the week and a clutch round of six-under-par on Sunday helped him win his first title in the PGA. The video of his wife, Mallory, watching his last putt and celebrating on the green became instantly viral. It was the emotion of a player that had struggled for quite a long time and finally reached his first win, made us all fall in love with this charismatic player.
Because of his win in San Valero, he played the Masters for his second time in his career and also appear in the PGA Championship and The Open for the first time in his career. He missed some cuts and made a couple of good performance but he was having fun on the courses and we were all happy for him.
In his last four tournaments, the game that helped him in San Antonio seemed to be back, and he finished inside the top 25 in all of them, with a surprising tied for seventh in last week’s BMW Championship. This last push made him escalate seven spots in the FedEx rank (right now he is in the 23rd position) and earned him a spot in the Tour Championship.
"“It was a goal of mine, kind of a long-shot goal but I had a great season and if feels amazing to have made it to the Tour Championship. It’s really rewarding for all my hard work.” Conners said on Monday to TSN reporter Bob Weeks."
He will probably end his season with a big check of almost 3 million dollars and a fully exempt status until the 20/21 season. He will also secure his spot in next year’s Players, Genesis Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Right now he is being eyed by the International Captain, Ernie Els, and he might be one of the four captains picks for the Presidents Cup.
In his interview with TSN, he also showed how determined he was to make a buzz at the Tour.
"“I feel like I’ve got nothing to lose. I feel like in the past for a person in my position it’s been nearly impossible to win the FedEx Cup. I’m not saying it’s any easier starting nine shots back like I will be, but it gives you a glimmer of hope knowing that if you play amazing golf you can ultimately get it done.”"
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Hopefully this week at Atlanta he can keep playing at the amazing level he has been showing the past few weeks and ends his heartwarming season with a bang.