Open-qualifier Conners claims first win at VTO

By
Mo Yoshimoto,

By
Mo Yoshimoto

Published April 8, 2019 09:27 AM

Valero Texas Open

San Antonio, Texas

Playing this season on conditional status and out of the final threesome on Sunday, open-qualifier and World No. 196 Corey Conners tossed up a 6-under-par 36-30=66 in the weather-delayed final round at TPC San Antonio for a 72-hole tally of 20-under 268 (69-67-66-66), up one spot on the day and good for a two-shot victory over runner-up, past champ, and playing competitor Charley Hoffman, who shot bogey-free 67.

The Canadian, who survived a 6-for-1 playoff on Monday, wins as a pre-tourney 150/1 outright and claims his first PGA TOUR title in 51 events (47 pro), eclipsing a solo 2^nd at the opposite-field Sanderson Farms back in October.

He’s the first open-qualifier to win on TOUR since Arjun Atwal at the 2010 Wyndham Championship and just the fifth since 1980, underscoring just how rare and remarkable this victory was.

Alone in 3^rd place and three adrift was Ryan Moore, after a week-tying-low, bogey-free 64 out of the fourth-to-last threesome, while Brian Stuard (66), also out of the fourth-to-last threesome, and overnight leader Si Woo Kim (72) shared 4^th place, five in arrears.

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Final Leaderboard (pre-tourney odds outright):

1- (-20, 268) Corey Conners (150/1)

2- (-18, 270) Charley Hoffman (45/1)

3- (-17, 271) Ryan Moore (35/1)

4- (-15, 273) Brian Stuard (175/1)

4- (-15, 273) Si Woo Kim (66/1)

Notes:

Repeat top-10 finishers from last year: Ryan Moore (3-7); Kevin Streelman (6-8)
4/1: Conners’ revised outright betting entering the final round.
72: Si Woo Kim’s final-round score (grouped with Conners) after being the outright leader after each of the first three rounds (66-66-69-72).
66: Conners’ Saturday and Sunday scores.
7: Conners is the 7^th player this season (24 events) to miss the cut in start prior and then win in their next start.
1: Conners is the 1^st winner this season to rank 1^st in SG: Approach (11.558).
130: Conners finish in the FedExCup standings during last season’s rookie campaign (20-for-28; 1 top 10).
2: Conners is the 2^nd straight triple-digit odds winner at the Valero after Andrew Landry last year as a 125/1.
3: Conners is the 3^rd straight player to make the Valero their first TOUR win, joining Landry and Kevin Chappell (2017). Interestingly, both Landry and Chappell have not (as yet) added another win.

This was the Kent State product’s first win of any kind, and with it, bags the final spot into this coming week’s Masters, where he’ll make his second appearance (first pro) after a missed cut in 2015, gaining the invite there with a runner-up finish at the 2014 U.S. Amateur.

Conners was a runner-up three times in 66 starts across three of the TOUR’s developmental circuits; twice on the Latinoamerica (20 starts), and once on the Mackenzie Tour (15 starts). In 31 starts on the Web.com, he recorded three top 10s but no podiums.

The 27-year-old, playing his second season on the main stage, has now made 26 cuts and missed 25 with four top 10s. Three of those top 10s include a 1^st-, 2^nd-, and 3^rd-place finish, all coming this season. Before the final putt dropped on Sunday, he hadn’t led or co-led after any round this season.

Conners entered the week off five missed cuts in his last six starts, interrupted only by a T41 at THE PLAYERS two starts ago, T24 thru 54 holes (72-70-68-74).

This was the third time this season (13 starts) that he’s OQ’d to get into an event. The first, at Mayakoba, led to a MC. The second, however, resulted in a T3 at the Sony, where he closed with 64-64.

Conners doesn’t have to worry about that anymore, now fully exempt thru the 2020-21 season.

Quote after R4: “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, it’s amazing. So excited right now. No more Monday qualifiers, that’s a big positive. Super excited. This is a dream come true and really happy with how I did today and glad we got it done.”

How Conners Won the Tournament:

Ranked 1^st (or T1) in: SG: Approach; Total Birdies; Birdie or Better Percentage; Greens in Regulation; Putts per GIR

Ranked 2^nd (or T2) in: SG: Tee-to-Green; Par-3 Scoring; Par-4 Scoring; Approach Shot Distance to Pin; All-Around

Note: See “Strokes Gained Leaders Stats” at the bottom, along with his full stats.

Least Important Stat: Ranked 70^th (last) in Scrambling at 30.77% (4/13).

Conners’ Position by Round:

R1: T17 (3 back)

R2: T2 (4 back)

R3: 2 (1 back)

Note: Conners is the sixth straight VTO winner that was T3 or higher on the leaderboard after 36 holes.

After opening with progressively better laps of 69-67-66, Conners began in solo 2^nd, one back of leader and playing competitor Si Woo Kim.

On 12 (of 14) fairways and 12 greens in regulation, he raced out with four birdies in his first five, now leading by four over Kim and Hoffman, but promptly bogeyed his next four, all failed scrambles, and now trailed Hoffman by one.

At the par-4 10^th, Conners nearly holed his second from 145 yards out, the tap-in birdie (from 15 inches) tied him with Hoffman.

Another stellar approach at 11, (130 yards to 37 inches) led to birdie-3 and Conners was back in front by one over Hoffman and a hard-charging Kevin Streelman (9-under thru 17), and was never caught again.

His big birdie-bomb came at 12 (from 33’9”) for another turkey, and saved par on 15 from 9’1” (greenside bunker), still leading by one over Hoffman and Moore (8-under thru 17).

Far from done, Conners circled the par-3 16^th from 4’7”, now up two, and birdied 17 from 12’4”, now three clear with one to go and that pretty much sealed it.

OUT: even-par 36 (4 birdies, 4 bogeys)

IN: 6-under 30 (6 birdies)

Conners posted 1.663 SG: Off-the-Tee, 1.149 SG: Approach, -1.218 SG: Around, and 3.106 SG: Putting with just 23 total putts, wrapping the week with one eagle and 29 birdies against nine bogeys and one double.

Overall, this was his fourth top 25 of the season and third top 10, all top 3s.

Season Form: 1-MC-41-MC-MC-MC-MC-3-23-MC-MC-2-MC

Conners’ TOUR Career:

Starts: 51

Cuts Made: 26 (50.9%)

Top 25s: 7 (13.7%)

Top 10s: 4 (7.8%)

Top 3s: 3 (5.8%)

Wins: 1 (1.9%)

1

During last season’s rookie campaign, Conners mustered one top 10 in 28 starts, a T8 at the Fort Worth Invitational, buoyed by a career-low 63 in R3. Four times last season (in 93 rounds), he shot 65 or better. Four times this season (in 38 rounds), he’s shot 64, all four on the weekend. Conners entered Sunday ranked T3 in R4 scoring average at 67.50 and now ranks No. 1 at 67.20.

Strength of Field:

With a Strength of Field rating of 213 (up 1 from last year), Conners banks 40.00 world-ranking points and vaults 112 spots to 84^th in the Official World Golf Ranking, the first time he’s been in the Top 100.

OWGR: 84^th (up 112); career high

Conners earns 500 FEC points, jumping 53 places to 13^th in the standings.

FEC: 13^th (up 53); career high

Note: Win moved him from 376^th in all-time Valero earnings to 9^th.

Field Scoring Average:

This was the 89^th playing of the Texas Open, 10^th and 10^th consecutive at TPC San Antonio (AT&T Oaks Course).

Par 72 (36-36)

7,435 yards

R1: 71.40

R2: 71.56

R3: 70.88

R4: 70.70

Total: 71.24

Conners: 69-67-66-66

SG: Total: 16.534

Valero Form: 1-26

Note: Conners’ 20-under 268 is the lowest winning score (by three shots) since the tourney moved here in 2010, bettering Landry’s 17-under 271 last year.

Last year, Conners finished T26 on 4-under 284 (70-74-70-70).

He was the ONLY player this week to record all four rounds in the 60s and his scoring average in the eight rounds played is now 69.00.

Low Rounds:

R1: 66: Si Woo Kim

R2: 66: Si Woo Kim, Harold Varner III, Adam Schenk, Sam Ryder

R3: 64: Charley Hoffman

R4: 64: Ryan Moore, Kevin Streelman

Bogey-free Rounds:

R1: (3): Ted Potter, Jr. (68); Seamus Power (69); Graeme McDowell (69)

R2: (5): Si Woo Kim (66); Matt Jones (68); Curtis Luck (68); Sam Burns (69); HaoTong Li (70)

R3: (6): Jason Kokrak (65); Lucas Glover (66); Jim Furyk (68); Richy Werenski (69); Mackenzie Hughes (69); Brian Stuard (70)

R4: (6): Ryan Moore (64); Byeong Hun An (66); Charley Hoffman (67); Wyndham Clark (67); Sungjae Im (69); Sung Kang (69)

Multiple Bogey-free Rounds: NONE

Draw:

A total of 80 pros from a field of 144 pros made the 36-hole cut of 1-under 143:

40 (of 70) EARLY/late; 2 WDs (D.A. Points, Grayson Murray)

40 (of 71) LATE/early; 1 WD (Julian Etulain)

70 players made the secondary 54-hole cut of 1-under 215:

13 players finished in the top 10:

EARLY/late (6):

Charley Hoffman (2^nd); Si Woo Kim (T4); Danny Lee (T7); Jason Kokrak (T7); Scott Brown (T7); Matt Kuchar (T7)

LATE/early (7):

Corey Conners (Won); Ryan Moore (3^rd); Brian Stuard (T4); Kevin Streelman (6^th); Graeme McDowell (T7); Byeong Hun An (T7); Adam Schenk (T7)

Note: Conners is first LATE/early VTO winner since Jimmy Walker in 2015.

14

14 (of 24) tourneys so far this season with a traditional draw:

Winners:

EARLY/late: 6

LATE/early: 8 (Conners)

Leader/co-leaders by Round:

R1: Si Woo Kim (finished T4): Drops to 0-for-1 as 18-hole leader/co-leader

R2: Si Woo Kim (T4): Drops to 1-for-2 as 36-hole leader/co-leader

R3: Si Woo Kim (T4): Drops to 1-for-2 as 54-hole leader/co-leader

Runner-Up:

Charley Hoffman (71-68-64-67): The 42-year-old entered as the tourney’s all-time earnings leader with $2,917,455 and didn’t disappoint with solo 2^nd. He’s still No. 1 at $3.727M, over $1 million clear of 2^nd place and three-time champion Justin Leonard.

The UNLV alum is now 14-for-14 at the VTO with 11 top 25s and six top 10s, including his come-from-behind win in 2016 and runners-up in 2011 and 2019.

Valero Form (at TPC San Antonio): 2-64-40-1-11-11-3-13-2-13

The California native improves to 6-for-12 on the season with three top 25s, second straight after T18 at the Valspar (69-74-69-70), and records his first top 10 since solo 3^rd at the 2017 WGC-Bridgestone 42 starts ago, conveniently just in time for the season’s first major.

Season Form: 2-18-MC-MC-MC-61-20-MC-MC-MC-43-48

Chasing his fifth TOUR title in 374 events, first since here in 2016, he settles for his eighth runner-up, first since P2 at the 2017 Canadian Open.

TOUR Rookies &/or First-Timers:

Rookies: 17

Top-10 finishes: 0

Best finish(es): T14

Kyoung-Hoon Lee: T14 (69-67-69-72)

Season Form: 14-26-WD-7-35-25-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-29-MC-35-61-MC

Season Starts: 16

Top 25s: 3

Top 10s: 1

Times Low Rookie: 3 (T14, Valero; T7, Honda; T25, Genesis)

First-Timers: 28

Top-10 finishes: 0

Best finish(es): T14

Kyoung-Hoon Lee: (covered above)

Note: Next-best first-timers were T17s by pre-tourney 11/1 fave Rickie Fowler (68-68-73-69) and rookie Hank Lebioda (68-70-70-70), Lebioda’s a career best.