PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Corey Conners is wearing a polo whose colour can be described as Toronto Maple Leafs-adjacent. It’s still practice time at The Players Championship, and the Canadian rolls in a 15-foot birdie try on No. 9, his final morning frame before teeing it up Thursday.
So begins the beefy run of championships on the PGA Tour schedule through the summertime — and, of course, including the RBC Canadian Open — and Conners has more momentum than anyone else in the Canadian contingent.
Conners finished third last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, a Signature Event on the PGA Tour schedule. He also finished T13 last year at TPC Sawgrass — his second top-15 in his last four years — and is as eager as ever to keep pushing himself up the leaderboard at big events.
“I’m feeling good about my game so I’m going to work hard this week, get a good game plan and try to play as free as possible. But a nice result here would definitely springboard me in a good direction heading into the summer,” Conners told Sportsnet.
“It was a tough test last week at Bay Hill and it’s always a tough test here at TPC Sawgrass and I’m feeling good about the game and hopefully I can keep playing well.”
While Conners has won twice on the PGA Tour in his career, Nick Taylor has won twice in the last 15 months, including the Sony Open in Hawaii in January. Taylor has put together a tidy start to his 2025 campaign, sitting 15th in strokes gained: total and notching a top-10 finish at The Genesis Invitational, another Signature Event on the schedule. He also comes into the week leading the PGA Tour in strokes gained: approach over his last 24 rounds.
Taylor has had a mixed bag of results at TPC Sawgrass, however, with his best finish, a tie for 16th, coming in 2019. He also had an incredible start a year ago, going 66-68 before firing a disappointing 76 on Saturday to tumble down the leaderboard and eventually finish T26.
Taylor said patience is going to be a key factor as he looks to put four good rounds together at TPC Sawgrass.
“Birdies can come in bunches out here but if you try to press things at all, big numbers are definitely staring right in your face,” Taylor told Sportsnet. “Keeping it in play… I’ve been able to do that a decent amount out here. I’ve had a lot of great rounds. But I think sometimes if you press a little bit, big numbers can creep in.”
Taylor and Conners are part of a seven-man Canadian crew this week at The Players with a field that features 48 of the top 50 in the world (the two missing, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau, are not eligible anyway — since they play for LIV) all vying for a US$25-million purse, with $4.5 million to the winner. The seven Canadians in the field match the most ever, tied with 2024. Adam Hadwin, Ben Silverman, Adam Svensson, Taylor Pendrith, and Mackenzie Hughes are also teeing it up.
TPC Sawgrass has long been a stern test for the PGA Tour’s best, and this year there’s been some meat added, with 77 yards of distance added across a handful of holes. Ball striking and positioning off the tee will still be as important as ever — along with making sure you stay dialled between the ears.
“You just have to golf your ball around here — it’s as simple as that,” Hughes told Sportsnet. “You play some good golf and you can be rewarded, and you play bad golf and you’ll get punished. There is probably no course that fits that description more than this golf course.
“You can play great rounds of golf here if you’re in the fairways; there are pockets you can work balls close to pins. But if you miss fairways or you miss greens, it’s the hardest golf course in the world.”
It’s prime time for a big finish at a big event for this golden Canadian generation of PGA Tour stars, however — a thread that will be commonplace through the majors for this year, too. There was, as long reported, just one top-10 finish by a Canadian male last year at the majors. with Conners finishing T9 at the U.S. Open. The Players, although not a major, has a major championship feel. And given how this crew has accomplished so very much already, it makes complete sense why trying to tilt this kind of trophy is on the top of so many of their minds.
“Telling yourself you belong is a big reason why you pick off one of these eventually,” Hughes said.
“All of us are striving for that,” added Taylor. “The more often we’re there and we’re in those situations […] it’s the same guys that we play with and practice with, so it gives us all confidence. It’s obviously hard to win any golf tournament, let alone a major or a Players Championship. But we’re all striving for that and working for it.”
CANADIAN CAPSULES – THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
In order of Thursday starting times.
Ben Silverman – Second Players Championship appearance (Best finish: MC, 2024). Thursday: 8:02 a.m. Friday: 1:07 p.m. (off 10)
Corey Conners – Seventh Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T7, 2021). Thursday: 8:35 a.m. Friday: 1:40 p.m. (off 10)
Nick Taylor – Ninth Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T16, 2019). Thursday: 8:57 a.m. (off 10). Friday: 2:02 p.m.
Mackenzie Hughes – Eighth Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T16, 2017). Thursday: 9:08 a.m. (off 10). Friday: 2:13 p.m.
Adam Svensson – Third Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T13, 2023. Thursday: 9:19 a.m. (off 10). Friday: 2:24 p.m.
Taylor Pendrith – Fourth Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T13, 2022). Thursday: 1:29 p.m. (off 10). Friday: 8:24 a.m.
Adam Hadwin – 11th Players Championship appearance (Best finish: T9, 2022). Thursday: 2:24 p.m. Friday: 9:19 a.m. (off 10)
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