Corey Conners withdraws from U.S. Open with injury on Sunday

Article content

OAKMONT, Pa. — Corey Conners has withdrawn from the U.S. Open ahead of the final round.

The Canadian injured his right wrist hitting bunker shots both Thursday and Saturday, but arrived at Oakmont on Sunday willing to give it a go. After a brief warmup, the 33-year-old Listowel, Ont. native decided he couldn’t play and alerted the USGA that he was withdrawing.

After a sizzling start to Saturday’s third round that saw the Canadian star vault his way onto the leaderboard with a front nine 32, Conners injured his wrist — actually re-injured his wrist — playing a bunker shot at the 11th hole.

“I didn’t think he was going to play the rest of the way,” playing partner Michael Kim said after the round. “I feel bad for him because he was playing so good.”

Conners was clearly affected by the injury, shooting 40 on the back nine for a two-over 72. Conners could be seen flexing his hand after hitting shots for several holes following the incident.

Conners went immediately for treatment following his round.

After calling for a doctor and taking all of the available 15 minute medical time, Conners opted to play-on at the 11th hole, making bogey on the hole before finally heading to the 12th tee after the long wait.

“It happens once in a while,” Kim said about the injury delay. “And 12 is a bit of backup hole anyway.”

Playing a U.S. Open round at Oakmont with a wrist injury is like hitting your thumb with a hammer on the first nail and knowing you have 50 more to hit.

After finishing the round with a bogey at the 18th, the injured Conners proved his Canadian bonafides by thanking Kim for his patience during the day.

The incident on Saturday was a re-injury from a bunker shot on the 17th hole on Thursday.

That day, Conners immediately winced following a difficult bunker shot from a greenside bunker on the 17th hole. With his ball up against the face of the bunker, Conners played a nice shot onto the green with next to no room to swing. But there was a wire from the bunker camera under the sand that Conners snagged with his wedge.

“A little shock to it,” Conners said after Thursday’s incident. “The club didn’t follow through very far there.”

Conners made par that day, and told the Sun he was totally fine physically after his round, but another severe impact on Saturday nearly ended his U.S. Open.

Conners birdied three of the first five holes on Saturday and hit four approach shots within five feet over the stretch. The Canadian entered the week ninth in the season-long FedEx Cup standings.

Nick Taylor heads to Sunday with a chance for a great finish at a major, and he can be a dangerous man on Sundays.

The five-time PGA Tour winner’s scores have improved every round, and he hit 14 of 18 greens during Saturday’s level-par 70.

Taylor will begin Sunday at four-over par in a tie for 11th.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Taylor said of the Sunday challenge. “I hit it well enough today to probably shoot three-under if I made a few more putts.”

“I’m excited about that, of course there is no guarantee, but if I can hit it off the tee as well on Sunday, I’ll have plenty of good looks.”

Mackenzie Hughes is nine-over and Taylor Pendrith is 12-over.