Corey Conners rallies late at The Open, Nick Taylor leaves Portrush frustrated
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PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Corey Conners is the only Canadian left standing after two days at the Open Championship, and it took a furious Friday finish at Royal Portrush for him to get it done.
The Listowel, Ont. native recently had a statue erected at his hometown golf club.
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Corey Conners rallies late at The Open, Nick Taylor leaves Portrush frustrated Back to video
Conners made back-to-back birdies and hole Nos. 15 and 16 to reach one-over par and make the 36-hole cut right on the number
“I did kind of know where I stood, especially on 16,” the Canadian told the Toronto Sun after his round. “I saw that the cut was still at one over. I thought it would have moved to two. I saw that and kind of knew that I had to give myself some birdie looks.”
One hole earlier on the 15th tee, Conners caddie Danny Sahl told his player, “We got lots of golf left.”
“I don’t really know why I said it,” Sahl said after the round, but it didn’t hurt as Conners’ rally was about to begin.
It was a tough two days with the putter for the 33-year-old from Listowel, Ont.
“I just feel like I’m not making great strikes on it,” Conners said about his putting. “With the greens being slower here I have to pick up the pace on the stroke a little bit and I don’t feel like the ball is coming off solidly.”
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The good news is after some struggles with his irons trying to navigate the firm links turf, Conners has his trademark ball-striking dialled in heading to the last two days.
“I hit the ball really wonderfully today, a lot of great iron shots,” he said. “So the plan is to keep going that and get the putter going and I’ll be all right.”
The weather brought a little bit, and in some cases a lot, of everything on Friday.
“It was beautiful in the warm-ups and then started pouring when we started the round. Then it got nice again, and then it rained again. Umbrella up and down all day.”
The end result after 36 holes for Conners was a chance to play another two days, which is something none of the other three Canadians will do.
Taylor Pendrith never recovered from beginning his Open Championship career on Thursday morning with an out-of-bounds tee shot. After starting Thursday four over through four holes, Pendrith played the next 32 holes in one-under par, but it wasn’t enough as he missed the cut by two at three over.
Five-time PGA Tour winner Nick Taylor also finished at three over, and continued an unfortunate trend of poor major championship performances.
“I made a couple of steps forward this year but I missed two of the four cuts,” Taylor told the Sun. “It sucks. I know my game is good, I just have to clean up the dumb stuff like yesterday to compete.”
Taylor won the Sony Open in January and entered the week 15th in the FedEx Cup standings.
“At majors the line between a decent shot and the spot where you’re probably going to make bogey is finer than at regular tournaments,” he said. “And it’s not that I have to learn that, I know it. I just have to not do it.”
The big mistakes of the week both came on Thursday when twice he found chips rolling back toward his feet after failing to navigate the tricky hills at the par-5 second hole and the closing par-4 18th.
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“Just shots you can’t make to start your round or to finish it,” he said.
But the 37-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C. wasn’t looking for any excuses in the bad bounces of links golf.
“The mistakes that I made were foolish, they weren’t unlucky,” he said.
The Open Championship is the type of golf Taylor feels he should excel at, and he left Portrush frustrated ahead of a two-week break.
“I wasn’t respecting it enough. It’s a fine line out here. I’ve just got to be better,” he said. “I envision myself competing to win this tournament one day, but it hasn’t panned out that way yet.”
Mackenzie Hughes shot one-under 70 on Friday but it wasn’t nearly enough to recover from a disastrous Thursday 79 and he missed the cut as well.
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