Seeing Corey Conners' name on top of the Valero Texas Open leaderboard this week should come as no surprise to golf fans. After all, the Canadian picked up his lone PGA Tour title at this event in 2019. And if you watch him hit golf balls on the range, you'd be surprised he's ever not on a leaderboard. The guy can flat-out flush it.
It's a different story, however, when you watch him on the greens. Sorry, Corey, but the stats back it up.
Conners entered this week ranked 151s on tour in strokes gained putting, and let's just say it's not like he's having an off season. He was 136th in that important category last season, 112th the year before that, and 181st (twice) and 176th in the three years prior. So, yeah, this is a trend. A bad trend. And what happened on the 16th hole at TPC San Antonio's Oaks Course on Friday won't help those stats.
Holding a two-shot lead during the second round, Conners hit the green on the 198-yard par 3 with his tee shot. And his birdie attempt from 51 feet ran four feet past the cup. Not bad. But then, disaster struck as he three-putted from four feet away. Have a look:
Yikes. Actually, we probably should have advised you to not look in case you're playing golf this weekend. You don't want that image dancing through your head.
Anyway, even with the double bogey, Conners remained in a tie for the lead. And after a bogey on the following hole, two birdies on his next three kept him near the top of the board. And at the time of this post, he's actually 31st in the field in strokes gained putting. So if Corey keeps that up, he's going to be tough to beat.
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