{"id":750904,"date":"2026-06-21T05:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750904\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T05:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T05:01:09","slug":"canadas-corey-conners-eyeing-best-finish-of-season-at-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/750904\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Corey Conners eyeing best finish of season at U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. \u2013 Corey Conners had it going early Saturday, but the club he\u2019s often struggled with was, again, his kryptonite at the U.S. Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lone Canadian to make the cut at Shinnecock Hills, Conners was as steady as ever through four holes, hitting every fairway and every green and making four straight pars. He added a birdie on No. 5, playing as the easiest hole on the course, and then nailed a 20-footer for another birdie on No. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The wheels came off after that as he made the turn, but Conners was able to steer it into the house and hit the shot of the day on No. 18, landing his approach just eight inches away for a closing birdie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conners shot a 1-over 71 Saturday and heads into the finale at Shinnecock Hills tied for 13th. His best finish at the U.S. Open came in 2024 when he finished tied for ninth.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The birdie on No. 8 moved Conners into red figures and within shouting distance of Wyndham Clark at the time. But Clark pulled away late and leads by six shots after 54 holes as he looks for his second U.S. Open title since 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conners said he hit a \u201creally good putt\u201d on the par-4 8th and was ready, he said, to do a celebratory walk-in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was wiggling at the end and just caught the right edge,\u201d Conner said. \u201cI was looking to build off that momentum and give myself chances the next couple holes. I pretty much played flawless golf (to that point).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conners had just two feet left for par on the par-4 9th, but it lipped out, leaving him a testy five-footer coming back for bogey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He bogeyed three of his next four holes and couldn\u2019t get it back under par for the rest of Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conners\u2019 effort on No. 10 is a perfect example of how tough it was playing in the third round. He hit a pitching wedge from 175 yards (he said with a smile) that landed hole-high \u2013 but he couldn\u2019t keep it on the green. That shot, from behind the green on No. 10, is basically an automatic bogey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first few days were definitely softer. Things got a little firmer today and dried out really fast. We were barely making any ball marks on the greens, and the fairways were running,\u201d Conners said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a positive from Conners\u2019 third-round effort, it\u2019s that his ball striking seems to be back to what we\u2019ve come to expect. He sits fourth in greens in regulation for the week \u2013 hitting just about 75 per cent \u2013 and he\u2019s tied for fourth in fairways hit, hitting 83 per cent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all there for him to score \u2013 but he\u2019s struggling to convert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although he was actually net positive in strokes gained: putting on Saturday, he is 63rd out of 72 golfers who made the cut in the statistic, losing almost two strokes to the field over the first three days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the putts he did miss for the most part Saturday weren\u2019t necessarily gimmies. But there was certainly a sense of what-could-have-been at the end of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conners, still, is trending towards his best finish of the PGA Tour season as he\u2019s yet to notch a top-10 result in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMore tap-in birdies would be nice,\u201d Conners said with a smile about his plan for Sunday. \u201cJust keep being free and hitting it well and giving myself chances. It\u2019s hard to make birdies \u2013 but it is possible. I\u2019m not going to try to go crazy aggressive, but play within myself and let it happen and see where it adds up at the end.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. \u2013 Corey Conners had it going early Saturday, but the club he\u2019s often struggled with was,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-750904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}