Having learned to win in Texas, Corey Conners aims to bring cool mindset home at Canadian Open

It's a Sunday in San Antonio, and Corey Conners looks like he's been there before.

Playing in the final group at the 2019 Valero Texas Open, the Canadian's day is a whirlwind. He makes four birdies in his first five holes to open a sizeable lead, but he immediately gives it back with four straight bogeys to close the front nine.

This is where Conners is supposed to wobble. The Listowel, Ont., native probably shouldn't have been in the field to begin with — he'd missed the cut in eight of 12 events that season, and he only made the field after emerging from a six-person playoff at a Monday qualifier.

And really, it was a stroke of luck for Conners to play on Monday at all. One of those missed cuts came at a relatively low-level tournament in the Dominican the previous Friday — had he played through to Sunday, it would have been tough to get to Texas by Monday.

In the playoff hole, an awkward par 4 with a dogleg left and water all the way through, most players hit a safe four-iron, ensuring a clean but long shot into the green. Instead, Conners, after a consult with then-caddie Kyle Peters, got aggressive and pulled a three-wood. The decision led to a birdie and moved Conners into the main event.

Conners carried that momentum with rounds of 69, 67 and 66 to land in Sunday's final threesome alongside Tour veterans Si Woo Kim and Charley Hoffman. Kim, the 54-hole leader, stalled out early. Hoffman played steady, bogey-free golf.

And Conners, despite that up-and-down start, stayed in the fight. On the back nine, he made six birdies, and with each putt, Conners' demeanour hardly changed. Meanwhile, there was wife Malory next to every green, celebrating wildly each time her husband's ball rattled the cup.

Conners went on to win