“Can get myself in contention any week of the year” - Corey Conners on sitting among the PGA Championship 2023 leaders

Corey Conners found himself sitting T3 at the end of PGA Championship 2023 Day 1. The Canadian golfer led the field for some part of the opening round before settling in toward the lower half of the top 5. Buoyed by some Canadian cheers, Conners shot a 3-under 67 to open the second men’s major of the year.

Conners outdid everyone’s expectations as he rolled in six birdies in the opening round. The golfer looked confident swinging at the Oak Hill Country Club. If not for Eric Cole, who was the leader at 5 under thru 14 holes, and Bryson DeChambeau at 4 under, Conners would’ve stayed on top of the leaderboard stepping into Day 1. However, the Canadian seems more than happy to share the T3 position with Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson.

Conners, who had the chance of going under the radar at the PGA Championship, has stood out of the stacked field. The 31-year-old came out to address the same and stated that he can ‘get himself in contention any week of the year’ if he manages to play well.

Speaking at Oak Hill after PGA Championship round 1, Corey Conners said, as quoted by Golfweek:

“I feel like if I play well, I can get myself in contention any week of the year. And I feel like I’m playing well so hopefully I can keep playing free and be in the mix on Sunday.”

It is pertinent to note that Conners has had two career wins on the PGA Tour to date. His second-ever win came in April when he won the 2023 Texas Open. His first win was also at the same tournament back in 2019. Having had three consecutive top-10 finishes at the Masters before missing the cut last month, Conners looked motivated to go big at this week’s major.

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Corey Conners shoots 3-under 67 at the PGA Championship round 1

Corey Conners, who is neighbors with Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Dustin Johnson at Jupiter, looked confident on Thursday. The golfer, coming in after a T8 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, started off his major outing with a bogey on his second hole. He also made a tough bogey on the par-4 10th and added birdies on Nos. 12, 14, and 15.

Conners was taking risks on the golf course and it effectively paid off. Opening about the same, the golfer said:

“I was trying to be aggressive there and execute a really good shot. I would say the couple of things that worked really well, I hit a couple of great approach shots when I could be aggressive and hit a lot of smart shots and was able to roll in some putts. That certainly felt good to see some putts go in.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Conners will continue to build on the strong opening round at the PGA Championship 2023.