PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 6, 2020

Corey Conners

Harding Park Golf Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon. Welcome back to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. We are very pleased to be joined by Corey Conners.

Corey, you opened with a 69 today. Real strong, your back nine, eight pars and a birdie. Maybe talk about how you felt right from beginning to end, and everywhere in between.

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, I felt solid from beginning to end, really. Golf course is very demanding. You can't get yourself off the fairway or you're going to have some trouble.

Felt great about my ball-striking coming into the week, and some confidence with my short game knowing that if I did miss a fairway or if I did miss a green, I was going to be able to give myself a chance to get up-and-down and make a nice save. I was able to carry that mindset into today.

It wasn't anything special. I drove it quite well. I kept myself in position and I hit a lot of greens, which made things easy. I would like to hit some of my iron shots a little bit closer to the hole, but for the most part, you know, it was solid. I made a couple good saves and threw in some birdies. Overall very pleased with the day.

Q. Length and accuracy are important at every course, but especially so around here, so it would seem to suit your game off the tee very well. Do you feel comfortable out there and do you agree that this course suits you well and what do you think of it?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, I love the golf course. It's my first time here. Ever since my first practice round on Monday, I thought it was definitely right up my alley. I love the look of it visually, it's in great shape, and as you said, very demanding off the tee. Fairways are at a really big premium this week. Happy with my driving. I typically drive the ball quite well. I think it suits me great.

Q. Can you just comment on the rough today, and given that you're only four back heading into tomorrow, are you pleased with your position given the conditions of the course, and the setup today?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, definitely. The rough is very thick. I was fortunate, once out there, I had a pretty clean lie on No. 1, my 10th hole of the day.

But I had a couple bad ones that just kind of had to hack it up the fairway in the practice rounds. I had a 7-wood in the bag; that's sort of my secret weapon, hopefully, out of the rough. It seems to get on the ball okay and get it just high enough that it gets through all the rough and has some run on it. Used that today and hit a pretty good one on I think, 14, with that.

As far as my position, would have liked to have been a couple lower today but pretty happy. It was a solid day. Definitely kept myself in it. I think it's going to be difficult for someone to really go crazy under par and really run away from everyone else. So you know, happy to be hanging in there and looking forward to a few more fun days.

Q. There's a record four Canadians in the field this week. You've played with them in a lot of big events, but does it feel special, and how much time do you spend with the other Canadians this week?

COREY CONNERS: It's great to have so many Canadians every week on TOUR, but especially here at a major championship. We're all great friends, so we spend a lot of time with one another and we are all cheering for each other. I think highly of each of their games and we're all playing pretty well at the moment.

It's a fun group to be a part of it, and yeah, just exciting for Canadian golf and lots of fans back in Canada are cheering us on.

JOHN DEVER: A few people have compared this course a little bit to Bethpage, and you played on the weekend there last year. Do you see any similarities between the courses?

COREY CONNERS: Absolutely. Some of the visual things you'd see off the tee and some of the greens, it reminded me of Bethpage. That was the first course I thought of when I first played it here a couple days ago. Very similar condition-wise, as well. Rough very thick, penalizing.

Yeah, I like -- you know, you can see the fairway from a lot of the tees, and you've got to hit a good shot or you're going to get penalized. Same with Bethpage. Definitely see a lot of similarities.

JOHN DEVER: Thank you for stopping by and good luck tomorrow, sir.