MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2021

Corey Conners

Quick Quotes

Q. What are you buying us all?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, 8-iron, whatever you'd like.

Q. Can you kind of sum up the round, the whole day?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, it was -- obviously had some highlights with the ace on No. 6, but, again, it was a solid day overall. Like a couple of the holes back right after the restart, got tricked, the greens kind of slowed down a little bit after all the rain.

But a really solid day, hit a lot of nice shots, and still have a lot of confidence in my game heading into tomorrow.

Q. You obviously are going into tomorrow with a chance. How do you prepare? How do you sleep tonight?

COREY CONNERS: I'm notoriously a great sleeper, so I don't think that will be a problem. Just stick with the same routine that I've been doing the last few days. Yeah, just try and get ready to have some fun tomorrow.

Q. How did the course change during the delay?

COREY CONNERS: The wind kind of died down right when we first got back out there. The ball wasn't quite traveling as far. Hit an extra club in my approach shot onto 13. Wasn't anticipating it being further into the green than it ended up being, so I would say the ball maybe wasn't quite traveling as far with it maybe cooling down slightly. Greens softened up a little bit. Fairways were still rolling, and the greens still had some heat to them.

Q. Do you know who was the first Canadian to hit a hole-in-one here?

COREY CONNERS: You got me. I'm not sure.

Q. Sandy Somerville 1934. Does that mean anything to you?

COREY CONNERS: I've heard that before.

Q. Can you walk us through the hole-in-one?

COREY CONNERS: It's a pin that I've seen a lot of shots get close to, whether it goes past and feeds back. Hit an 8-iron. Didn't seem like the wind was helping as much as I had anticipated, but fortunately, it flew far enough. I was trying to fly it somewhere over the bunker and get it to go in, get it to go close to the hole. Yeah, it was a little draw, turning at the pin. I think I hit the pin with a little bit of steam, but it was right in the middle. So pretty special moment.

Q. You're getting a nice little collection.

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, hopefully it keep it coming. It's a pretty special gift they give to you.

Q. You look so comfortable out there. Are you feeling jitters at all?

COREY CONNERS: It's hard not to enjoy yourself out here. It's such a beautiful place and such a historic place.

It's a lot of fun. Nice having the support of the patrons out there. Really enjoying playing, really enjoying the experience, and definitely having a lot of fun. Feeling pretty relaxed out there.

Q. Leaderboard looks like it's going to be jammed up going into tomorrow. What do you do to deal with that and the ups and downs that are notorious for it, especially the back nine?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, just make sure I have the same game plan. Make sure I'm patient out there, not trying to force things. Just hopefully can keep striking the irons really well and give myself some looks on the front nine to have a chance to make a run on the back nine.

Q. You hit a lot of other good shots. At what point during the round do you think, hey, I'm in a groove; I feel like this is a special day?

COREY CONNERS: I feel like I've been in a groove with the ball striking for the last while. The shot on 6 was obviously really special and kind of sparked things a little bit. Hit another beautiful shot on 9 and a really good shot on 10. It spun back off the green and kind of fooled me a bit there. Yeah, struck a lot of iron shots just how I wanted, and I was swinging with confidence and hopefully can keep doing that tomorrow.

Q. You have a nice smile today. Is this one of the most special days you've had on the golf course?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, it definitely is, and hopefully tomorrow tops it.

Q. Do you allow yourself to think of the possibilities that might be tomorrow?

COREY CONNERS: There's still a lot of golf to be played. It's something that I'm inevitably going to be thinking about tomorrow. But just try to have fun and enjoy the experience.

Q. How many holes-in-one do you have?

COREY CONNERS: I've got ten now. No, no, that was my second on TOUR. I made one at the BMW Championship last summer.

Q. (Inaudible.)

COREY CONNERS: Just a single.

Q. How old were you when you scored your first hole-in-one?

COREY CONNERS: Maybe 14 or 15.

Q. How much easier, if you can use that word, was it after the delay than before?

COREY CONNERS: The course is playing a bit differently, so it was a little bit of an adjustment. Definitely the lack of wind on the first few holes back out there helped simplify things a little bit. Couldn't get -- still couldn't get too greedy out there.

Q. Were you a hockey player before?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, I played hockey all my life. Started when I was 3 or 4 years old until 18. Started playing golf really young as well, around 4 years old. I played both sports, golf in the summer, hockey in the winter.

Q. A lot of guys that play hockey transition well to golf. Can you explain the reason for that?

COREY CONNERS: I think the motion of slap shots may be similar, but it's just a prototype of Canadian kids to play hockey in the wintertime, and golf was a fun sport that I had access to in the summertime. Just wore both those out.

Q. How good of a player were you?

COREY CONNERS: I was a pretty good hockey player. Played center most of my life and switched to defense the last few years when they needed some dependability and someone with intelligence to keep the puck out of the net.

Q. When was the last time you hit a left-handed shot in a tournament?

COREY CONNERS: I don't remember since I've been a professional. I'm actually a lefty writing, and I used to hit balls left-handed quite a lot. I don't know if I've done that as a pro, and wasn't really pleased with it. I kind of hit a root in front of the ball that I didn't really anticipate. I didn't quite get it out like I wanted.