THE 149TH OPEN

July 15, 2021

Corey Conners

Mixed Zone

Q. Corey, nice round. Congratulations. Two things: What was the key to your round today, and have we come to the point where it's more unusual if there's a Canadian not in contention at a major than if there is?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, first of all, I saw Mac played a good round early on this morning. Yeah, Canadians are playing well, so it's exciting to see. It definitely motivated me to try and have a good round, as well.

Key for my round was patience, have a really good game plan. I feel like I learned a lot in my prep throughout the golf course, kind of where you want to try and hit it, where you want to try and avoid. I was patient, committed to my shots and pretty happy with the round.

Q. How different did the course play from the time you teed off to the time you finished with the wind picking up?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, it was pretty windy from the get-go, but definitely was really blowing through the middle of the round. Made things challenging, but fortunately I was ready for it.

The golf course definitely played tougher. The wind was certainly howling. You had to really be in control of your ball or you could get into some trouble.

Q. With the softer conditions than at some Open Championships, has it put more of a premium on driving accuracy because you can sort of keep the ball in the fairway if you hit it there, and how much does that help a player like yourself?

COREY CONNERS: Yeah, definitely would say being a little bit softer, driving is important. The ball is still running out pretty good, and I'm sure that'll continue for the rest of the weekend, but definitely allows you to hit a lot of fairways, like you said. I'm definitely happy about that. I feel like it's one of my strengths, and I was able to do a pretty good job of that today.