Tiger Woods, son Charlie appear in first interview together

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They were early in their careers. The pressure of trying to win a trophy meant there was less conversation than at your local library. The 12-13 age division of a provincial competition hardly compares to the tournaments that Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes play now, but try explaining that to them back in 2004. “It was pretty much impossible to get a word out of him,” Hughes recalled recently. Conners’ stone-faced approach worked, as he beat the older Hughes that day. RELATED: Five things about Olympics’ golf course | Look back at 2016 Olympics Seventeen years later, they still remember that day. They’re still competing against each other but the years spent together on Golf Canada’s national team, at Kent State University and now the PGA TOUR have forged a strong friendship. And now, the two kids who grew up about 90 miles apart in Ontario are representing Canada in the Olympics. Conners, 29, is still the quiet type, but his ball-striking speaks for itself. There are only three players who rank inside the top 10 of both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and Approach-the-Green on the PGA TOUR this season. They are Conners, World No. 1 Jon Rahm and four-time major winner Brooks Koepka. Conners is the only player to rank in the top 15 of both statistics in each of the past three seasons. “His rhythm doesn’t change from the first swing Thursday to the last one on Sunday,” Hughes said. Hughes, on the other hand, shows a bit more emotion and his short game is his specialty, just as it was when he first met Conners. “He seemed like a fierce competitor, really a grinder,” Conners said about their first meeting. “I’d still give him those grades.” Hughes, 30, was the only player to rank inside the top 10 in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting last season. He’s so confident in his prowess on the greens that he’s used the same putter for almost his entire pro career. Conners and Hughes would seemingly make a perfect team for alternate shot. “If Corey hit it and Mackenzie chipped and putted, they’d never lose,” said their college coach, Herb Page. That is a conversation that can be tabled until next year’s Presidents Cup in Hughes’ adopted hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, however. Having both cracked the top 50 in the world ranking this year and contended in major championships, they’re strong candidates to represent the International Team for the first time in 2022. This week, they’re playing for their country. There is no team format in the Olympics but there are still benefits to having a friend at Kasumigaseki Country Club; it provides some comfort to a week where COVID protocols limit social interaction, especially outside of competition. “We’re both pretty structured and pretty disciplined,” Hughes said. “Our approach to how we get better, and doing the little stuff right, there’s a lot of similarities between us and I think that has helped us in getting along.” Conners comes from the small town of Listowel, Ontario, with a population of approximately 7,500 people. He started playing golf at the Listowel Golf Club, where he worked in the cart barn and pro shop. Hughes grew up in the Toronto suburb of Hamilton and took up the game at age 7, after his parents decided to give it a try. He used to spend hours on a par-3 course, which may explain the short-game skills. Hughes was the first to Kent State. Conners followed two years later. Both players saw dramatic improvement in their four years at the Ohio school. Page, who’s also from Canada, lettered in golf, hockey and football for the Golden Flashes and became the school’s golf coach at just 26 years old. He held the job for four decades, and former Open Championship winner Ben Curtis also is among his former players. “Coach was great about taking the things you do well and refining them,” Hughes said. “And he’s very big on keeping you accountable off the golf course. His overall style of coaching just tends to make guys better.” It worked for both Hughes and Conners, who each had scoring averages over 75 in his freshman year. “They just got better and better every year,” Page said. Conners added length to his tee shots after barely carrying them 240 yards when he arrived on campus, Hughes recalled. Page didn’t mess with the bent left elbow on Conners’ backswing that is unconventional but contributes to his accuracy. Page convinced Hughes to be easier on himself on the course, an attitude change that paid big dividends. Hughes graduated in 2012 as a two-time Canadian Amateur champion. Conners earned his degree two years later after making the semifinals of the 2013 U.S. Amateur and finishing runner-up a year later. He also won the prestigious Jones Cup in 2014, an event also won by U.S. Olympians Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed. Both Hughes and Conners continued their progression as pros, working their way through PGA TOUR Latinoamerica, PGA TOUR Canada and the Korn Ferry Tour before earning their PGA TOUR card. Hughes won the 2016 RSM Classic in his fifth start of his first TOUR season, just months after he was playing Monday qualifiers for Korn Ferry Tour events. Conners had conditional TOUR status when he won the 2019 Valero Texas Open. He was the first Monday qualifier to win on TOUR in nine years. Now they’ve taken the next step in their career by contending in majors. Conners has finished in the top 10 at the past two Masters. Hughes played in the final group of this year’s U.S. Open, eventually finishing 15th. Hughes and Conners both started the final round of the last major, The Open, in the top six. Hughes went on to record his best finish in a major (T6) while Conners finished T15. “We have a lot in common, both humble beginnings, working hard at kind of a local golf course, developing our games, playing in junior tournaments and being on the national team together,” Conners said. “We’re very similar in our work ethic, in our preparation, our thinking about the game. We’ve just shared so many experiences together, have so much in common with our progress through the game.” This won’t be the first time they’ve represented Canada together in a foreign land. They led Canada to a sixth-place finish in the 2012 World Amateur Team Championship in Turkey. Hughes will be playing in Japan for the first time. Conners was medalist in the 2010 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan, a victory that he described as a “big momentum boost” for his career. Conners also helped Canada to a second-place finish in the 2014 World Amateur Team Championship in Japan. More recently, he was sixth in the PGA TOUR’S ZOZO Championship, where Tiger Woods won his record-tying 82nd PGA TOUR title. Now Conners and Hughes will make their Olympic debut. They’ve come a long way from their first meeting.

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HAMILTON, Ontario – It’s been 65 years since a Canadian last won the RBC Canadian Open, but the ghost of Pat Fletcher isn’t haunting Hamilton Golf and Country Club – at least through one round. Nick Taylor, of Abbotsford, British Columbia, shot a 6-under-par 64 to lead the Canadian contingent, followed by Adam Hadwin (also of Abbotsford) at 5 under. David Hearn of nearby Brantford, Ontario, Drew Nesbitt of Shanty Bay, Ontario (a winner on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica this year), and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ontario, shot matching 4-under-par 66’s.   Taylor is just a shot back of the lead after the first round of the RBC Canadian Open – held by Keegan Bradley. He’s looking for his best finish on the PGA TOUR since his win at the Sanderson Farms Championship in 2014.  The 31-year-old admitted Thursday his less-than-stellar record at the RBC Canadian Open is likely because he’s put too much pressure on himself in the past. “I tried to come in this week, I knew I was playing pretty well, and just kind of see the shots and try and hit them. That’s what I been doing,â€� he said. Taylor is 111th on the FedExCup standings and knows a good week could do wonders for his season. Taylor shot a Sunday 63 at the Wyndham Championship last year to finish T-8 and 123rd on the FedExCup. Avoiding a repeat of having to contend in the final event of the season before the FedExCup Playoffs to regain full TOUR status is high on his priority list this year. Taylor was paired with countrymen Hearn and Mike Weir (playing in his 28th Canadian Open) in a fan-favorite group, and said some “little thingsâ€� had been costing him so far in 2019, like being misaligned off the tee. But he had some momentum Thursday – he made four birdies in a row after making the turn – and that helped his confidence. Related: Bradley’s schedule change pays off | Koepka ‘not too concerned’ with three-week layoff | McIlroy ‘excited’ to make Canadian Open debut | Conners on home turf in Canada | Canadian golf on PGA TOUR stronger than ever | DJ ready to defend title He’s missed his last two cuts on the PGA TOUR, but did qualify for the U.S. Open, so he said he knew he was playing well.     “I wouldn’t say I knew I was going to shoot 6 under today, but I knew my game was there,â€� said Taylor, “and if I got things going it was going to be a good day.â€� Hughes, meanwhile, had it to 6 under at one point as well before making a double bogey on the par-4 18th. He had fired up the already sizeable crowd at the par-3 13th hole – rebranded as ‘The Rink’ for this week, featuring hockey boards and volunteers dressed like referees – by throwing on a Kawhi Leonard Toronto Raptors jersey. The Raptors, who won in convincing fashion Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA finals, have a huge following in Hamilton – just an hour west of Toronto. The crowd broke out into a ‘Let’s Go Raptors’ chant when Hughes put the jersey on. “Life is short, so whatever. I’m just going to have some fun. The crowd enjoys that stuff, so it’s fun for me to do. Fun for me to support Toronto sports teams in general,â€� said Hughes. “It was cool. I heard that going and I was hoping they would keep going and get loud.â€� He thought it was loud on 13, until he nearly made an ace on the par-3 16th. “I couldn’t get a feel for the crowd because they kind of cheered like it might have been a hole-in-one. I couldn’t quite tell,â€� said Hughes. “I’m like, ‘is that in? Is that in?’ It was just short.â€� Hughes sits 101st on the FedExCup this year but after a tough season in 2018 – he had just become a new father – he seems to have found his groove adjusting to his new normal. Hughes was T-2 at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in March, and T-8 two weeks ago at the Charles Schwab Challenge. His hometown of Dundas is a mere 10 minutes from Hamilton Golf and Country Club, and he’s played the course – constantly ranked as one of the best in Canada – more than anyone in the field – upwards of 50 times, he said. That experience paid dividends on Thursday, save for one bad hole, and he said the golf course now – although it went through a recent tree-removal project that took more than 1,000 trees off the course – doesn’t play much different than when he was growing up. “When you’re driving it well, which I did for most of the day, you give yourself a fair number of scoring opportunities,â€� he said. There were 26 Canadians in the field to start the week, the most in the modern era. Fifteen finished at even par or better on Thursday.

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