The final PGA Tour event before The Masters has concluded, with Canadian Corey Conners ending victorious at the Valero Texas Open.
In a tight finish, Conners ended the tournament at -15, with Samuel Stevens a shot behind and both Sam Ryder and Matt Kuchar another back at -13.
An opening round 64 set up the tournament for Conners, while a blemishless final round which saw him pot four birdies and 14 pars was just enough to see him ward off the fast finishing Stevens, Ryder and Kuchar.
The win was just the second on the PGA Tour for the 31-year-old Conners, with the other, incidentally, coming back in 2019 at this exact tournament. And though he hasn’t enjoyed a great deal of success at the top level, clearly he likes this time of year, because he’s been a consistent presence towards the top of The Masters leaderboard over the past three years.
In 2020, he had what was comfortably his best finish at a major tournament when he ended in a tie for tenth at Augusta. The year after, he improved that to a tie for eighth, while last year he finished in a tie for sixth. Those are the only occasions on which he’s finished in a top ten in a major.
That bodes well for Conners heading to the 2023 edition of The Masters, which begins this Thursday. He is a long way down the list of big names at the event, but with form behind him and having played well at Augusta in the past, he is capable of springing a surprise.
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