Corey Conners goes from Monday qualifier to Valero Texas Open title

Canadian Corey Conners is heading to Augusta National after winning the Valero Texas Open by two shots on Sunday.

Six days ago, Corey Conners was just hoping to get into the field at the Valero Texas Open and looking forward to a week off afterward. His plans changed pretty quickly on Sunday afternoon.

Conners went from needing a six-way playoff on Monday to qualify at TPC San Antonio to being crowned champion on Sunday. The Canadian won his first career PGA Tour title with a final round six-under 66 to win by two shots over Charley Hoffman.

It was a tumultuous week for Conners, so it was only fitting that his final 18 holes on Sunday would also be up-and-down. Beginning the round a shot behind leader Si Woo Kim, Conners birdied four of his first five holes to take a four-shot lead. Just when it seemed like he had the tournament in hand, he proceeded to bogey the next four holes to let players like Kim, Hoffman and the hard-charging Ryan Moore back in it.

On the back-nine, though, Conners recovered in a big way. He rolled in a 33-foot putt for birdie at the 12th, hit his approach to the par-three 16th to within four feet to set up another birdie, then added another birdie at 17 to take a three-shot lead. He played the final nine holes in six-under to finish at 20-under, a new record since the tournament moved to TPC San Antonio in 2010. He also becomes the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA Tour in nine years.

Conners gets a number of perks for winning on tour for the first time. He won’t need to Monday-qualify anymore after receiving a two-year exemption on tour. And, arguably most importantly, he and his wife aren’t heading back home to Florida as they had planned.

Instead, Conners is heading to Augusta National this week to play in the Masters, joining fellow Canadian Mike Weir in the field for the year’s first major championship. Conners first played the Masters as an amateur in 2015 after finishing runner-up at the 2014 U.S. Amateur. He’s relishing his second opportunity, though, especially considering where he was less than a week ago.

“It’s gone by pretty quick. I don’t think it’s sunk in,” he said at his post-tournament press conference. “Really exciting. Just doesn’t seem real.”

Conners may have seemed calm on the outside, especially during his four-bogey stretch, but his wife Malory was feeling every shot he hit, knowing how this win would change the family’s life. No more Monday qualifiers, no more uncertainty about where his next start would come. Add to that two canceled plane tickets to Florida.

“Big change of plans,” Conners said. “It’s funny, we were in the hotel room here this morning and my wife got the email to check in for our flight home tomorrow morning. I was like, ‘Yeah, don’t check in for that quite yet. I’ve got different plans.”

In the span of six days, Conners saw his life change. But he has to get over the emotions quickly. After all, he was an Augusta tee time booked for Thursday.