Corey Conners of Listowel, Ontario is in contention after the first round of the 2002 Masters from Augusta, Georgia on Thursday. He is currently at two-under-par, tied for seventh place, but only three strokes back of the leader, Sungjae Im of South Korea, who is at -5.
Cameron Smith of Australia is the lone golfer in second place at -4. Then there is a four-way tie for fourth place at -3 between Americans Dustin Johnson and Scottie Scheffler, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, and England’s Danny Willett. Johnson won the Masters in 2020, and Willett won the Masters in 2016. Johnson also won the United States Open in 2016.
Conners is at -2 alongside Jason Kokrak and Patrick Cantlay. It should be noted that Johnson and Kokrak have Canadian connections. Kokrak is a native of North Bay, Ontario, while Johnson’s fiancee is Paulina Gretzky, who is the daughter of ice hockey sensation Wayne Gretzky of Brantford, Ontario, the best Canadian athlete of all-time.
In round two, Conners had three birdies and one bogey. He birdied the third, eighth, and 13th holes, and bogeyed the seventh hole.
Conners has finished in the top 10 in the last two Masters tournaments. He finished tied for tenth in 2020, and then tied for eighth last year.
