Valero Texas Open Recap: Conners Wins First PGA Tour Title

If you didn't know how big a moment winning a PGA Tour title for the first time would be for Corey Conners, all you had to do was watch his newlywed wife in the gallery. Malory Conners was hanging on every shot, alternately smiling, cringing, cheering, crying. Accent on the crying. Especially after her husband closed the deal for an improbable two-stroke win at the Valero Texas Open on Sunday at TPC San Antonio, a life-altering moment for both of them. 

The 27-year-old Canadian became the first Monday qualifier to win on the PGA Tour since Arjun Atwal at the 2010 Wyndham. So that's where Conners was last Monday. Where he will be this Monday is Augusta, Georgia. The victory thrust Conners into the Masters, becoming the 87th and final qualifier for the first major of the year. He also gained entry into next month's PGA Championship and the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, earned a two-year exemption on Tour through 2020-21 and, oh yeah, $1.3 million. He soared from 196th in the world rankings to 84th. 
 

For the second straight year, a golfer not otherwise exempt into the Masters won at the last possible moment. Last year, it was Ian Poulter in Houston. Conners' entry into Augusta was quite a wild ride. He birdied four of the first five holes to grab the lead from overnight leader Si Woo Kim. But then he bogeyed four straight holes, seemingly imploding with Augusta on the line. But Conners did a complete 180 with six birdies on the back-nine, holding off a surprising and valiant effort by veteran Charley Hoffman. 
 

Conners thus becomes the fifth first-time winner on Tour this season, and will join three of them – Keith Mitchell, Kevin Tway and Adam Long – at Augusta. Conners arrived in San Antonio with similar golf styles to so many young guys on Tour: ranked 15th in strokes gained: tee to green and 199th in strokes gained: putting. In other words, really solid till getting on the green. On a ball-strikers track, all Conners needed was a semi-decent week of putting, and he got it, ranking 26th in the field. 

Also like other young golfers, this moment didn't come quickly or easily for Conners. This was just his 51st PGA Tour event, but only because it took him so long to crack the big-time. From 2013 to 2017, a five-year span, he played in only eight PGA Tour events as a pro, and he made only one cut. We said "as a pro" because Conners had some success as an amateur. He was the runner-up in the 2014 U.S. Amateur, and with it earned a berth in ... the Masters. Yes, he's been there before. But his first foray was brief, with an 80-69-thank-you-very-much. 

In a way, that was pretty impressive, following up a disastrous 8-over round with a 3-under rebound. Conners got to play that week with one of his boyhood idols, 2003 Masters champ and fellow Canadian Mike Weir. It was his last event as an amateur. Now, he's the 15th golfer from his country to win on the PGA Tour.  
 

Something clicked for Conners in the fall, and it may have nothing to do with golf. To wit: He played 28 times on Tour last year, notched only one top-10 and lost his card. He couldn't even get it back in the Web.com Tour finals in September. Things changed for him the very next month, in more than one way. First, he got married. Eight days later, he finished second at the Sanderson Farms Championship, by far his best finish. A couple of months later, he tied for third at the Sony Open. So his card for next year was just about locked up by then. But that's next year; he still had to Monday qualify for the Valero. Incredibly, Conners survived a 6-for-1 playoff just to get into the field. 

What happened next was magical, as we knew just by looking at the joyous face of Malory Conners. 

MONDAY BACKSPIN 

Charley Hoffman
Hoffman had been enduring a terrible year, one that saw him tumble from the mid-20s in the world rankings to almost 90th. But the 42-year-old – and you always wonder about a golfer at that age, whether it's finally over – showed a spark a few weeks ago with a tie for 18th at the Valspar. And now he added a solo second that not only boosted him back to 66th in the world but sends him to the Masters on a high note. Hoffman finished tied for 12th at Augusta last year – that's how he got back into the field – and never has finished outside the top-30 in five visits.  

Si Woo Kim
Kim was bidding to go wire-to-wire but fell out of the lead with a double-bogey on the par-3 third hole on Sunday. He could never track down Conners despite rolling in three birdies in four holes on the back nine. He wound up tied for fourth with Brian Stuard. With Kim's improved putting this season – he was 23rd in the Valero field for another good showing – he was looking like a good long-shot DFS play for the Masters, where he tied for 24th last year. But Kim tweaked something – he was clutching his right side – during Sunday's round, and you'll have to monitor developments during the week before locking him into your lineup. 

Graeme McDowell
McDowell followed up his win at the opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic with another strong showing at the Valero. The soon-to-be 40-year-old Northern Irishman closed with a 6-under 66 on a pretty long course to tie for seventh. Mind you, this wasn't a great field, but it was far stronger than what McDowell faced last week. He now has two top-10s in two weeks, doubling his total from the past two *years*. 

Adam Schenk
We have been high on Schenk many weeks this season (though, we didn't pick him this week, sigh). He's been pretty decent across most metrics, but just wasn't scoring well and didn't have much to show for it in 2019. Now, he does. The 27-year-old Hoosier notched the second top-10 of his career with a T7 at the Valero. He led the field in strokes gained: putting.  

Rickie Fowler
Just about anything that Fowler did at the Valero would not have impacted our forecast for him for the Masters. Maybe only an injury, which didn't happen. Fowler tuned up nicely, getting in four rounds of play and tying for 17th. What is our forecast for Fowler at the Masters? We think he can win. 

Jordan Spieth
The Twitter proclamations on Friday that Spieth was back were a bit premature. The former world No. 1 wound up tied for 31st at the Valero, though that's not to be taken lightly by someone who hadn't had a stroke-play finish that high all season. So it offers a glimmer of hope for Spieth, and it surely will boost his ownership for the Masters. We're not ready to buy in for a golfer who dipped another notch in the world rankings, to 33rd. 

Jimmy Walker
Like Hoffman, Walker is an over-40 golfer who has fallen far off the top of this game, but who also has a good track record at Augusta. Just in the nick of time, Walker turned in his best showing in more than five months with a tie for 30th at TPC San Antonio. Of course, that's far from Hoffman's runner-up. But Walker has never missed a cut in five trips to the Masters, and he tied for 20th last year. Walker qualified, and will get at least two Masters, based on his win at the 2016 PGA Championship. 

Tony Finau
Finau birdied three of his final five holes on Friday to sneak inside the cut line, but he was unable to do much of anything on the weekend, winding up tied for 61st place. Finau is still a very good player but not nearly as good as last year. He has had a bunch of top-25s – six of them, in fact – but last year many of those were top-10s. We're about halfway through the season, and Finau has just one top-10. He's ranked 40th in strokes gained: tee to green, which is a great number for many golfers. But not for one who struggles with his short game. 

Daniel Berger
Berger began his post-injury season with a tie for 12th at the Desert Classic, and it appeared his career would resume its upward flight. But he's done little since, and missed his fourth cut in eight starts on Friday. Sure, Berger had a runner-up in Puerto Rico, but that was nothing more than a glorified Web.com field. It doesn't appear that Berger is still slowed by his wrist injury; rather, he just hasn't found his game after such a long layoff.  

Joaquin Niemann
The young Chilean has not come close to recreating his magic of a year ago. He has only one finish in the top-35 in 13 starts this season. Even when it appeared he would do something special at TPC San Antonio, where he finished sixth in his pro debut a year ago, it all went wrong. Niemann opened the tournament with three birdies in his first five holes, but then everything fell apart again. He played the rest of the round 3-over, played the second round in 4-over and missed the cut. It's not uncommon for a young player making a huge dent to take a step back the following year, and that appears to be what we're seeing with the still-only 20-year-old Niemann. 

Billy Horschel
Horschel was a popular pick in fantasy last week. He was even the top guy in the PGATour.com's power rankings for the Valero. But we didn't see it. The bread-and-butter of Horschel's game is tee to green. He entered the week 182nd in strokes gained: off the tee, 109th in SG approach and 152nd in SG tee to green (and, for good measure, 120th in SG around the green). That's not gonna get it done anytime anywhere.