» Conners gunning for Masters green jacket in shadow of giants

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — If it’s somehow possible to quietly win a green jacket, Corey Conners would be the man to do it.

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The mild-mannered Canadian has spent his entire career letting his golf clubs do the talking, so it only makes sense that the 33-year-old has a chance to win the Masters on Sunday from the shadow of two of golf’s giants.

Conners heads to Sunday’s final round in solo third spot at eight-under par after shooting his second consecutive 70.

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“I’ve got a lot of faith in my game,” he said. “What the other guys do is kind of out of my control, but I’m going to have to go and play a really good round of golf tomorrow.

Conners will play in the penultimate group on Sunday with Patrick Reed (-6), one tee time before leader Rory McIlroy (-12) and Bryson DeChambeau (-10) square off in a heavyweight fight at Augusta National.

Paired with McIlroy on Saturday, Conners had a front-row seat to the greatest start in Masters history as McIlroy made six consecutive 3s on his scorecard to open the day five-under through five holes and vault to the tournament lead.

“It was a pretty amazing start Rory had today,” Conners said. “He can hit some shots, and he took advantage of some of the par-5s today. His length is pretty impressive. … He’ll definitely be tough to try and hunt down.”

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That’s a task the Canadian will gladly take on as he looks to become just the second Canadian to win the Masters and the second Canadian man to win a major championship. After missing the cut by two strokes, 2003 champ Mike Weir was at the course on Saturday following Conners progress early in the round.

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And as polite as Conners is, there was a sense he’d had enough to say about Rory after his round.

“To be fair, I did hit a couple pretty good shots,” the Canadian said.

“I did a great job of that and was expecting there to be some emotions playing with Rory. He’s a popular player. But did a good job of just staying within myself.”

Conners’ caddie Danny Sahl said the atmosphere was great and joked that they weren’t sure whether fans were chanting “Rory” or “Corey” all day.

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And, to be fair, Canadian golf fans travel very well, even these days.

“Certainly a lot of people were cheering me on as well,” Conners said. “It felt great to be in that type of atmosphere. It’s a fun, great place to be, and it was a fun day.”

The question surrounding Conners has always been whether his putter and short game could hold up under major pressure and pay off the chances that his impeccable tee-to-green game offers him. It’s largely been mission accomplished this week as Conners has just one three-putt through three rounds, although some tentative strokes have creeped into his game late in rounds.

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A downhill eight-foot par-saver at the final hole on Saturday sent him off the course with confidence.

“Yeah, that putt on 18 was nice to make,” he said.

The Listowel, Ont. native has been using a new centre-shafted Ping prototype putter for just over a month and the results have been great. In the four tournaments since making the switch, Conners’ strokes-gained-putting has ranked 13th, 21st, 36th, 49th. He has never finished a season in the top-100 in putting.

The dream for every Canadian pro has been to one day join Weir at the Masters Champions Dinner, and after Saturday’s round it was a dream Conners could be one day away from realizing.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” he said.

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