The coach of a rising Canadian golf star says next week’s Masters tournament will be “nerve-wracking and super exciting” – and he’ll have a front row seat.
Winnipegger Derek Ingram is the longtime coach of Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., who earned his first PGA Tour victory Sunday and punched his ticket to the big event.
“He’s been playing really good golf and not getting rewarded for it for about a month,” Ingram told 680 CJOB’s Sports Show.
“We knew he was playing good and training in the right direction, and he’s been working hard on handling those nerve-wracking situations, which he obviously needed on Sunday.
“I was optimistic he’d have a great week and a good final round… the Masters thing was really an added bonus.”
Ingram said Conners has had a tiny taste of golf’s biggest stage before, as an amateur finalist at the 2015 Masters, but this trip is something entirely different.
Sunday’s tour win in San Antonio, Tex., he said, is a sign of things to come in the young golfer’s future.
“To win in that fashion and do it on that stage, it says a lot about Corey and how he’s progressed over the years,” he said.
“He’s always been a tremendous ball striker, and a guy I’ve always felt will win on tour every year for 10-15 years. He’s better now, he’s more mature, and under the spotlight, he’s much more prepared for it.”
Ingram, also a head coach at the national level for Canada’s men’s team, said he was with Conners in 2015 at the Masters, and also attended two years ago coaching another golfer… but no matter how many times he visits the famed Augusta National Golf Club at the Masters’ home in Georgia, it’s always a special experience.
“It’s like a dream come true, especially to be there with a player that I’ve invested so much time with and I love so much and have such a deep relationship with.”
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