Clubhouse

Corey Conners The 33-year-old Canadian and two-time Tour winner has a habit of going low at Augusta. Classy stuff! How did he get his start? Picking range balls, scrubbing clubs...

- Dylan Dethier

Dylan Dethier: How does a kid from small-town Ontario get into golf and then get really, really good?

Corey Conners: Well, golf is really popular in Canada. Obviously, hockey is huge in the winter, but golf is a very popular summer sport, and I was fortunate to grow up in a small community with a golf course nearby. My dad has always been an avid golfer—he still is— and introduced me to golf at a young age. So I was fortunate to have access to a golf course and eventually I started working there too. I spent a lot of time there in the summer months. I got my year’s worth of golf crammed into those six months.

DD: What was your job when you worked at the course?

CC: I started in the back of the shop. I was like 12 or 13 years old, cleaning clubs, getting people’s clubs in and out of storage, cleaning the carts, a little bit of picking the range and then sort of some odd jobs, filling divots on par 3s, a few random little things. Eventually I moved into the golf shop. I’d ride my bike up to the course. I worked there all through university, when I had time in the summers.

DD: Is that the only job you’ve ever had other than your current one?

CC: Actually, no. I worked in a pharmacy all through high school, so I’m a pharmacy technician as well as a golfer.

DD: No way.

CC: I had basically two jobs through high school, which kept me pretty busy. Fortunately, both jobs were accommodating if I needed time to go play tournaments or whatever. Also, my twin sister, Nicole, had the same two jobs, so she was kind of my bailout. When I needed time off, she’d step in and take on some extra hours.

DD: Nice to have a reliable fill-in.