‘Feeling good’: Conners, Taylor eyeing breakthrough at the Masters

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tuesday at Augusta National is the kind of day where everyone puts in a little more work than usual. Practice rounds stretch long and practice sessions go even longer.

But at a place built on traditions, there’s one special Canadian one that has become commonplace — the Tuesday morning game. 

Ever since Mike Weir won the Masters in 2003, he has long taken the Canadian contingent under his wing, sharing tips and words of encouragement. Weir spearheads co-ordinating the time, with a text coming as much as two months out. He still gives out advice, even as the Canadian crew teeing it up at Augusta National has been relatively similar over the last half-decade or so, as he, of course, just wants one of them to finally join him in the Champions Locker room. 

Under the tutelage of Weir and with more and more experience being tucked under the belts of Nick Taylor and Corey Conners, this year — a more wide-open Masters than any in recent memory — could be the one for a Canadian breakthrough. 

Conners has been a stalwart near the top of the Masters leaderboard over the last few years, with four top-10 finishes in his last six starts at Augusta National — including a tie for eighth last year. Conners played in the penultimate pairing both Saturday and Sunday in 2025, including in the third round alongside Rory McIlroy. For the first time in a number of years — since he kept winning the tournament — Conners skipped the Valero Texas Open last week in favour of extra rest. 

“Body, mind are feeling good and the golf game is feeling good. Got in some good work at home last week,” Conners said. “Definitely excited to be here and feel like my game is in a good spot.”

Conners is certainly trending in the right direction after back-to-back top-15 finishes on the PGA Tour, including the Players Championship and the Valspar Championship. His ball-striking numbers are back up to where he expects them to be and, because this week is not set to be a soft affair, a firm and fast Augusta National is absolutely going to favour an elite ball-striker like Conners who makes so few mistakes. 

“I love the golf course, love how it sets up,” Conners said. “I feel like my iron play has been on a number of those years, and that’s an important aspect of the game. You need everything to be working to contend here, but the iron play has been sharp, and that’s definitely helped me.” 

Taylor, meanwhile, finally got the monkey off his back with respect to major championships, finding the weekend at Augusta National in 2025 after missing the cut at eight straight majors. He finished tied for 40th and continues to try to learn more and more about the course. Taylor played with Jordan Spieth last week in Texas and said he picked Spieth’s brain throughout their round together while also asking Weir a handful of questions on Tuesday, too.  

He said the key is to, well, not do anything stupid.  

“That’s what, maybe with experience, you learn over time,” Taylor said. “Other golf courses, you can try to hook one around and if you over-hook you might get lucky and still hit the green and have a chance at birdie. Here, the likelihood of that is pretty much zero — but you only get in more trouble because you’re trying to force things a little bit.”

Taylor has had a steady, if unspectacular, start to his 2025 campaign with just one missed cut but also just one top-25 finish — a tie for 24th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am being his best. It’s cliché for a golfer to say he or she is close, but with Taylor he’s been just two or three shots away from having a handful of top-10s. All aspects of his game have been solid, he said, it’s just a matter of stringing together some solid play for four days in a row. 

When it comes to major championships, Taylor hasn’t notched the kind of results he would like in his career to this point considering his record otherwise. But you don’t win five PGA Tour events without being able to do well on Sundays and step up when necessary. Taylor, of course, captured the RBC Canadian Open in dramatic fashion and breaking a near 70-year drought by Canadians. There would be parallels between a major Sunday and that Sunday at Oakdale in 2023, but Taylor knows he “has to get in that position” first. 

“I’ll worry about Thursday’s tee shot and kind of go from there. I’ve gained some experience over the last few years, and it would be in a comfortable situation that I can have some comfort in,” Taylor said. “But it would be a different animal than what I’ve realistically been in, but I can definitely draw on past experiences to help me on that.”

Indeed, competing and contending in a major championship is a whole different beast. Although Taylor hasn’t done it yet, he has twice as many wins on Tour as Conners — three coming in playoffs and one basically counting as a major for the Canadian crew — but Conners has been so firmly in the mix at Augusta National the last few years, he’s not a trendy pick but one of the 15-or-so favourites who could make plenty of noise this week. 

Over the last 20 years, the eventual Masters champion has, on average, been competing in his ninth tournament when he wins. Amongst the notables doing exactly that this week? Corey Conners. 

Weir’s Tuesday begins with a practice round with his countrymen and ends with a dinner alongside past champions. Funny enough, Tuesday night is the first time that elk has been on the menu (Rory McIlroy is serving elk sliders as part of the appetizers’ course) since Weir’s dinner in 2004. Weir knows what it takes to win the Masters, and year after year he’d like nothing more than to have a fellow Canadian join him. 

“He’s cheering for us. We know that,” Conners said with a smile. “It’s easier said than done.” 

It very well may be. But hope springs eternal at the Masters. Why not? 

CANADIAN TEE TIMES
(all times ET)

Thursday
9:31 a.m. – Nick Taylor

11:27 a.m. – Mike Weir

12:44 p.m. – Corey Conners

Friday

8:02 a.m. – Mike Weir

9:19 a.m. – Corey Conners

12:44 p.m. – Nick Taylor