Canadians Conners, Taylor finish 2-over to begin Open Championship
Published
Canadians Corey Conners and Nick Taylor each began The Open Championship with 2-over 73s Thursday at Royal Liverpool.
That had each of them in a tie for 65th late in the evening portion from day one in Hoylake, England. Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo and amateur Christo Lamprecht held the opening-round lead at 5-under.
Watch weekend coverage of the men's golf calendar's final major of the year LIVE on TSN, TSN.ca and the TSN App beginning Saturday at 7:00 a.m. ET. You can also see bonus coverage LIVE in a limited time free preview of TSN+ beginning Saturday at 5:00 a.m. ET.
Conners' round got off to a rocky start with back-to-back bogeys on the Par 4 second and third holes. But he bounced right back, making birdie on the Par 4 fourth and Par 5 fifth to put him back at even-par. He parred the next six holes and made back-nine bogeys before carding birdie on the Par 3 17th. With an opportunity to possibly get back to even on the Par 5 finishing 18th, Conners put his second shot into the greenside bunker and made bogey to end up at 2-over.
Taylor, the Canadian Open winner last month, made five bogeys and three birdies en route to his 73, highlighted by a tumultuous stretch on the back-nine where he birdied or bogeyed five of six holes. All of Taylor's slip-ups came on Par 4s, making two on the front-nine and the back.
Conners and Taylor are the only two Canadians in the field this week at the men's golf calendar's final major of the season.
Conners gets his Round 2 started bright and early Friday morning at 2:52 a.m. (7:52 a.m. local time) while Taylor tees off at 5:20 a.m. ET.