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TSN Senior Reporter

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1. For the second consecutive time, playing in the final group on Sunday didn’t go that well for Corey Conners. The PGA Tour rookie started the final round of the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship two shots out of the lead, but posted a four-over 76 in rainy, windy conditions. The round was punctuated by a double bogey on the 72nd hole. That dropped the Listowel, Ont., product out of the top 10 and into a tie for 13th. Despite the decent finish, he actually lost two places on the FedEx Cup ranking, falling to 112 from 110.

In his last start at the Valspar Championship, Conners shot a six-over 77 on Sunday for a T16 finish.

It would be easy to look at the poor final rounds and take the negative from it - that those were missed opportunities and that, perhaps, the pressure got to Conners. There’s no doubt that in the short term he will be disappointed, but the latest result represents the 26-year-old’s best finish on the PGA Tour. And there’s no way to get the experience of playing under pressure with a chance to win other than to be there.

The big picture is also exceedingly positive: it was the 11th cut Conners has made in his 12 starts this season. Since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, he’s also moved up 198 spots on the Official World Golf Ranking to 478th.

He gets another chance this week as Conners is in the field at the Houston Open.

2. Bubba Watson’s latest victory at the World Golf Championship – Dell Technologies Match Play won’t do much to encourage more televised match play tournaments. A 7-6 blowout in the final made the broadcasters’ jobs that much more difficult and likely sent viewers scurrying to the NCAA Final Four games. But what it may have done is add another layer to what might be the most intriguing run-up to the Masters in some time.

A two-time winner of the Green Jacket, Watson’s latest victory – his second of the year – puts him in the thick of the betting favourites. Prior to his win at the Genesis Open, he was a 66/1 longshot according to Oddschecker.com. After Sunday’s win, he’s now at 14/1 at some betshops.

And who would have thought that just a year ago? Suffering from an unnamed illness (Watson won’t say what his problem was) that caused his weight to plummet and playing with a ball that may not have been well suited to his style of play, he shot 74-78 at Augusta National and missed the cut. He also had the weekend off at the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship and fell out of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking. But he will no doubt feel confident when he drives down Magnolia Lane this year.

3. One category in which Watson leads the PGA Tour is tears. He is a notoriously weepy guy in certain situations, showing off his emotional side at the drop of a hat. The tears were flowing after his win on Sunday as he grasped with the emotional side of the victory.

So predictable is the crying with Watson that prior to him entering the media room after his 2014 Masters win, a number of reporters established an over/under on how many questions would be asked before the waterworks started. That number was three and the under won.

4. Speaking of Masters favourites, what should we make of the play of Dustin Johnson? Prior to last week, the world’s top-ranked golfer was among the top picks, but after getting drummed in three straight matches, there has to be, at the very least, a raised eyebrow as to the current state of his game. Losing is one thing, but losing three times and never really being in any of the matches seems concerning ahead of the year’s first major.

Let’s put it this way: if you had to put a bet down on a player to win the Masters today, would you pick Johnson or Watson?

5. Johnson, by the way, came very close to losing his top spot in the world ranking. If Justin Thomas had advanced to the final, he would have surpassed Johnson.

Unfortunately for JT, the thought of being No. 1 got stuck in his head and distracted him in his semi-final against Watson.

"I haven't had such a hard time not thinking about something so much,” he admitted after his round, “and that really sucked. I couldn't stop thinking about it, to be perfectly honest, but I need to be mentally stronger than that, and understand that it's just a match.”

6. Kevin Kisner has become one of the PGA Tour’s top bridesmaids. His runner-up finish to Watson marked the seventh time he’s finished second since 2015. Only Jordan Spieth has more silver medals in that span with eight. Henrik Stenson is tied with Kisner.

7. Does any Canadian golfer make more birdies than Adam Svensson? He started his final round of the Web.com Tour’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open on a heater, opening with five straight birdies and going six under over his first seven holes. Three back-nine bogeys led to a final-round 66 and a tie for sixth for the Surrey, B.C., product. For the week, he had 22 birdies, an eagle and one quadruple bogey.

The 24-year-old is in second-place on the circuit’s order of merit with $158,389 and has all but locked up his spot on next year’s PGA Tour.

8. It was nice to see Mike Weir playing on the weekend at the PGA Tour’s stop in the Dominican Republic. Weir, who has suffered through a slew of injuries and personal issues, last made a cut at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open. He did play the weekend at the CIMB Classic in November of that year, but there was no cut in that event.

Weir has been diligently working on his game over the past few years, trying to find a way to make his surgically repaired elbow function properly. This result is just one of what he hopes is a long road back and he did end up tied for 73rd, but it has to feel encouraging for the eight-time winner to be moving in the right direction.

When he turns 48 in May, the lefthander will gain status on the Web.com Tour where he plans to tee it up on a regular basis.

9. In case you didn’t notice, there’s a major going on this week. The ANA Inspiration, which always seems to get lost in the lead up to the Masters, tees off on Thursday with two Canadians in the field – Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp.