Tiger Woods is, as you would expect, earning all the headlines after surging into contention at the Valspar Championship but he is being overshadowed, on the course at least, by an unexpected leader.
Corey Conners made just one bogey in his opening round of 67 and signed for a two-under-par 69 on Friday to lead the field by two at Innisbrook.
Incredibly, the Canadian rookie was not even meant to be among the field this week.
The 26-year-old, ranked a lowly 608 in the world, did not shoot a good enough score to qualify on Monday, but the withdrawal of Kyle Stanley meant he had to cancel his weekend off.
With fate seemingly on his side, here are some things you may want to know about Conners, with a little help from his official PGA Tour profile.
- After turning professional in 2015, Conners earned a PGA Tour card for this year with an 11th-place finish at the Web.Com Tour's DAP Championship.
- Up until this week, the word that would best be used to describe Conners' season is "unspectacular". He has made the cut in nine out of 10 tournaments, but his best finish was a tie for 29th at the Farmers Insurance Open.
- Conners has a twin sister named Nicole and another sister called Sarah.
- He was college team-mates with fellow Canadian Tour player Mackenzie Hughes at Kent State, with the duo playing junior golf together.
- Conners is not just a dab hand with the golf clubs. He is also a huge ice hockey fan and, at high school, won a Provincial Hockey Championship.
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