Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith are Kent State alums at this week’s Presidents Cup.
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MONTREAL — You received’t be shocked to listen to that there are two Georgia Bulldogs at this week’s Presidents Cup. Nor that there’s a golfer every from Texas, LSU, and Oklahoma State.
However how ’bout three from Kent State?
The general public college in Northeast Ohio is not any stranger to skilled sports activities. Julian Edelman performed quarterback there. Antonio Gates caught passes there. James Harrison (and, enjoyable truth, Nick Saban) tackled opponents for the Golden Flashes, too. However golf’s collegiate powerhouses have a tendency to pay attention round greener pastures — suppose the hotter climate of the southeast or the temperate circumstances of the California coast — quite than the grim winters you’ll discover in larger Akron. (Cal-Berkeley additionally has three alums in Montreal: Max Homa and Collin Morikawa for the U.S. staff and Ben An for the Internationals.)
The person liable for the Golden Flashes’ semi-stardom is on-site this week. Herb Web page, 73-year-old Canadian and retired Kent State coach, is contained in the ropes sporting the black and yellow of the Worldwide staff as he helps his trio of former gamers: Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith.
Web page fielded a FaceTime from Hughes a pair weeks in the past. Hughes was along with his teammates at Royal Montreal for an Worldwide observe spherical simply earlier than the groups had been introduced.
“Mac [Hughes] was simply speaking to him first, after which Taylor and I popped into the display screen,” Conners stated. “First, he didn’t know what was occurring — however he’s pleased with us. He’s meant a lot to, not simply me, however all these guys as nicely … He deserves plenty of credit score for getting us to the place we’re. This system and tradition he created for us at Kent State was nice for us on and off the golf course, turning into higher gamers and turning into higher folks.”
Like Web page, all three grew up in Ontario. And like Web page, they headed to Kent State the place, extremely, all three had been on the roster on the similar time. Hughes arrived first, in 2009, whereas Pendrith and Conners got here a yr later, becoming a member of a roster that was roughly 50-50 Canadians and Ohioans.
They weren’t the primary nice golfers who’d performed for Web page — Ben Curtis was a Golden Flash a number of years earlier than successful the 2003 Open Championship — however collectively they helped Kent State punch above its weight. They had been a part of a 2012 staff that went toe-to-toe with the massive weapons, peaking with a program-best fifth-place end on the 2012 NCAA Championships. Conners completed T4 that yr with Patrick Cantlay, who’s one in every of his American opponents this week.
Hughes, who estimates he’s performed a pair hundred observe rounds with Conners throughout their tenure on Tour, prolonged this week’s invite to their previous faculty coach.
“It was one of many issues I used to be very set on; as soon as I knew I used to be on the staff and Corey and Taylor had been going to be there, as nicely, I assumed, he’s going to be right here, so he’s bought my coach [credential] this week and he’s part of the staff, and he’s loving it,” Hughes stated.
“He was a little bit of a father determine to me once I was at Kent State, and I felt like he was somebody I might actually lean on and belief … the golf is one factor, however I felt like he was there for something you wanted. He cared for you [as a person] earlier than you as a golfer.”
Pendrith added his personal testimony.
“Once I first got here to Kent, I used to be not likely that good at golf,” he stated. “I used to be a diamond within the tough, as [Page] likes to say. And he taught me so much. Him and Rob Wakeling, our assistant coach, they taught me a lot — how one can play the sport, how one can rating my golf ball, however how one can be a superb individual and get my priorities straight and time administration and all that.”
Conners received 5 instances in faculty and was a two-time Mid-American Convention (MAC) Participant of the Yr. Hughes was a three-time winner and three-time first-team All-MAC. And Pendrith received twice, together with the 2013 MAC Championship, when he was MAC Participant of the Yr.
All three have now grow to be PGA Tour winners, too, after Pendrith joined the membership along with his victory on the CJ Cup Byron Nelson earlier this summer time. They had been inducted into their alma mater’s Corridor of Fame all collectively, appropriately, in 2021.
This isn’t the primary time they’ve represented Kent State on the worldwide stage. Conners and Hughes repped Canada on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, after which Conners and Pendrith made the Worldwide staff on the 2022 Presidents Cup. However they went a mixed 0-8 at Quail Hole, leaving the week with the bitter style of missed putts.
This week began dreadfully for his or her staff, because the U.S. swept Thursday 5-0, however the Canadian crew bought a measure of redemption on Friday. Pendrith, paired with Worldwide stalwart Adam Scott, beat Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala 5 and 4. Simply minutes later, Conners and Hughes completed off Tony Finau and Wyndham Clark 6 and 5 in entrance of a raucous Thirteenth-hole crowd that showered them with applause and Molson. Every of the three earned his first staff level within the course of.
“This is among the highlights of my life proper right here,” Hughes stated post-round. “This is among the funnest days I’ve ever had on the golf course.”
“All of us go approach again. We’re nice pals,” Conners stated. “I don’t suppose any of us form of dreamed of being right here after we had been all at Kent State collectively or rising up on the Canadian Nationwide Staff. So it’s fairly cool that we’re all right here.”
Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
