Canadian Golfers Prepare for U.S. Open Challenge at Shinnecock Hills
SOUTHHAMPTON, N.Y. — Three of Canada’s top golfers came together Wednesday for a practice round ahead of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, a course none of them had played before arriving on Long Island this week. Corey Conners, Nick Taylor, and Sudarshan Yellamaraju formed an all-Canadian threesome focused squarely on learning the nuances of a demanding layout known for its sandy, windswept terrain and small, heavily sloped greens.
A Businesslike Approach to a New Course
“It’s pretty special,” Conners said of the iconic venue at the gateway to the Hamptons. “It’s a great mix of greens, some hills and some holes. There’s a lot of slope out there and a lot of the greens are actually quite small.” The fourth Canadian in the field, Ben Silverman, practiced an hour later.
Yellamaraju, the 24-year-old rookie who has been the brightest Canadian story on tour this season, echoed the focused tone. “We just focused on learning the course,” he said. “It’s a challenging golf course and I think we just wanted to get as much insight and experience as possible.” Taylor, a five-time PGA Tour winner, agreed: “We’re just trying to get through the week, so we didn’t have to add anything else.”
Conners Searching for Form
Normally one of the most consistent players in the world, Conners finds himself in the unusual position of searching for his game. After missing the cut at last week’s RBC Canadian Open and posting a shocking 79-78 weekend at the Memorial before that, these are strange times for the player widely regarded as having one of the smoothest swings in professional golf.
“Something just went wrong and I wasn’t able to make the right adjustments to stay on track,” Conners admitted. “But I feel like I’ve learned a few little lessons from it and things are pretty solid right now.” He expressed hope that Shinnecock’s unforgiving demands — a course that requires near-perfect execution — could actually sharpen his focus.
“I feel like here you know exactly what you have to do,” Conners said. “You have an option and if you don’t act on it, you’re going to get in trouble. So it can definitely sharpen your focus and you can surprise yourself by doing some good things.”
Taylor Looks to Recapture Consistency
Taylor has also endured a frustrating stretch. Despite his reputation as one of the most successful Canadian golfers of his generation, results have largely failed to match the quality of his play this year. That was most evident at last month’s PGA Championship at Aronimink, where he played his way into the second-to-last pairing on Sunday and had a legitimate chance to win after the front nine, only to card six bogeys and tumble down the leaderboard.
“It’s one of those things, it just didn’t happen this year,” Taylor said. “I just have to work on my patience and let it happen.” The 38-year-old needs a win before the end of the season to extend his impressive streak of consecutive years with a PGA Tour victory to four.
“There’s no part of my game that I’m really struggling with right now,” Taylor said. “It’s just a matter of putting it all together. I probably lost a bit of patience with the results at times because I thought I was playing better than the results showed and maybe put a bit of pressure on.”
Yellamaraju’s Breakout Season
It has been an extremely successful rookie year for Yellamaraju. Two-thirds of the way through the 2026 season, he is the top Canadian on tour and begins the week 44th in the FedEx Cup standings — 11 spots ahead of Taylor and 40 spots ahead of the underperforming Conners. His T8 finish last week at TPC Toronto was a career highlight, but he was quick to turn his attention to the much stiffer challenge at Shinnecock.
“I knew that regardless of what happened last week, this week is completely different,” Yellamaraju said. “It’s a unique golf course and it’s a U.S. Open, so you don’t play a tournament like this very often. I feel good that I got a good result, but I knew I definitely had to focus on this week no matter what.”
Mutual Respect Among Competitors
While the all-Canadian grouping provided a sense of camaraderie during the practice round, the competitive reality was never far from the surface. “It’s definitely nice to spend one of these days together,” Yellamaraju said. “Of course we all want each other to be good, but I’m usually pretty focused on what I’m doing and they’re the same way. I respect that.”
With the U.S. Open’s reputation as the most punishing test in golf, all three Canadians understand that the days ahead at Shinnecock Hills will leave little room for anything but their best golf.
