What Jeeno Thitikul was saying about Corey Conners after the first day of the Grant Thornton Invitational

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Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners seemed to leave themselves with just a little too much to do on Sunday to win the Grant Thornton Invitational following a frustrating Saturday at Tiburon Golf Club.

Just four shots separated the top four teams at the Grant Thornton Invitational, with Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit securing the title on Sunday. Ultimately, it was a fourth place finish for the Canadian pairing of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners.

No team went lower than the 62 Henderson and Conners posted during the modified fourball round. They had also shot 59 in Friday’s scramble. However, a 71 in round two’s alternate shot realistically put paid to their hopes of their victory.

It concludes another decent year for Conners. The 32-year-old had four top 10s on the PGA Tour, while he finished 39th in the FedEx Cup standings. He was also third for strokes gained with his approach play on the PGA Tour this year.

What Jeeno Thitikul said about Corey Conners during the Grant Thornton Invitational

So it is no surprise that he managed to impress his partner, as well as the in-form player on the LPGA Tour right now in Jeeno Thitikul.

“Yeah, just watching Corey play is a lot of fun. His ballstriking is so good. On Friday Jeeno said he’s like a machine and he really is, it’s so good. Even just green reading this week, he was helping me read my putts and just that extra little bit of confidence, he was reading them really well and I feel like I was able to make some more putts than I sometimes do on tour. Just that was really nice,” Henderson said after the final round.

“Just overall just having a partner that’s so calm and positive and has a really nice energy about them I feel really helped my game and hopefully I can take that into the future as well.”

The area of Conners’ game which cost him in 2024

There is one part of Conners’ game which certainly appears to require the most work ahead of the new season. When you look at his rounds throughout the year, it is remarkable just how consistent he was – with just four rounds seeing him go lower than 66 on his own ball in 2024.

The problem comes on – and around – the greens, with Conners 128th for strokes gained putting. It was certainly the case at the Presidents Cup when he was struggling to take some of the golden chances which came his way at Royal Montreal.

In fact, there are some eerie similarities between Conners’ performance at the Presidents Cup and the Grant Thornton Invitational. Few will forget just how impressive he was alongside Mackenzie Hughes on Friday in Montreal as the Internationals fought back from a 5-0 deficit to level the score.

Unfortunately, Mike Weir’s men were simply unable to find that level again. And they left themselves with too much to do during the singles – where Conners beat Tony Finau.

Alongside another Canadian, Conners was exceptional for a couple of days in Florida last week. But they just did not capitalise when they had the opportunity to put their foot down.