Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith are Kent State students in this week's President's Cup.
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MONTREAL — You won't be shocked to hear that there are two Georgia Bulldogs in the Presidents Cup this week. And that there is one golfer each from Texas, LSU, and Oklahoma State.
But what about the three from Kent State?
The public university in Northeast Ohio is not known for professional sports. Julian Edelman played quarterback there. Antonio Gates caught passing by. James Harrison (and, fun fact, Nick Saban) faced his opponents on the Golden Flashes, too. But golf's powerhouses tend to focus on greener pastures — think the warmer climates of the southeast or the cooler conditions of coastal California — rather than the harsh winters you'll find in greater Akron. (Cal-Berkeley also has three students in Montreal: Max Homa and Collin Morikawa for the US team and Ben An for the Internationals.)
The man responsible for the Golden Flashes' semi-stardom is on site this week. Herb Page, the 73-year-old Canadian and retired Kent State coach, is inside the black and yellow of the international team as he supports three of his former players: Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith.
Page did a FaceTime from Hughes a few weeks ago. Hughes was with his Royal Montreal teammates on an international practice round shortly before the squads were announced.
“Mac [Hughes] “I was just talking to him first, and then me and Taylor got on the screen,” Conners said. “First of all, he didn't know what was going on — but he's proud of us. He means a lot to him, not just me, but all those guys … He deserves a lot of credit for getting us to where we are. The program and culture that they created for us at Kent State was good for us on and off the golf course, we became better players and better people.”
Like Page, all three grew up in Ontario. And like Page, they headed to Kent State where, surprisingly, all three were on the roster at the same time. Hughes came first, in 2009, and Pendrith and Conners came the following year, joining a roster that was roughly 50-50 Canadians and Ohioans.
They weren't the first major golfers to play for Page — Ben Curtis was a Golden Flash a few years before winning the 2003 Open Championship — but together they helped Kent State punch above its weight. They were part of the 2012 team that walked with the big guns, culminating in a best fifth-place finish at the 2012 NCAA Championships. Conners finished T4 that year with Patrick Cantlay, one of his American opponents this week.
Hughes, who estimates he has played several hundred practice rounds with Conners during their time on Tour, extended this week's invitation to their old college coach.
“It was one of the things that I was most committed to; once I knew I was on the team and Corey and Taylor were going to be there, and, I thought, he's going to be here, so he's got my coach. [credential] this week he's part of the team again, and he loves it,” Hughes said.
“He was a little bit of a father figure to me when I was at Kent State, and I felt like he was someone I could lean on and trust … golf is one thing, but I felt like he was there for whatever you needed. . He cared about you [as a person] in front of you like a golfer.”
Pendrith adds his own evidence.
“When I came to Kent, I wasn't really into golf,” he said. “I was a diamond in the rough, like [Page] he likes to say. And he taught me a lot. He and Rob Wakeling, our assistant coach, taught me a lot – how to play the game, how to hit my golf ball, but how to be a good person and get my priorities straight and time management and all that. “
Conners won five times in college and was a two-time Mid-American Conference (MAC) player of the year. Hughes was a three-time winner and first-team All-MAC three times. And Pendrith won twice, including the 2013 MAC Championship, when he was the MAC Player of the Year.
All three are now PGA Tour winners, too, after Pendrith joined the club with his CJ Cup victory over the Byron Nelson earlier this summer. They were inducted into their alma mater's Hall of Fame, fittingly, in 2021.
This is not the first time they have represented Kent State at the international level. Conners and Hughes also represented Canada at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and then Conners and Pendrith made the international team at the 2022 Presidents Cup. But they went 0-8 at Quail Hollow, leaving the week with the sour taste of missed putts.
This week got off to a rough start for their team, as the US swept Thursday 5-0, but Team Canada found some redemption on Friday. Pendrith, paired with international star Adam Scott, beat Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala 5 and 4. Minutes later, Conners and Hughes finished Tony Finau and Wyndham Clark 6 and 5 in front of a raucous 13th hole crowd that gave them a standing ovation. and Molson. Each of the three earned their first team point of the program.
“This is one of the highlights of my life right here,” Hughes said after the round. “This is one of the funnest days I've ever had on the golf course.”
“We all go back. We're good friends,” Conners said. “I don't think any of us dreamed of being here when we were all at Kent State together or growing up on the Canadian national team. So it's great that we're all here.”
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at [email protected].
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