Golf gold for Canada Ingram’s Olympic goal

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This article was published 19/06/2024 (468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Derek Ingram is one proud coach these days.

The Winnipeg product is also bound for Paris after his top protege, Canadian golfer Corey Conners, qualified for the upcoming Summer Olympics last weekend in dramatic fashion.

“I never take it for granted,” Ingram told the Free Press of the opportunities he’s had during his career, which began as a player before he morphed into a teacher.

This one came right down to the wire.

Conners was on the outside looking in when the U.S Open began last week at Pinehurst, with fellow Canucks Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin holding the country’s two spots based on the World Golf Rankings.

The door opened for Conners when Hadwin, who had jumped him a week earlier with a terrific third-place finish at The Memorial, missed the cut at the prestigious major.

Conners, who hired Ingram as his personal coach a dozen years ago, needed to finish no worse than 11th to pass Hadwin. He ended up in a three-way tie for ninth.

“He knew he had to have a great week to have a chance,” said Ingram.

While an Olympic spot was a priority, winning the tournament was top of mind.

“At one point he was three-under for the week,” Ingram said, noting a trio of double-bogeys proved costly. “A little cleaner and he would have had a chance.”

Conners finished at even par, six shots behind winner Bryson DeChambeau. That was good enough, by a single stroke, to get him to France along with the Winnipeg-born, British-Columbia raised Taylor.

Ingram was at Conners’ side during the 2020 Tokyo games, which was pushed back to 2021 because of the pandemic. He finished two strokes off getting into a playoff for the bronze medal. Mackenzie Hughes was the other Canadian that year.

Ingram was also in Rio in 2016 as the national coach for the two-man team of Graham DeLaet and David Hearn.

“I never dreamed I’d get there one time, let alone three times,” said Ingram, who also has a close relationship with Taylor despite not being his personal coach.

“He’s like another son to me,” he said.

The Olympic tournament consists of 60 golfers, and the two-per-country quota actually means the overall field won’t be nearly as strong as many PGA Tour events. With Conners and Taylor, who won the Phoenix Open earlier this season, both playing so well, Ingram said medal contention is expected.

“It’s not like we were miles away last time,” he said. “It’s still top heavy with the best players in the game. Nick and Corey have been playing against the best players in the game for a few years and faring quite well. Why not this time?”

This will be Ingram’s second time in Paris. He coached the national amateur team at a 2022 event at the same course the Olympics will use.

“Very hands on. If it was ceremonial I wouldn’t go. I’m at the stage of my career where I’m there to win and have an impact,” Ingram said of his role with Conners.

“With Corey I coach him day to day, I’m there for his warmup, I watch every shot he hits, I’m there for his cool-down and then kind of resetting for the next day. This is a role I take very seriously. I feel like I can impact results.”

Although he’s thrilled for Conners, Ingram said he’s “gutted” for Hadwin.

“This has been a four year goal for him,” he said.

Hadwin would have gone had the 2020 games taken place as planned, but he’d lost his spot by the time 2021 rolled around.

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Ingram said this is an exciting time for Canadian men’s golf, with seven players now on the PGA Tour and six of them currently in the top 90. One of them is Ingram’s other current client, Taylor Pendrith, who got his first win last month at the Byron Nelson.

The likes of Taylor (35th), Conners (37th), Hadwin (38th), Pendrith (56th), Hughes (65th) and Adam Svensson (90th) are looking to qualify, either through world rankings or as captain’s picks, for the Presidents Cup which will be held in September in Montreal. Canadian golfing legend Mike Weir is heading up the international squad, which will take on the top U.S. golfers.

“It’s crazy. They’ve all been pushing each other and having fun,” said Ingram.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.