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PINEHURST, N.C. — Olympic golf qualifying is a marathon and, with the finish line finally in sight, Corey Conners is beginning a late push this week at the U.S. Open.

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With Canada’s two-man team set to be finalized after Sunday’s final round at Pinehurst, Conners opened his week with a one-under par 69 that had him near the top of the leaderboard after the morning wave at the famed golf resort’s torturous No. 2 course.

“Just struck it really solidly,” Conners said after his round. “When I did miss, I missed it in the right spots. Really solid day off the tee, got in the fairway a bunch. When I’m playing well, I feel like I hit a lot of fairways. That was the plan and the expectation for today.”

Conners is currently on the outside looking in for a position on Team Canada this summer in Paris. Last week at Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament, Adam Hadwin jumped past the Listowel, Ont., native into second spot in the Canadian Olympic rankings with an impressive third-place finish behind Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa.

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Hadwin surged 24 spots from 59th to 35th in golf’s official world rankings — the metric used for qualifying — leapfrogging Conners who entered the U.S. Open ranked 46th. Nick Taylor is Canada’s top-ranked player at 32nd.

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Hadwin birdied his final hole on Thursday, but finished his opening round with a four-over par 74.

There are several scenarios possible for who will punch their tickets to Paris, including one that looked extremely unlikely earlier in year that would see Taylor lose his spot on the team despite winning twice in the past 12 months on the PGA Tour.

Taylor has missed the cut in his past seven major championships. Finding his way into the weekend at Pinehurst would go a long way toward securing a spot for the 2023 RBC Canadian Open champion and 2024 Waste Management Phoenix Open winner.

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Taylor was set to play in Thursday’s afternoon wave of golfers.

But it was Conners who made the first push this week, following an early double-bogey at the second hole with an eagle at the par-5 fifth hole. Canada’s ball-striking maestro put a pre-tournament emphasis on driving accuracy at this difficult course and so far has accomplished it, missing just a single fairway in Round 1.

“Coming from the fairway, I feel like I’ve got great distance control and direction control, so when you’re hitting from there, it’s a big advantage and I can use the good iron play,” he said.

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After a solid day hovering around level-par, Conners rolled in a 19-foot birdie putt on his final hole to get into red numbers for the first time.

“I’ve had some really good putting rounds over the last few weeks and definitely feeling good with it,” he said. “It was nice to see some go in. It was definitely an all-around good day, but a solid day on the greens and hopefully more to come.”

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Conners said the greens at Pinehurst No. 2 are the fastest he has faced all year, mentioning that even uphill, into-the-grain putts — the type he would normally be aggressive with — require plenty of caution this week.

“Your mind is accustomed to just doing one thing,” he said. “But even some uphill putts you need to use some common sense.”

The 32-year-old was impressed with Thursday’s course setup, saying Pinehurst No. 2 provided a stern test but that the greens were receptive enough to reward good shots, something he’s pretty sure will change throughout the week.

In sweltering conditions in North Carolina, the USGA will have every opportunity to bake out the course and put the screws to the world’s best players.

When the Toronto Sun asked Conners if he would like Thursday’s conditions to last all week, the golfer simply laughed.

“I know it’s going to get firmer,” he said. “But, I think it’s playing great right now.”

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