Adam Long reaps benefits of Corey Conners’ love of cooking

Safe to say that among the many meals Corey Conners has cooked for Adam Long and his wife Emily – and make no mistake, there have been a lot – there is one that stands out.

And not because the salmon was taken off the grill at precisely the right moment. Or, the ribs, which are one of Conners’ specialties, were falling-off-the-bone, finger-licking good.

No, the most memorable meal is the one Conners and his wife Mallory had on their friends’ table that crazy day in April of last year when the anxious first-time parents brought their newborn son Trevor home from the hospital.

“It, like, made us cry,” Long recalls. “It was just the nicest thing, you know?”

On the menu that night, as the Duke grad remembers, was pork barbecue, which is not necessarily none of Conners’ go-to meals, and some creamy mac and cheese. Who needs Michelin five-star restaurants in a time like that?

“Just comfort food, and it made us so happy,” Long says.

So did the dinner Conners made several days earlier. Emily’s contractions had started but the couple wasn’t ready to head to the hospital quite yet. So Long went over to Conners’ house -- the two PGA TOUR pros live in townhouses 50 yards apart -- to see what cooking.

“I was starving so I went next door and I just walked in,” Long says, chuckling. “I was like, guys, things are happening over here. You got any to-go boxes? … So, we packaged something up, put some foil over and brought it over.

“And we ate a little bit and ended up going to the hospital a few hours later. So that was a big memory, too.”

If you’re beginning to sense a trend here, it’s because there is one.

Conners loves to cook -- and he’s good at it. When the two couples are at home in Jupiter, Florida, and sometimes even when they rent houses on the road, the Canadian cooks at least five nights each week. Long and his wife gladly take on clean-up duty.

“That's about it all we can offer,” Long says with a smile. “And we’ll take care of the takeout. We're pretty good at that.”

Conners, for his part, enjoys the company.

“We're great friends with them and definitely during the COVID break it, might've got up to seven (nights), a few of the weeks,” Conners says. “We'd eat with them almost every night.”

The first thing Conners ever remembers cooking – well, actually, baking – were apple pies under the watchful eye of his mother when he was a kid. He even got a “really fancy pie dish” one Christmas.

Conners eventually migrated from the Great White North to play golf at Kent State. He was living with several teammates in an apartment, and to break the monotony of eating out, Conners started trying different recipes out on his buddies.

“And now living on my own with my wife as well and traveling a lot, once we get home, we pretty much cook every night and that's something that’s fun for me,” he says. “And I'd say I've gotten more and more into it over the last few years.

“And even more during the COVID time when everyone was stuck at home, I tried to get a little more creative and spend a little more time cooking.”

Salmon smoked on a cedar plank por grilled with orzo or risotto and some veggies is one of Conners’ staples – to cook as well as to eat. He’s also known for his ribs and has mastered the Big Green Egg that the Sanderson Farms Championship gifts to the players.

“I love to cook,” Conners says. “… I try to get creative and draw some inspiration from recipes online, but mostly I just kind of play it by feel and create whatever comes to mind. But it's something that I definitely enjoy.

“And my wife's right in there with me. She’s not really manning the grill like I am, but it's a fun activity for us to sort of spend time together and just whatever bond over something.”

Conners and Long met over lunch at the Safeway Open in 2018, which was the first event in Long’s rookie year. Conners was talking about the new townhome he had bought and Long realized it was practically right next door to the one he and his wife were about to move into.

Within weeks their wives had become fast friends. Conners and Long both belong to The Dye Preserve and started playing practice rounds together. The couples would have dinner and “stay up too late” playing games, Long recalls, and COVID only brought the two families closer.

“It was like crazy, the whole thing,” Long says. “… The friendship kind of blossomed, like through that, pretty organically. And then I guess Corey, he's just always liked cooking and stuff, but especially when COVID hit, it was like all in.

“It was a lot before that, but I mean, especially just last year, that's all he wanted to do. So, we'd play golf in the morning and then he'd start cooking.”

Long admits to being “very spoiled” by Conners’ cooking as the two families quarantined together. The early stages of the lockdown coincided with the late stages of Emily’s pregnancy, which made them even more grateful for the meals.

“We would just go over there every night for dinner it seemed like,” Long says. “There's some days it seemed like we didn't even talk to them all day and kind of just show up at about six o'clock and say, what's for dinner, Corey?

“I mean, he loves it. He doesn't want any help. He doesn't need any help, not that we could have much help to offer, but he loves to do it and it's kind of one of his hobbies. It's not like it's not a chore to him.”

As long as Long and his wife are there to do the dishes, that is.