Three inches of rainfall Wednesday in Blaine largely wiped out the 3M Open pro-am at TPC Twin Cities. But Timberwolves guard Mike Conley was in the early wave that was at least able to get out on the course.
Conley’s group played eight holes before the event was called, with the veteran guard delivering a few highlights along the way. He birdied the par-4, 5th hole and also stuffed his tee shot to within about eight feet on the par-3, 8th. It was redemption of sorts for Conley, who chopped it around the course in the same pro-am a year ago.
Wednesday’s performance was another signal that it’s a brand-new offseason for Conley, who’s healthy and able to do the things he wants to do — on and off the court — after he was largely debilitated by a wrist injury, which led to a rough first two-plus months of the campaign for the floor general last season before finally righting the ship.
In contrast, Conley hit the ground running this offseason, resuming his training regimen within 36 hours of Minnesota’s Western Conference Finals elimination.
The Pioneer Press caught up with Conley at this week’s 3M Open to chat Timberwolves, as well as his love of golf.
Q: What have you thought of the team’s offseason largely taking the continuity route?
A: Yeah, I’m big on continuity. When you are knocking on the door and you’re close, people always think you’ve got to add, add, add to something. But sometimes, in-house is how you get through it. And, for us, we’re developing guys that we’re going to be using this year that maybe didn’t play last year. We’ve got the young talents that we drafted that, I thought, have played very well and looked very good. I like the approach. Sometimes, you get a little bit too fancy and you’re no longer in the Western Conference Finals situation and you end up kind of taking steps back. We’ll see how it works, but I think everybody is excited still.
Q: It worked two years ago …
A: Yeah, it did. And we’ve got a team with guys who still have a lot of growth to them. We saw Ant get better every year — Jaden (McDaniels), Naz (Reid) and his development. You’re going to see TJ (Terrence Shannon Jr) next year, Rob (Dillingham), you can go down the list and guys have just gotten better and better. And if they can reach higher levels, there’s no point in trying to get somebody (to do) what we believe these guys can do.
Q: But it will take getting better, right? Because we’ve seen what other teams in the West have done; Houston looks more formidable, Denver looks more formidable …
A: Yeah, we will have to take a step in that direction as far as the individual growth. You’ve got to be able to grow, you’ve got to be able to learn from failures in the past, and that takes individuals going into the gym and trying to be better at reading things or shooting or defense, whatever it is in particular for our team. I think that guys have taken that this summer very seriously, and that’s what we have to do to be able to compete against these teams that have added so much power.
Q: What’s in been like for you to have a healthy summer where you can actually put your work in?
A: It’s great. Last year, I had a summer of no work because of injury, and this summer has been all work. (Two days) after we lost, I went in to go lift, get my routine going. The first person I see — it was like 7 in the morning — and I see Ant in there. And me and Ant looked at each other like, “You need to be taking some time off,” and I’m like, “I’m not taking time off.” It was funny. It was like the next morning we were in there lifting together. I said, “I love to see this.” He’s in there running, doing conditioning.
Q: We heard him working out on draft night, as well.
A: Yeah, well that’s it. He’s not joking. I think that’s the mindset for all of us. We’re all just taking this summer serious. And having the ability to work, for me, is awesome. Because I haven’t stopped since the season ended.”
Q: What do you like about golf?
A: Golf, ultimately, it’s the challenge. I’ve played a lot of things and done a lot of things, and I can get good at them over time and get to the point where I’m like, “Oh, I’m pretty good.” And golf is one where you just never get good enough. But you’re always reaching for something. So, that’s the thing — it’s this never-ending cycle. I’ll never be good at it, good enough. I go out there, I compete, I challenge myself all the time like, “How can I get better? What do I gotta do?” And then you play good one week, and the next week you don’t know how to play anymore. I almost gave the game up a month ago. I’d barely played, and I went out there and was like, “I’m terrible. I don’t like this feeling. If I can’t practice and get back to where I need to get to, there’s no point in me to be out here.” I was super frustrated. But then I played last week and I liked it again; I had a good day.
Q: What are you good at and what are you bad at?
A: I would say my strength is short game.
Q: Ok, well there’s a pun right there.
A: Yeah, chipping, putting — short game. It makes sense. When I hit my driver good, not even fairways, but I don’t hit it into trouble and I can see the green, I normally can score really well. But I lose strokes if I hit errant tee shots and I’m in pine trees or out of bounds or something. But I don’t lose strokes around the green area. I think that’s the biggest thing. I’ve been working on the driver, because that’s the one thing I want to hit good in front of people. I want to be able to at least let them think, “OK, he can hit the ball.” … If you can bomb one it’s like, “Yeah, he knows what’s going on.”
Q: It’s kind of cool having a PGA Tour event here, right?
A: It’s really cool. Really cool to experience it. I’ve had a few of these throughout my career where I’ve gotten to do it.
