Sunday slump on the back nine - again - snatches defeat for Henley at the Wyndham
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The Sunday hump remains, crushingly so.
For the third time in his last five tournaments, Russell Henley spent more time atop the leaderboard than anybody else for three-plus rounds.
The U.S. Open in mid-June, and then the Travelers a week later, Henley was money on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Then came Sunday, and a smooth ride got bumpy, Henley losing the leads and finishing tied for 13th and tied for 19th.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Painfully so at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C.
Henley again led for three full rounds, save for a brief spot out on Friday, and started the back nine in the lead.
A three-put on No. 11 was the first of three bogeys in four holes, but Henley stayed in first or tied for first, except, again, for a short time. Then, on 18, with six others ready for a playoff, a 25-footer off the fringe for the win was left by a hair, and the 4-footer to put Henley in the was right by a hair.
And again, the leader for three-plus rounds went home with no hardware or big check, Henley finishing tied for seventh with a 14-under 266.
It was the latest crushing Sunday slump for Henley, who opened the tournament with a 62, but went backwards the rest of the weekend with a 64, 69, and 71, unable to get any momentum on Saturday and Sunday.
‘It stings pretty bad,” Henley told reporters.
Eventually, that and several players caught up to him.
Weather concerns forced some changes for the final day: threesome groups, all starting before 9:30 a.m. Henley was in the final group with Tyler McCumber and Branden Grace. Grace survived some back-nine with a birdie flurry to make the playoff.
He joined Si Woo Kim, Kevin Na, Adam Scott, Roger Sloan, and Kevin Kisner in the playoff.
Kim was 6-under for the day, moving up 14 spots from Saturday, with four birdies and an eagle, winding his way through a crowded field a few shots out of the lead.
While Kim was cruising, Henley wasn’t, with a stretch of three bogeys in four holes after a birdie on 10. The bogeys on 11 and 12 were particularly painful, Henley less than 11 feet from the hole for an eagle chance on 11 – three-putting for bogey - and 10 feet on a birdie try on 12.
He got back into a five-way tie for first – Kim, Scott, Sloan, and Kisner - with a birdie on 15, and that’s where it stayed. Scott went into the clubhouse second, after Kim, staying tied for first. Na’s double eagle on 15 added to the tie for first.
Henley stuck his second shot on 17, which he had birdied twice, to within 21 feet of the hole, and but settled for a tap-in for par, and seven players were tied for first.
Henley thus would win with a birdie on the hole he bogeyed Saturday and birdied on Thursday.
His tee shot on the par 4, 507-yard hole made the left fairway, leaving him 173 yards to the hole. He second shot went a little long, to the fringe past the hole, about 25 feet away. Henley’s shot then tantalizing ran past the cup, a hair from lipping it and a few more hairs from a legendary winning shot. The short putt for par did the same thing, to the right, and his day was crushingly over.
Henley had 14 players within five shots of him when everybody got up a few hours earlier than normal.
isner caught Henley with a run of birdies, four on his first six holes, while Henley was even, thanks to a bogey and a birdie. Kisner was second for awhile on Saturday before a bogey on 17 dropped him back into the pack.
His groove returned Sunday morning.
Right behind for most of the front nine: Kevin Streelman, Scott Piercy, Na, and Sloan, a stroke back. Four more, including Rory Sabbatini, were two shots back.
That changed when Kisner bogeyed No. 8, returning Henley to the lead by himself and dropping Kisner into a five-way tie for second, one back.
But the question remained: Could Henley take advantage, and take some control by managing at least a few birdies?
Saturday, he had only one birdie, to go with an eagle and two bogeys. In the first two rounds, he had 13 birdies, one bogey, and an eagle.
Justin Rose then moved into a tie for second. Just llike that, Henley knocked down a birdie on No. 8 after his second shot left him less than five feet from the hole.
Kim then emerged into the growing group tied for second, and then Na took over second by himself with a birdie on 10, getting within one of Henley, who was short on a 9-footer for birdie on 9.
Henley sank a 19-footer for birdie on 10, and held a two-shot lead for a few minutes, until Na bogeyed 11 to fall into the large group in second, now three back.
Rose quickly moved into second, two back, with a birdie on 13, and then Henley gave one back with a disappointing bogey on 11, when he missed a an eagle shot from 11 feet, birdie try less than three feet, and par shot from four feet.
Henley bogeyed 11 on Saturday, then reeled off three pars before an eagle.
Sunday? A little different.
Right after Henley bogeyed 12 to fall back to even for the day, Kim – who had three eagles - birdied 17 to forge a tie for first. And the race was on.
Kim had a 12-foot shot for birdie – and the lead – on 18, but settled for par and a 70 for the day, 15-under 265.
Streelman, Rose, and Scott were next on the leaderboard, a shot behind Henley and about two holes ahead. Seven more were two shots back.
Then Henley fell into a tie for second with a bogey on 14, just missing a 27-footer for par for his third bogey in four holes. Scott and Na slipped past him into a tie for first.
Henley worked to regroup, and escaped a second shot in the rough on the par-5 15 to get within 21 feet for an eagle possibility, but the 18-inch birdie putt got him back in a tie for first.
He had a chance for sole possession on 16, but his birdie try of 10 feet just missed left and he parred.
Everybody else up top was maintaining
Kisner won the playoff, and for the 13th straight PGA Tour event, the third-round leader didn’t win the tournament. Phil Mickelson is the last player to have a 54-hole lead and win, in the PGA Championship.
The pressure now grows exponentially with the start of the playoffs, beginning with the Northern Trust in New Jersey. Henley was ranked 101st a year ago, and finished tied for eighth with a 15-under 269. He then was tied for 25th in the next round, the BMW Championship in Maryland.
Henley is in the top 50 in FedEx Cup points after the Wyndham, and a lock for those first two events, leading to The Tour Championship.