By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Anticipation turned to a little angst early for Russell Henley.

          His shot off the tee in the 86th Masters?

          Into trees to the left, settling on some pine straw. Second shot? He couldn’t escape that mess, and his shot was a short walk away.

          Third shot? Out of bounds.

          So Henley ended up opening with a double bogey. One hole down, many more to go.

          No problem.

          Henley was even within two holes and settled in for a 1-over front nine and in a large group tied for 38. He reeled off 12 straight pars to end the first round with an 1-over 73,finished tied for 31st.

          Henley birdied 3 and 4 and bogeyed 6, and was one over through the front nine and steady the rest of the round on a day when scores were pretty humbling.

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Notebook: good champs’ dinner menu, a shaky debut, more
The day at a glance

          Cameron Smith rebounded from a similar start – opening with a double – to take the lead on the back nine, streaking to a 4-under after 14. He upped that to 6 under before settling back to finish at 4-under 68.

          Later afternoon, after everybody had nine holes under their belts, 43 in the 90-player field were between even and 2 over. That number was 41 by the end of the round.

          Henley, who tees off at 8:55 a.m. Friday, was close most of the day.

          He was wide by about an inch for a birdie on 11 and just short for one on 12. The tee shot on 14 left him a tough escape, on pine straw within a few feet of a tree and 176 yards from the pin. But he drilled a sweet shot that hooked around and dropped onto the green less than 40 feet from the hole, and he saved par.

          On the 550-yard par 5 15, Henley reached the green in three shots and had a 13-footer for birdie, but came up less than a foot short. That was something of a theme for the day, Henley close to birdies on several holes.

          Henley entered the week ranked 13th in greens hit in regulation and 71.7 percent, and was at 79 percent for the day. He was about 10 yards short of his norm in driving distance. But he responded well to some rough situations and had a stable afternoon.

          New Georgia Sports Hall of Famer Stewart Cink put his weekend in jeopardy with a 4-over 76,along with Justin Thomas, Louis Oosthuizen, and Bryson DeChambeau, ahead of Jose Maria Olazabal, Larry Mize, Hudson Swafford, Luke List, and Cameron Young, all at 77.

          Matthew Wolf, in the top 40 of the FedEx rankings, had an 81.