By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          For two straight weekends, Russell Henley has been in contention.

          That’s not news. He’s led tournaments in the last two years for two and three rounds, and into the fourth round. He has been competitive, and often considered in some website corners a favorite or contender on a given week.

          But as he enters the FedEx Cup playoffs, there’s a little more to the “well, Henley has a chance” crowd. He’s also currently playing arguably his best, or at least the steadiest, golf of his decade-long pro career.

          He tees off at 8:10 a.m. on Thursday, and is playing with Maverick McNealy and Keegan Bradley, on No. 1.

          Sports Illustrated calls him “a 55-1 long shot” and “sneaky bet” this week in the FedEx St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis.

          A PGATour.com story on power rankings has Henley at No. 22 in its top 30 the author expects to make it through to the finale, which hosts the final top 30 in the FedEx rankings.

          Henley is 31st in the FedEx rankings, and 51st in the Official World Golf Ranking, which includes without penalty golfers banned from the PGA Tour events for their involvement in the LIV Tour.

          Henley is among the top 15 in PGA stats in driving accuracy percentage (19th), greens in regulation (seventh), birdie average (10th), and scoring (15th).

          Datagolf.com ranks Henley seventh in skill rating, using strokes gained categories. The downfall there, and what has basically prevented him from winning a few tournaments the last two years, is putting, where of the top 10 on the list, he had a negative rating.

          Data Golf also has Henley ranked 24th in the world, as per its model.

          How close Henley gets to a trophy during golf’s biggest period, outside of majors, depends on his putting, and fewer near-misses, which has gone from a strength – he was in the tour’s top 10 in 2013 and 2015 – to a less stable aspect of his game. He was 162nd in 2019 and 138 a year later.

          Unofficially, the last two tournaments have been the best of his career in avoiding bogeys, and even in his early-season top performances, he was unable to avoid double bogeys. He has done so the last two tournaments, but has also missed a chunk of birdie or par putts by an inch or two.

          If his putting come close to catching up to the rest of his game the past two weeks, Henley will be in for a notable August.

- Michael A. Lough