Rough start a little too much for Henley at FedEx St. Jude, misses cut
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
On the leaderboard, news wasn’t good for Russell Henley.
In the FedEx Cup rankings, the news was OK.
Henley’s 1-over second round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis wasn’t good enough for him to make the cut this weekend, which only means he’ll get a little rest before the second round of the PGA Tour playoffs.
The FedEx Cup playoff system is a little complicated.
The top 70 finishers through two rounds advance in the tournament, no matter their ranking. But at the end of the tournament, the top 70 players in the Fed Ex Cup rankings continue to the second playoff tournament,
Henley is one of many players who are done for the weekend but are in the field next week. He started the tournament at 32nd and is projected to be No. 41, well within the top 70.
Up next is the BMW Championship in Wilmington, Del. The top 30 players at the end of that weekend move on to the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
Henley can’t repeat much of Friday’s front nine if he wants to reach Atlanta.
He fell behind the 2-under cut line pretty early. Henley did what he’s done a few times this season, opening a round with a bogey, as part of the group starting on No. 10. A double bogey, after he found water, followed on his third hole, with a regular bogey five holes later.
That put him at 4 over for the day.
He was in good company outside of the cut line, joined by Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Luke List, Jordan Spieth, and top-ranked Scottie Scheffler.
Then the Henley of the last two tournaments showed up, and he birded his 10th and 11th holes, and suddenly he was at even par.
Where he started the day.
He was off on an 8-footer for birdie on 18 at the turn, after finding two roughs on 17. He teed off into a bunker or rough on five of his first nine holes.
His second shot went into a bunker on par-5 No.3, 65 feet from the hole, but followed with a solid approach and then birdied from just under two feet, following birdie strokes of 10 and nine feet.
Suddenly, Henley was 1 under and had momentum.
He handled par-3 No. 4 after his tee shot stopped on the fringe to the right of the hole, giving him five straight pars or birdies and appearing to have righted his ship.
But he still needed a birdie or two to get inside the cut line, which would have been a nice accomplishment.
Henley parred the final six holes after three straight birdies to finish the day at 1 over and settle at 1 under for the tournament.
He dropped nine spots in the rankings on a day when many players dropped a chunk. Seamus Power fell 10 spots, Cameron Tringale 12, and Lucas Hebert 10, among others.
The happiest player of the day is may be Ryan Palmer, who jumped 54 spots from 110 to 56th. Tyler Duncan moved up 45 spots to 73rd and in put him in position to make the top 70. The same goes for Lucas Glover, who improved 46 spots to 75th.
Adam Scott went from 77th to 53rd, and tied for ninth. Fifty-six golfers made the cut.