An all-too-familiar Sunday stumble for Henley at Wyndham, enters playoffs in top 20
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By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Russell Henley got the bad breaks, and Lucas Glover got the great one, all coming down the stretch down the stretch.
And that was basically the difference as Glover avoided major trouble in the final holes and Henley found some in the final round of the Wyndham Championship.
Henley’s first bogey of the day came on 15, and he followed with two more to end up tied for second, two shots back of Clemson grad Glover, who won his first tournament of the season and fifth of his career with a 69 for a 20-under 260.
It was a huge day for Glover, who moved up roughly 63 spots into the top 50 of the FedExCup rankings and got a check for almost $1.4 million.
Henley tied with playing partner Byeong Hun An. Billy Horschel, who opened the day tied with Glover for the lead, was 2 over and finished fourth, four shots back.
Henley was cruising along, battling with Glover from the turn for first, when the weather horn blew at 4:52 p.m., with Henley’s first shot on No.15 on the fairway, he and Glover still tied, An two back. Six pairings were still on the course.
The Tour PR Twitter feed announced at 6:16 that play would resume at 6:55 p.m.
Henley promptly finished 15 with a birdie to take the lead, and kept it after Glover parred 15.
Then the wheels started shaking for Henley.
His tee shot on 16 reached the green, then rolled and rolled and rolled backward, amazingly finding a divot right on the seam between the fairway and rough.
He got to within three feet on his par attempts, but suffered his first bogey of the day to fall back into a tie.
Glover’s tee shot on the par-3 16 landed on the green and rolled backward, but he parred.
Henley’s worst tee shot of the weekend came at the worst time, on No. 17 – which he’d birdied three times - when he sent it into the right rough.
Staring him in his swing path were power lines coming out of the ground. He got through them, but into rough, in a bank in front of the green, about 90 feet from the hole.
His third shot fell just short of the green and rolled back, but left him a clear line, and he knocked in a 6-footer for his second straight bogey – the ball used half of the lip before dropping in – to fall a shot back.
Glover, now with the lead, had a birdie putt turn right and he parred 17, while Henley found the fairway on his tee shot, but his second shot fell short of the green and rolled backward, leaving him nearly 40 yards from the hole on the par-4 18.
The break of the day and ostensibly for the tournament came when Glover’s tee shot on 18 sailed left, destined for out of bounds and pine straw and potential obstructions, only to bounce off a cart into tolerable rough.
After the ball quickly died on the green, Henley was left with an 18-footer for par, but it was an inch off to the left, for a third straight bogey and a 69, falling two shots back and into a tie with An.
Glover played conservatively, and his third shot was money, the spin setting up an 8-footer for par and the trophy.
“Just never got comfortable, felt a little jittery out there, just never got into a good sync with my swing,” Henley told reporters. “Just didn’t do a good job of handling the restart.”
In 2021, Henley took a three-shot lead at Sedgefield into Sunday, but hit a stretch of three bogeys on four holes in the middle of the back nine and finished tied for seventh, a bogey on 18 dropping him from a playoff.
Henley led this year’s version through two rounds, had to grind through the back nine on Saturday and finished the third round with a sweet birdie on 18 to finish the day in third, behind co-leaders Horschel and Glover.
Henley was back to sharing the lead within two holes on Sunday after Horschel and Glover each bogeyed No. 1.
He pushed his tee shot on No. 4 into the right rough, but got right on the green and parred.
Glover took the lead with a birdie on 4.
Henley exchanged a tee shot on 5 into the rough with a ball in the bunker past the green, but it was a decent lie, 39 feet from the pin, and he saved par.
By the turn, Horschel dropped a few spots and it became a battle between Henley and Glover. They shared the lead at 20 under and had a four-shot lead of Byeong Hun An and Horschel, with Webb Simpson and Stephan Jaeger seven back.
Henley and An were one group ahead of Glover and Horschel.
Henley and his iron game got on a run with three birdies in four holes, his first birdie of the day coming finally on No. 8. Glover opened the day with a bogey, then had birdies on 4, 8, and 11, not getting on any hot stretch.
Over holes 14-18 through the first three rounds, Henley was 7 under and Glover 5 under. The wind start picking up with Henley on 13 as some weather slowly approached.
Henley missed a chance to move ahead, thanks to some flat birdie putts that didn’t break, and An pulled within two shots of the leaders with a birdie on 14.