Central Georgia Sports ReportComment

Henley gets back into action as PGA Tour playoffs start

Central Georgia Sports ReportComment
Henley gets back into action as PGA Tour playoffs start

 By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

          No matter how it ends, the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week in Memphis will be a notable one for Russell Henley.

          It’ll be the first golf tournament of his life without father Chapin.

          Chapin Henley, a well-liked doctor for decades in Macon, died on July 26 at the age of 85, in Columbus, where he and wife Sally had moved several years ago, to join their son and daughter in law.

          Henley soon afterward withdrew from the Wyndham, the PGA Tour schedule adjusted for the Olympics, after having perhaps a career tournament in taking fifth in the British Open.

          Nevertheless, Henley may be peaking.

          Having made nine straight cuts, he is ranked 13th in the FedExCup rankings and 14th in the Official World Golf rankings. He has been in the top 20 of the OWGR since the Valero Texas Open in early April when he made his top-20 debut in that list.

          He tees off at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday and 10:05 a.m. on Friday.

          The FedEx St. Jude Championship is this week, followed by the BMW Championship in Olympia Fields, Ill., and then the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta.

          The playoffs started in 2007, six years before Henley joined the Pro Tour.

          Henley is on a pretty good roll in the playoff tournaments, although he’s made it all the way through only three times.

          Henley finished tied for sixth in last year’s FedEx St. Jude, 15th in the BMW, and tied for 14th in the Tour Championship.

          In 2022, he missed the cut at FedEx and tied for 35th in the BMW, failing to qualify for the final tournament. A year earlier, he tied for 56th, and then for 60th, again missing the finale.

          He first qualified in 2014, with finishes of tied for 25th, 40th, 47th, and third. The format had four tournaments for several years, settling into the current three-tournament format in 2019.

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          In his last five trips to this first round, he has tied for sixth, missed the cut, tied for 56th, tied for eighth, and tied for 59th.

At TPC Southwind, this week’s home, he has missed three cuts, and finished tied for 27th (2013), tied for seventh (2015-16), and tied sixth last year.

          A major difference this year is Henley’s inactivity entering the playoffs.

          A year ago, Henley was very much in the hunt at the Wyndham before a Sunday stumble, but still a tie for second in the week before the FedEx St. Jude.

          That was Henley’s 21st event of the season. This year, he has competed 16, in part because of a change in the Tour season. He finished fifth in The British Open that ended on July 21.

          He remained in the Wyndham field after his father’s death, which came a week days before the deadline for entering, and Henley withdrew a few days later.