Henley has more work to do in this year's Tour Championship with staggered starting scores, but East Lake facelifts may help
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
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So this is what’s at stake this week for Russell Henley.
He opens the Tour Championship, the end-all playoff tournament for the PGA Tour and FedExCup rankings, tied for 18th in the FedEx Cup rankings and 14th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
He’s amid his best season as far as cuts made, having missed only one in 18 tries, his lowest number of events since turning pro. Henley has finished in the top 20 in seven tournaments, and been in the hunt entering Sunday in about half a dozen.
And he’s among the top 30 PGA players, hoping to stay under the radar and pull off an upset with a win this weekend in Atlanta and end the season, so to speak, as the tour’s top player.
Which includes a check for a staggering $25 million for the winner.
Henley tees off at 12:27 p.m. on Thursday, and is teamed up with defending Tour tournament champ Viktor Hovland, who is ranked 17th/8th. He entered last year’s tournament No. 2 in the FedEx Cup rankings, opening at 8 under, and took home $18 million with the win.
Henley, who was ranked 12th, had a nice payday of $780,000 in tying for 14th.
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The format changes drastically for this particular tournament compared to the rest of the Tour schedule. Players tee off on Thursday already with a par score based on this year’s results. Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler is already 10 under, two up on Xander Schauffele.
Hovland and Henley are among five tied for 16th at 2 under when they tee off Thursday. Last year, Henley started 7 under last year, shot a nifty 274, 9 under in regular scoring and good for a tie for 14th, 13 shots back of Hovland and Xander Schauffele, who both shot 261s, but Hovland opened with that score advantage.
But with this format, Henley was a whopping 27 shots behind Hovland and 22 behind Schauffele.
Henley has competed in three Tour Championships, in 2014, 2017, and 2023. And East Lake has been good to Henley, who finished 12th, tied for third and tied for 14th, shooting a total 22 under in 12 rounds, with eight rounds at 70 or better and a worst of 72 twice.
But East Lake has gone through facelifts all over since then, and par is up a stroke from last year and it plays almost 100 yards longer. The three par 5s go 525, 580, and 585 yards for Thursday, with five par 4s of 450 yards or more.
Past experience at East Lake may mean nothing this week. Said Hovland on Tuesday: “It looks nothing like it used to.”
What won’t be on Henley’s mind during the week but will make an appearance after the tournament is over is the Presidents Cup team. Six automatic spots are written in, and there are six at-large spots for captain Jim Furyk to choose.
Henley is ranked ninth in the Cup standings, but Furyk is free to pick whomever he wants. Sam Burns and Keegan Bradley, for example, have some momentum after last week’s BMW Championship, and there are players with Presidents Cup experience who may rank lower – like No. 19 Justin Thomas - but earn a look. Others have rankings in contention but may not have had a consistent season.
But another solid week, perhaps hovering around a top-10 finish, will make it hard to keep him out. Noted golf.com: Russell Henley is No. 14 in the world ranking; DataGolf has him even higher at No. 10 — the fifth-best American. … There’s a reason he’s made it to East Lake and it’s likely the same reason he’ll make this team: He hits it straight, he hits his irons close, he has a strong short game and he’s one of the most consistent, most reliable golfers on the planet.”
First things first, and that’s a weekend in Atlanta, which is a complete change from last week in Colorado, where Henley had some Bryson DeChambeau driving moments, smacking off a 417-yard shot off the tee, which tied for seventh-longest. He ended up tied for 23rd in driving distance in the Colorado altitude.
He’s currently ranked tied for 155th with an average drive of 290.4 yards.
But he’s in the top 30 – sticking with the 30-player field for this week – in shots gained total and around the green, driving accuracy percentage, approaches from 75-150 yards, scrambling, sand save percentage, total putting and average, among others.
His best round is the fourth (25th) and his worst Is the second (136th).