Off of the most clutch play and biggest win of his career, what will Russell Henley do on a bigger stage?
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Russell Henley showed something Sunday golf fans rarely see from him:
Big smiles and emotion, the kind seen from golfers seconds after a win.
Can he do it again?
Fresh off of the biggest win of his PGA Tour career, Henley will try to build on as a favorite in The Players Championship.
More eyes than ever will be on the Stratford and Georgia grad when he tees off on No. 10 Thursday at 8:35 a.m., with Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland. He’s now a full-fledged top-10 player, up to No. 2 in the FedExCup rankings and seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Sunday’s win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando was much bigger than his previous four wins, the last one coming in the World Wide Technology Championship on Nov. 6, 2022. But that was 854 days earlier.
Now, The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass
Four times, spread out pretty much since 2013, Russell Henley has teed off on a Thursday as a winner.
This time, it’s a little different.
The Players Championship isn’t quite the Sony Open, but Henley is coming off the kind of win that should prepare him well for what many call golf’s fifth major.
Henley enters the week first on the tour with top-10 finishes (four), first in official money ($5,480,025). He is second in the FedExCup rankings, only six points behind Sepp Straka.
The Arnold Palmer’s $20 million purse is the second-highest this year, with 10 other tournaments. And the winner’s share of $4 million is tied for second with the Genesis and The Memorial.
First in both categories? The Players Championship, at $25 million and 4.5 million.
Thus, Henley’s ability to maintain momentum will be tested.
In 11 tries at The Players Championship, he has missed the cut more than half the time, including last year, after coming off a nice Arnold Palmer weekend. He shot a 2-over 146, after two straight top-20 finishes, which came after three straight missed cuts.
In 30 rounds at TPC Sawgrass, Henley has shot 70 or better 10 times, including on his very first try, in 2013. Now, he followed with a 76 and missed the cut, but that was a notable debut. His average finish is 22nd.
Among the course changes he’ll have to deal with, as per PGATour.com: “new for 2023 was a fresh tee box on the par-5 ninth, pushing the yardage past 600. For this year, a new tournament tee has added 23 yards on the par-5 second hole, the iconic tree at the par-4 sixth was re-planted to restore shot values off the tee, and a new tee complex at the par-5 11th has added 15 yards. The par-4 14th now features stronger, deeper and dramatic moguls with additions of palms, oaks and native grasses to the right rough. A total of 77 yards have been added across Nos. 2, 6, 11, and 16.”
Rob Bolton of PGATour.com ranks Henley eighth among favorites this week, the list topped by co-Bulldog Sepp Straka: “Attempting to replicate what Scottie Scheffler accomplished last year in winning at Bay Hill and TPC Sawgrass in consecutive weeks. Henley is in his 12th start and still in pursuit of his first top 10, but he’s on fire now.”
But work with and taking advice from putting coach Phil Kenyon the past two years and then a chipping workout last week with Mark Blackburn pushed him to the win at Bay Hill and should have him in good form at TPC Sawgrass.
“I was just so lost with my game, with my putting a few years back and just super inconsistent, didn't really have a great plan,” Henley said Sunday. “He's kind of learned my personality and really just tried to get me to focus on the little details of improving, just set up and start line and how I read the greens and believing, you know, in my process, even when things aren't going well.
“So, it's not just a little tip here and there with the putting. It's also like he's a psychologist as well, really. He's amazing.
“Mark Blackburn gave me like a chipping lesson (last) week, watched me hit some. And I got some balls up and down … that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Henley wasn’t looking too far ahead Sunday to this week, nor wondering if he’d go more than 850 days until his next win.
“I just feel like there's so many amazing players out here that are so talented, I just, I haven't really put a lot of pressure on myself to win,” he told reporters. “I've just tried to focus on trying to be really, really good at what I'm good at, try to put myself in the best situation and try to knock on the door as much as I can and get as close to the lead as I can.
“And kind of have the intent to play to win and put myself in that position, but I haven't really put a lot of pressure on myself to win, just because I know it's just so hard.”
The fields Henley had topped in his those wins (2013 Sony, 2014 Honda, 2017 Shell Houston, and the WWT) weren’t nearly as strong as last week, Henley overtaking top-25 FedExCup players Collin Morikawa, Michael Kim, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Scottie Scheffler, Daniel Berger, Rory McIlroy, Sungjae Im, Ludvig Aberg, and Hideki Matsuyama, among others.
Just as huge was Henley’s ability to finally finish, especially under pressure.
He blew off two front-nine bogeys and one early on the back nine, keeping calm and consistent and one on the back nine, remaining steady while leader Morikawa came back a little bit. Then he calmly parred No. 17 and 18 with Morikawa right there, a first in his pro career.
The smiles that followed, along with his greeting of his three children running toward him and then the hug with wife Teil showed a Henley few had seen since he won his first PGA tournament in his first PGA Tournament, in 2013.
Then came more uncharacteristic Henley: He was the focus of a PGATour.com all-access video, cameras following him from the time the ball found the bottom of the cup on No. 18 through the awards ceremony, signing his card, carrying a daughter, walking from place to place with his family.
There’s a bit where one daughter is basically strutting next to her dad before he puts on the red cardigan that goes to the winner, and then returning to the course for the trophy presentation where even 10 minutes or so later he said he was still in shock.
His post-tournament press conference lasted about 15 minutes, roughly four times longer than the vast majority of his post-tournament interviews, be it a good weekend or not so good, and Henley was much more expansive and conversational rather than the reserved and verbally concise Henley most know. He seemed pretty comfortable.
Well, there was, of course, plenty to talk about, and happily so.
Henley fell behind a bit after bogeys on No. 4 and 6 and then on 10. But then Morikawa was off-target on 14th and bogeyed while Henley birdied to get within one as the door opened.
Henley turned in one of the shots of the tournament with a chip on 16 for an eagle, and it was a new tournament.
Morikawa’s par put Henley on top for the first time all day, and the typically expression-free Henley finished it.
“I was just so nervous,” he said in the TV interview. “I can't breathe right now.”
Henley has made all six cuts so far this year and has been 11 under or better in five of them, with four top-10 finishes. He’s had 10 top-10 finishes since the start of last year, the most on tour in that span without a win.
But it gets tougher, for Henley and the rest of the field. His visits to The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass - the final signature event before next month’s Masters have covered the spectrum.
After finishing tied for fourth in last year’s Arnold Palmer, Henley failed to make the cut at the Players Championship after a pair of 73s.
Now, though, he’s a full-fledged top-10 player, up to No. 2 in the FedExCup rankings and seventh in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“I don't really feel like a top-10 player,” he said Sunday. “I definitely don't feel like it. I mean, I guess the rankings would tell you that, but I have so much respect for so many players out here who are all so talented, and so it's hard for me to kind of comprehend that.”
How he handles it this weekend will be observed as well.
As it is, more is known about Henley now than in the past several years, courtesy of some off-kilter questioning during his press conference.
“Growing up in Macon and playing guitar, did that era's musical kind of underpinnings influence you at all?”
Henley needed that question repeated, but did throw props at the city’s music history and said that it was “pretty cool that the Allman Brothers are from Macon.” Then there was the comparison of his guitar-playing, which he hasn’t done much in decades, to golf.
“I don't play much guitar anymore,” he said. “I do a lot of, I change a lot of diapers and stuff. Yeah, I don't think about it too much. I think that was kind of a long time ago when I played a lot of guitar.”
The namesake of the tournament and his community support efforts was mentioned, and Henley asked about his legacy.
“In my hometown, I support the Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia, Macon, and the Macon Volunteer Clinic, which my dad started in 2001 or 2000, I think,” he said. “And in Columbus, Georgia, where I live now, we support Truth Spring. It's a lower school, and it's just amazing.
“So I really have just tried to - my wife and I, Teil and I, just tried to put a lot of our focus on, you know, picking and choosing really wisely and putting a lot of thought into where we give.”
The Henley more people now know will be expounded upon for four days as he tries to prove himself yet again, to see if his increased work ethic and confidence of the past few years can pay off two weeks in a row with at least a contending performance.
He carries the momentum of that steady finish into The Players.
“Man, I think it's huge,” he said. “I mean, you see a couple putts go in or you feel like things are going well, you kind of feel like you're unstoppable.
“And then (you) make one or two bad swings, get a bad break, and all of a sudden golf feels really hard. So momentum's huge, but, you know, I'm just going to try to focus on now and not later.”