Henley grinds through first round of The Players Championship (Updated: 8:45 p.m.
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
To be updated this evening, perhaps around 9 p.m., upon completion of the first round
Russell Henley didn’t light up TPC Sawgrass in Jacksonville on Thursday to open The Players Championship.
But TPC Sawgrass didn’t light him up, either, and the Stratford and Georgia grad managed to tread water for an even-par first round.
He went to the clubhouse tied for 42nd, with Lucas Glover breaking free from a big pack to take sole possession of first at 6 under, a little before 2 p.m.
Dozens of players still had to tee off – the final players at 2:46 p.m. – when Henley finished.
By the time the round was done at 8:30 p.m. and called because of darkness (with only five players left), Henley was in a huge logjam with more than 20 in a tie for 62nd, including Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark, Harris English, and Adam Schenk.
More than 80 players are even or better, six shots back of Lucas glover, J.J. Spaun, and Camilo Villegas.
The cut line for the 144-player field is the top 50 players and ties, as well as those within 10 shots of the lead.
Henley tees off Friday at 1:40 p.m. with Lowry and Viktor Hovland, who is tied for last at 143rd at 8 over.
While not a great round, it was still something of a win for Henley.
In his previous 11 first rounds at TPC Sawgrass, Henley shot 70 or better four times, topped by a 65 back in 2014 in his second try. In fact, three of the four came in his first three trips: 2013, 2014, 2015. He followed with a 76 in his first TPC and missed the cut.
Henley hasn’t done all that well after his wins, so Thursday’s effort was a positive.
After a win in his PGA debut in 2013 at the Sony, he finished tied for 56th a week later in the Humana Challenge.
Henley followed the Honda Classic win in March of 2014 by tying for 47th with a 10-over in the World Golf Championship.
His best week-after-winning came in April of 2017 when he tied for 11th in the Masters after taking the Shell Houston Open with a 20-under weekend.
The 2022-23 season got off to a funky start, Henley winning the World Wide Technology Championship in November of 2022 and then missing the cut at the Cadence Bank Houston Open a week later.
He missed cuts on four of his first eight tournaments that year, but slowly got going toward his current run with top-10s in the Master, Wyndham, FedEx St. Judge, and BMW, and top 15s in the final three tournaments, the playoffs.
On Thursday, he was tied for 12th at 1-under when he made the turn, having started on No. 10. He was too long on his second shot and missed a 16-footer for birdie to bogey No. 17.
Henley parred and birdied the par 5s on the first nine, and then on his second hole of the second nine.
His 18-footer for birdie on No. 1 left him with a tap-in for another par. Henley returned to the top 10 after a nifty 70-foot putt on 2 left him with less than a foot for birdie.
But he followed that with a bogey on 3 – he was just to the right on a 10-foot par try - as first place fell into a tie of nine players, two shots ahead.
By noon, with 71 players having teed off, more than half were at even or better, and two dozen within two shots of the lead.
He fell to even and tied for 24th after three-putting the 391-yard par 4 No. 4, but got back on track with a par on 5 as wind started picking up.
Then he went from a left bunker to a right rough on the edge of the No. 6 green, but he parred with a 7-footer after a nice escape.
He turned in a nice effort on No. 7 after a tee shot into the right rough, and ended up finishing the day with five straight pars, including on 5-par No. 9, his final hole.