Henley goes from lurking to a playoff to winning the Charles Schwab Challenge with clutch play down the stretch
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
Centralgasports@gmail.com
Russell Henley hasn’t had many back nines like that.
And he didn’t prolong the day when it was prolonged with a playoff.
He just ended it.
A sterling approach on the first – and only – playoff hole set up a gimme for one of the game’s top putters, and Henley dropped the five-footer for a birdie and the Charles Schwab Challenge championship.
“This is why I practice hard … to come back to the playoff and do that, I’m still just kind of shaking,” Henley said in the post-tournament press conference. “That was as nervous as I’ve been over a putt in my whole life.”
He stormed past the $50 million mark in career earnings with a check worth $1.782 million in his sixth career win, and second win in a little more than 14 months.
Henley also picked up a new ride, a 1982 Jeep Scrambler.
“The engine was much louder than I anticipated,” he said. “My family thinks it's really cool. My kids just probably want to hang out the back or stand up. Going to have to try to get them to get the seat belts on ‘em.”
The weekend was a bit of a surprise for Henley, who was not on any kind of roll, having tied for 49th in the Cadillac Championship a month ago and tying for 25th in the RBC Heritage.
All that leading up to a missed cut a few weeks ago in the PGA Championship.
But there was a comfort zone at the Colonial Country Club on the edge of Fort Worth and several good tee shots from Texas Christian University.
He had a pair of 2-under tournaments there, the 2022-23 Schwab and its predecessor, the Fort Worth Invitational, in 2017-18.
Equally surprising about Henley’s finish Sunday was that it came after the start he had Sunday.
After opening with an eagle and a birdie, he promptly killed the momentum with three straight bogeys, and another one after three pars, for a 1-over front nine.
“I was feeling a little jittery or quick or something on the front and hit some,” he said. “Well, I was hitting the fairway, just some poor iron swings.
“So just very frustrating to turn at 1-over par.”
The back nine wasn’t spectacular, it was just steady, which is how Henley has reached the upper level of PGA players.
“Andy said, ‘Let's reset’ and I just kind of calmed down a little bit and started to hit some good shots,” said Henley of caddie Andy Sanders “Felt like I was hitting good putts most of the day and they just went in at the end.”
He snuck in a birdie on 11 in the par-filled round, only to birdie the final three holes for a 4-under back nine and 3-under 67 for the day.
Cole got off to a similarly nice start, a pair of birdies. But a double-bogey on 9 dropped him to his own 1-over on the front nine.
Oddly, he also birdied No. 11, and reeled off pars the rest of the way, unable to find the touch for that one birdie needed to win, having entered the day on top by a stroke.
They tied on 18 when Henley dropped a 17-footer for birdie before Cole’s 15-footer for birdie just missed.
“I was on 15 - let me think, 15 in the rough - after my tee shot, and was just like, ‘Man, I got to save par to not go over par on the day,’” Henley said .”So, yeah, I didn't really start thinking about birdieing the last three until when I made the putt on 17.
“I knew that I had a chance to put a little pressure if I played 18 well.”
He was right. And then came the playoff hole, and suspense. He and Sanders discussed the tee shot, and stuck with what had been working.
“I hit a great drive, got through the ball really well,” Henley said. “We knew it was playing really short, my lob wedge in regulation went a long way. We played (it at) 135, I think … and I hit a shot feeling like it was 115, kind of like ball above my feet, down off the right, knew it was going to take a bounce out.
“So we were playing a yardage that was 20 yards short because it was so hot and the ball was going. So (it) just all of it worked out. I feel like I executed both those shots perfectly.”
Henley left himself an easier birdie try from about five feet – “then was able to hit a decent putt under those circumstances; I was very nervous and just tried to stick to my same routine,” Henley said - nearly 10 feet closer than Cole, who gave it a good try.
“The putt was good, I hit it pretty much where I was aiming, I just kind of misread it,” Cole said. “I thought it might start breaking left a little earlier.”
As up and down as the round was, amid the recent “slump,” Henley kept plugging away.
“I think the longer you play this game, the more you want more, you want more success,” he said. “I feel like I've just worked harder and harder and I feel like I've been a little off just mentally this year, really.
“Just feel like I just fought really hard through the end, so it just felt really good to see an awesome result.”