Henley has another odd round, yet takes top-5 finish at Tour Championship
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Russell Henley had himself a weekend of pars.
But when he needed a few the most, they were nowhere to be found.
Henley was in the hunt Sunday at the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta, in the top five.
Then came his worst of the visit: a bogey on No. 15 and double bogey on No. 16, and from contention he did drop.
In an almost annoyingly ironic twist, Henley birdied the next two holes and parred 18th for a nice finish, tying – at the time – five others for fifth.
Henley finished with a 2-under 6 for the day and 11-under 269 for the tournament, and ended up tied with six others for fourth place.
Henley earned $1,695,000 for the weekend. That goes along with the $755,000 bonus for finishing 14th in the FedExCup regular-season rankings, entering the playoff tournaments.
Oddly, Henley’s payout grew after he was done and the crowd he was tied with got bigger and then moved up in places, which is relevant in the payout system.
Ludvig Aberg cost Henley and that group each around $500,000 when he birdied No. 18 to join the tie.
When there’s a tie, the payout for each number of places in the tie is added up, and then split. Add up the figures from fourth to 10th and divide by seven.
It was a head-scratching weekend for Henley, beginning with an only-pars first round that left him tied for last, albeit only 27th in the small field.
Recent issues off the tee seemed in the rearview mirror, and Henley turned in a routine 5-under second round and 4-under third round.
But Sunday bore a little resemblance to Thursday, with two birdies and 10 pars through 12 holes.
Then, finally, another birdie breakthrough on No. 13, and it was enough to lift him into a tie for third with Chris Gotterup, Ryan Gerard, and Adam Scott.
Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler shared the lead, 3 shots ahead of that group, for a few minutes, until Scott birdied No. 10 for sole possession of third.
But the odds of Scheffler and Hovland coming back to the field at the same time as those right behind them making a move were fairly slim.
Henley’s odds decreased on No. 14. His 75-footer for birdie veered left. The nine-foot par try missed to the right for his first bogey since No. 1 on Saturday.
That dropped him back to seventh, four shots behind the leaders.
Those odds fully evaporated when he sent his tee shot on par-3 No. 15 into the water left of the green. His bogey putt of 12 feet curved sharply to the left, and the double bogey dropped him into a tie for 14th.
Irony immediately followed.
He jumped right back into the top 10 with a birdie on No. 16, and finished off the round with a birdie on 17 and par on 18.
An odd finish: birdie, bogey, double bogey, birdie, birdie, par.
Movement above him suddenly lifted him back into, figuratively, some contention, but nobody was catching the leaders, Scheffler eventually easing way for a 2-shot win over Hovland, five ahead of Henley’s group.
in the top
Of the top 13 players, seven had final rounds below par, and Henley was one of them.
He tied for first for the weekend with 52 pars and was first with only three bogeys, tying for 15th with 16 birdies. Henley finished in the top 10 for the tournament in driving accuracy (48 of 56 fairways, scrambling, greens in regulation, and shots gained overall.
And he tied for 12th with the longest drive, 362 yards.
Results-wise, it was a fairly typical Tour Championship for Henley at East Lake. In four trips since 2023, he’s tied for second once, fourth twice, and 14th once. Even in his early days, it was a good trip, with a 12th place in 2014 and tie for third in 2017.
Up next for Henley is the Presidents Cup at Medinah in Chicago, Sept. 24-27. He’s currently not scheduled for any of the remaining 11 tournaments on the Tour schedule.