A graduate of TCU, Hoge took a red-eye flight to Los Angeles on Sunday night after firing a closing nine-under 64 and finishing T-3 at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He did so to attend the Horned Frogs’ game against Georgia in the college football national championship game Monday night in Inglewood. After upsetting Michigan in the playoff semi-finals on New Year’s Eve, TCU were no match for the Bulldogs, losing 65-7.

“That was rough,” Hoge, who paid $945 for his game ticket, said on the practice putting green at Waialae. “It was exactly what you feared could happen. I actually feel bad for Georgia fans who bought tickets. That wasn’t what you want to see in a national title game.

“The only consolation,” he added, “was that it was so bad that it’s going to be hard for the Georgia guys here to talk … about it.”

After flying from Hawaii to Los Angeles for the natonal championship game, TCU alum Tom Hoge could only stand to watch three quarters of his team’s blowout loss to Georgia. Orlando Ramirez

Among the Georgia fans basking in the glow of the Bulldogs’ second straight national title was Russell Henley, who graduated from Georgia in 2011, the same year Hoge got his degree from TCU. Henley came into the interview room at the Sony Open because he lost to Hideki Matsuyama last year in a playoff and had won the event in 2013.

“Yeah, I guess at the end of the first half when we kept scoring in the last couple minutes, I just was like I can’t believe … like we already basically won,” Henley said. “I think we were up 38-7 at the half and their one play that they scored was kind of [after] a weird broken coverage pass. I would love for us to win the national championship by 60 every year, but I’m just still kind of surprised. I mean, that was crazy.”

Though the game drew the smallest viewership of a title contest since the start of the Bowl Championship Series in 1999 — a reported 17.223 million viewers tuned in — Henley stayed with it until the finish.

It was a different feeling than 10 days earlier when Georgia had to rally from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to edge Ohio State, 42-41, in the semi-finals. He watched until the end of that game, too, but nervously as the Buckeyes missed a 48-yard field goal as time expired.

“I thought they [the Buckeyes] played a better-looking game than we did,” he said. “I kind of had to accept that we were going to lose. We were losing by 12. We’re kind of sloppy, struggling, not looking good for us. I was kind of like, OK, we’re going to lose, [but] we kept chipping away. Then I got real nervous the last five minutes of the game. Like it was nerve-racking. Kind of feel like we stole one there for sure.”

Like Henley, fellow Bulldogs Brian Harman and Keith Mitchell, also playing this week in the Sony Open, watched the blowout to the final gun. Hoge, meanwhile, said he left SoFi Stadium at the end of the third quarter when the Georgia lead ballooned to 52-7.

“To top it all off, it was 50 degrees and pouring down rain when we tried to leave,” Hoge said. “I paid $300 for a two-minute Uber ride back to the hotel. I said: ‘Just get us out of here.’”

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By Dave Shedloski
Winning on the PGA Tour is a satisfying feeling, but the manner in which it is achieved matters, too. And the way Russell Henley won the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba on Sunday in Riviera Maya, Mexico sure felt fulfilling to the Georgia native.

Henley secured his fourth career PGA Tour title with a four-stroke victory over Brian Harman by overcoming nerves and demons and loads of past disappointment while holding a 54-hole lead. But with six shots in hand beginning the final round, Henley didn’t need the fireworks he supplied the first three rounds as much as he needed to douse any hopes of his pursuers by limiting errors.

So it happened that a one-under 70 at El Camaleón Golf Course was more than adequate for Henley to win for the first time in five years and pick up a check for $1.476 million. Just as importantly, he converted for the second time in seven tries with a 54-hole lead, the other coming in his first tour title at the 2013 Sony Open in Hawaii.

“I just tried to learn from my past and my screw-ups,” Henley said with a chuckle after posting 23-under 261, tying Viktor Hovland for the lowest score in tournament history. “That’s kind of what I took from the last two events from this season, and ‘what am I doing wrong and how can I get better with it?’ All those events I didn’t close on, they hurt. And you don’t know if you’ll ever get to win another one. It’s so hard out here. To come down 18 with a four-shot lead, it was just really cool. I don’t know what to say.”

Well, he said quite a lot with his play, especially when he opened 63-63 and then added a third-round 65. His tournament-record 191 total augured success; it marked the 18th time in tour history a player had posted a score at least that low through 54 holes. The previous 17 players went on to win.

Henley began the day six ahead of Will Gordon and Patton Kizzire, who won at El Camaleón in 2017. He was far from comfortable, however, especially given his history. Among his disappointments when leading through three rounds included a final-round 76 in the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where Jon Rahm surged to the title.

“Yeah, it’s tough. I don’t sleep well on a lead,” said Henley, 33, who entered the week No. 59 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “I need a lot more practice. I have no idea how Tiger did this 80-some times. It’s tough for me just to kind of calm down. You definitely don’t feel the same as when you’re practising at home, but that’s the fun of it. That’s why we play. We want to see what we’re made of out here and get tested under pressure.”

Hector Vivas

The key to victory came for Henley after he hooked a hybrid—there was mud on his ball—into the penalty area left of the green at the par-5 fifth hole and then missed a short par putt. The miscue, his first bogey of the week, dropped his lead to three over world No. 2 Scottie Scheffler, who came charging home with a nine-under 62, matching the low round of the tournament. Coincidentally, Scheffler, the reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year, held a six-stroke lead after 54 holes at the season-ending Tour Championship in August, only to lose to Rory McIlroy.

Henley seemed to reset after the error. “[Caddie Andy Sanders] just said, just shake it off and let’s just keep doing what we’re doing,” Henley said. “And hit a great drive on the next hole and kind of felt like I can do this, I can keep playing well, that’s just one hole.”

The next three holes were textbook. Henley birdied each of them to restore his six-shot advantage.

The run started when he stuck a wedge from 122 yards to three feet, giving him a birdie all four days at the par 4. He followed by holing a 21-footer at the par-5 seventh, and then he sank a nine-foot birdie at the par-3 eighth. Henley carded a second bogey at the 16th—on his second all week—but by then his challengers had run out of holes.

Harman closed with a 66 for solo second while Scheffler finished in a five-way tie for third another stroke back, a group that included Gordon (69) and last week’s winner in Bermuda, Seamus Power, who shot 68. Kizzire dropped to T-10 with a 71.

Henley not only wanted to change the narrative on his final-round outcomes, but he went to Mexico searching a bit. His first two starts to the new season resulted in a missed cut at the Sanderson Farms Championship and T-45 at the CJ Cup in South Carolina. It didn’t sit well with him, especially because he felt he had been playing good golf since his win in the Houston Open in 2017.

“I hope [the win] just keeps giving me confidence,” he said. “It’s just so hard to get in contention out here, first part, and then to close it out, it’s a really hard deal. I feel like it gets harder every year. I’m just going to try to just pull from the fact that when I didn’t feel super comfortable and I had a lead that I executed and I got it done.”

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By Shane Ryan
Here’s a statistic nobody mentioned to Russell Henley after he finished his third round at the Wyndham Championship, carding a 69 to take a three-shot lead into Sunday’s final round: On the PGA Tour in 2021, three players have led a tournament for each of the first three rounds, and none of them have won.

Harris English couldn’t hold on last week in Memphis. Louis Oosthuizen fell to Collin Morikawa at the Open Championship. And Sam Burns faltered on Sunday at the Genesis Invitational. Henley can break that mini-streak (or mini-curse, if you’re especially superstitious), and he’ll take his chance on what is reliably one of the wildest final rounds on the PGA Tour each year, when the tournament winner is only a small part of the overall drama as the regular season ends and players fight for status and a playoff berth.

“I’m not always going to shoot 62 or 64,” Henley said, referring to his torrid start on Thursday and Friday. “I feel thankful to be under par today. I feel like mentally I was pretty tough considering how I was feeling. I was really doing a good job of committing to all my shots, but you’ve just got to hit fairways out here.”

Henley admitted to feeling tentative and nervous, and having to deal with “the thoughts that are not wanted in my head,” and he knows that a few more slip-ups on Saturday could have sent him spiralling from the perch he earned over the first 36 holes. Instead, at 15 under, he’s three shots ahead of Tyler McCumber, while a huge group at 11 under that includes Kevin Kisner, Kevin Na, and Rory Sabbatini will give chase. They’ll do battle earlier than usual, and in groups of three, as weather concerns have pushed tee times up to 9:15 a.m. ET for the leaders. It’s a trade-off of heat for humidity, and it’s not at all clear which one is preferable.

Henley’s scrambling has been magnificent all week—he leads the field in strokes gained/around the green–and he pointed to his par save on 13 Saturday as a key moment.

“I was kind of on the downslope,” he said. “If I ground my club, I think my ball would have rolled in the bunker, so I couldn’t really put my club down all the way … [I] had it right above the ball and it was into the grain. I had a ton of green to work with and I just judged it with the correct wedge and the right flight and got that up and down.”

Outside Henley, the field has jockeyed for position for 54 holes, and various fates hang in the balance on Sunday. Among the players who are currently projected to end in the top 125 (and thus make the FedExCup Playoffs and receive full status for the 2021-22 season) but started outside the bubble are Roger Sloan, Scott Piercy, and Sabbatini. All three will need to keep their momentum going on a day when fortunes can change swiftly with a bad hole. Justin Rose, who also shot a 69 on Saturday, is projected to finish 126th after starting in the 138th position and could fight his way into the playoffs with a solid Sunday.

Roger Sloan prepares to play his tee shot on the second hole during the third round of the Wyndham Championship. Jared Tilton

“I’d like to have been closer to the lead so I can go ahead and focus on winning the golf tournament, but that will still be a pretty good goal tomorrow,” Rose said of making the playoffs. “It’s an awkward situation to be in, but it’s one that’s going to be fun to go out there and try and practice all the good habits that you have to do when you win golf tournaments. No matter what the situation is, each shot is pressurized.”

Tommy Fleetwood, in a similar position, shot 72 on Saturday to make life very difficult for himself. He’s projected to finish 136th and will need a superlative final round to have a prayer of making the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Adam Scott gave his playoff chances a huge boost with a 64, moving from 121 to 106 in the projected rankings. Incredibly, he achieved that number while carding three bogeys. He admitted afterwards that the pressure of the moment revived something in him that allowed him to birdie half of the holes he played Saturday.

“Sometimes it just has to come down to do or die to actually find it,” he said. “I don’t know why it’s so hard other weeks of the year, you can’t fake that mindset, but this is what it is. It’s like qualifying this week for me, so I’ve got to get it done.”

On the flip side of the equation, a handful of players who came in on the good side of the cut line have now fallen out of the top 125 and must hope for good luck. Ryan Armour, who missed the cut, has fallen from 122 to a projected 127; Patrick Rodgers slipped from 123 to a projected 128; Bo Hoag dropped from 125 to a projected 129; and though Dylan Frittelli is still hanging on at 123 after starting the week at 115, he’ll have a nervous Sunday as he watches on TV, as will Scott Stallings, who has slipped from 117 to 125, exactly on the bubble.

Any number of other players could experience massive reversals on Sunday, but one of the most fascinating may be Matt Kuchar, who entered the week at 124 in the playoff race and has remained in that exact position. For Kuchar and those like him, every shot is critical, and many of them will likely see their playoff lives come down to the 18th hole at Sedgefield Country Club.

Finally, underlying all of the FedExCup drama, there’s a Ryder Cup looming. Players like Henley, Kisner, Rose, Webb Simpson, and more will be relying on captain’s picks to make the team, and all of them know that they need to start impressing Steve Stricker and Padraig Harrington quickly.

“It’s a weird question because I haven’t gotten picked yet and I’ve played nicely going in,” said Kisner, “so I haven’t played too nicely this year and people are still talking about it. I figured I had to win this week or next week to really have a chance and I’m in a position, but I’ve got to shoot something silly tomorrow to have a chance.”

The same holds true for the others—it’s late in the game, and we’re likely past the point where a top-ten 10 has the same eye-opening power as a win.

From the playoffs to status considerations to the Ryder Cup, there will be plenty of dramatic narratives to track on Sunday, and whether you like happy stories or sad ones, you’ll have your fill. At the top of the heap is Henley, trying to prove that you can go wire-to-wire in 2021, and to hold a trophy of his own for the first time since 2017.

The post Russell Henley tries to go wire-to-wire, and others are plenty nervous heading to tour’s Bubble Day appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

On Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, after a first-round 62 in intense North Carolina heat, he revealed that the alert is back. He’s still trying to find his rhythm with the putter—his best skill these days, by far, is his approach game, which is fourth among all Tour players in 2021—but as he took the lead by two shots in the early afternoon, you could see the form on the greens that had once made him one of the sport’s greats. It was especially apparent on 11, when he holed a 13-foot double breaker for birdie to kick off a stretch of four birdies in the last eight holes.

“It broke off the side of the fringe and then the grain at the hole was going the opposite way,” Henley said, “so I saw it perfectly and broke both ways and went in. That was pretty cool.”

More often, though, Henley’s greatest asset on Sunday was his short game, and a series of par saves that left him wondering how good the round could have been if he’d struck his approach shots like usual.

“I feel like there’s a couple holes where I got away with the ball-striking off the tee,” he said. “I just think about a few shots that were a little bit off. You’ve got to stay in attack mode out here. Obviously shot eight under and a lot of things went my way, but I just feel like it could be a little better.”

Henley hasn’t won since the 2017 Houston Open, and that was also the last year he made the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Since then, he’s hung around like a journeyman, finishing each year between 56th and 96th, always safe but never great. To put it mildly, this career stasis doesn’t suit him.

“I want to make the Tour Championship and I want to win,” he said. “I haven’t won in years, so I feel like as well as I’ve been playing, I feel like I’ve underachieved a little bit…my mindset is I feel if I can play my game, play my normal game, then I can maybe give myself a chance.”

In pursuit of his old putting form, he’s started working with Ramon Bescansa, inventor of a training tool called “The Perfect Putter.” It’s already paid dividends—Henley has a positive SG: Putting number for the first time since 2018 (loosely, this means that he’s now an above-average putter by PGA Tour standards), and it’s reflected in his FedExCup ranking of 46.

His greatest battle now is remembering how to play under pressure. He’s contended at several tournaments this season, but the most notable was the U.S. Open, where he was tied for the lead after 54 holes before shooting a 76 on Sunday as Jon Rahm took home his first major.

“From everything I’ve learned over all the golf I’ve played,” he said on Thursday, “you’ve got to keep attacking out here and you’ve got to keep giving yourself a chance to do that. Keep attacking and keep trying to play a great round. I feel like at the U.S. Open I was not as committed to a few shots that really cost me…I felt like the nerves were kind of making me feel a little bit tentative.”

He’ll have a chance to practice that aggression and commitment in Greensboro this week, where if recent history is any indication, the winning score will be lower than 20 under, and his red-hot start is only that—a start. For Henley, he has to reckon with a truth he readily admits, which is that some tournaments recently have seemed a day too long.

“I can’t count how many times I’ve teed it up on Sunday and I’m just like, I can’t believe I have to play another round,” he said. “I just feel like we play so much golf and you’ve just got to be patient, you’ve got to just stay rested and try to just stay confident in your game plan.”

There’s quite a bit up for grabs in Greensboro this weekend, from setting himself up for a spot in the Tour Championship, grabbing that elusive win, and perhaps even dreaming distantly of a Ryder Cup berth. He’ll have to maintain a torrid pace to realize any of those goals, but if anybody’s due, it’s Russell Henley.

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By Dave Shedloski
Were this a column about the least surprising scores in the fog-delayed opening round of the 121st U.S. Open, we’d be talking about Brooks Koepka’s opening two-under-par 69, a score consistent with the things “Brooksy” likes to do in majors, or Phil Mickelson’s four-over 75, a score consistent with the visceral dislike Lefty has for his hometown muny.

But we’re here to chronicle the surprises on Day 1 at the South Course at Torrey Pines, and, yeah, you could say there were a few. And off the top of our head we can start with the very top of the leader board, where Russell Henley, who has played the U.S. Open more like Don Henley, won’t have a worthless evening. He’ll be sleeping on the lead. Or at least a share of it, with Louis Oosthuizen also getting to four under through 16 when play was suspended by darkness.

Playing in his eighth U.S. Open and his first since 2018, Henley tied his personal best with a four-under 67 Thursday and broke 70 for just the fourth time in 25 rounds. His highest finish in the championship is T-16, which came in his debut in 2010 at Pebble Beach. When he was an amateur.

This is surprising in and of itself. Then Henley mentions that he shot 79 on the South Course in his only visit to the Farmers Insurance Open in 2014 and felt “beat up.” Then there’s his major record—eight top-25 finishes in 26 starts, but nary a top-10.

“I would say over the last year, I’ve played the best golf I’ve played consistently in my career,” he said. “I feel like I have more of a complete game. But I haven’t finished top 10 in majors or anything. Haven’t really been in the majors. Been in a couple, but I’m still working to—kind of that part of my career, I want to make that better.”

We don’t want to burst his bubble, but do you know how many first-round leaders have gone on to win the U.S. Open? (OK, we’re going to burst his bubble.) Try 21. Not the greatest conversion average. The good news is, generally, first-round leaders get to be four-round participants. So, he’s got that going for him. Maybe that top-10 breakthrough comes this week.

Here are six other surprising rounds from opening day in San Diego:

Feel-good surprise: Matthew Wolff, 70.

Sean M. Haffey

Round of the day in our books. Just two years removed from winning the NCAA title, Wolff was so discouraged by his game that he took nearly two months off and chose to skip the PGA Championship in the process after finishing T-4 in the event in his major debut last August. Loved his explanation for choosing to return at the U.S. Open, where he was runner-up to Bryson DeChambeau last year. “If I shoot 78, there’s going to be a lot of people that do it as well, so … I won’t stand out quite as much.” With three bogeys and two double bogeys, he’d have shot that 78. Fortunately, he had eight birdies, the most in a U.S. Open since Mike Weir in 2009 at Bethpage Black. It was one more than Justin Hicks canned in making the most birdies in one round in the ’08 championship at Torrey. It was surprising and heart-warming and just plain fun to watch. Who isn’t glad to see the young man smiling again?

• • •

Brothers not grim surprise: The Molinaris (Francesco 68, Edoardo 70)

With a combined World Ranking of 548 and with neither having a victory since Francesco won the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational, not much was expected of the pair. Heck, Edoardo, the 2005 U.S. Amateur champion, hadn’t played in the championship since 2011 and has only been in the field three previous times. Francesco, who has fallen to 173rd in the world after once getting as high as fifth in 2018 when he captured the Open Championship, had a decent start to his year after skipping most of 2020, but had missed the cut in three of his last four events. He hadn’t even teed it up since early May at the Wells Fargo. Both excelled by gaining strokes on the green, which is weird because Francesco is 141st on the PGA Tour this season in strokes gained/putting and Edoardo is 179th on the European Tour in putts per round. So, sure, this makes sense.

• • •

Surprised, but shouldn’t be: Webb Simpson, 79.

Harry How

The 2012 U.S. Open winner said he knew Torrey Pines well enough despite his brief experience in the annual Farmers Insurance Open. What he didn’t mention was just how brief his previous encounters. Try two starts and four rounds on the South. If he was going by memory, it likely wasn’t a very good one. He missed the cut after opening with a 76 in his last appearance in 2011. Seven bogeys and a double were offset by a birdie on 18, so at least he’ll enter Round Two with some momentum, no?

• • •

Pool-busting, DraftKings-destroying, soul-crushing surprise: Collin Morikawa, 75.

Harry How

All that pre-championship chatter about nobody being better tee-to-green than Morikawa this season (yes, he ranks first on tour) should have been tempered by one long, loud “however, on the greens …” rejoinder. The California native, who last August won the PGA Championship up the road at Harding Park, was decent but not stellar with the ball-striking Thursday, but he gave up more than 2.5 strokes putting, 148th in the field. This definitely is NOT a surprise. Guess what? Morikawa ranks 167th in strokes gained/putting. How he is No. 4 in the world is pure voodoo— and explains all that pre-championship chatter about his tee-to-green prowess.

• • •

Surprise redux: Rafael Cabrera Bello, 68.

Ezra Shaw

At first blush, we were impressed with the Spaniard’s opening salvo, and we should have been given that he toured Torrey Pines without a bogey. But it turns out he’s started fast before, like last year, when he opened 70-68 at Winged Foot and sat T-3. That effort led to an eventual tie for 23rd, his best finish in seven starts. That’s also his best finish of the season, one in which he hasn’t brought his fastball often, having missed the cut in 10 of 19 events. So, naturally, he was a rock in the year’s third major after getting in through the final qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. “When my game is good, I think I can play good,” he said, providing the least surprising observation of the day.

• • •

Can’t-go-home-again surprise (Non-Mickelson Division): Sahith Theegala, 76.

Harry How

When you’re a Southern California native and win three Junior World titles at Torrey Pines, thereby earning the privilege of hitting the first shot of the championship, a lot is expected of you. Theegala, the 2020 Jack Nicklaus Award winner as NCAA Division I Player of the Year, seemed up to the task, getting to two under through 11 holes. Then he gave shots back faster than Brooks Koepka can roll his eyes. He tripled 12, birdied 14, and then played his last four holes in five over. Theegala, 23, won the last of his Junior Worlds at age 10. A while ago. But thought this would be a good time to remind him.

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By Christopher Powers
Shadow Creek may not be every golf fan’s cup of tea, but there’s no denying it provided a highly entertaining week and finish as the temporary host of this week’s CJ Cup. Ultimately, it was Jason Kokrak, the man with the BetMGM sponsorship, who came out on top. Vegas baby!

Here are our takeaways from the final round in the Nevada desert.

A hot putter was all Jason Kokrak needed to finally get it done
You could say the same for a number of players, but this was especially true for Jason Kokrak, who has been hitting bombs and striping irons on the PGA Tour for the last decade. Seriously, go check out the stats. If you just looked at Kokrak’s off-the-tee and approach numbers since 2012, you’d assume this was a man with multiple tour titles. And yet, he entered the CJ Cup having played in the second-most starts without a victory since 2012, with 230. This week marked his 233rd career start, and it ended with his first win, much of it due to a red-hot putter, the club that’s kept him from raising a trophy for years.

“My caddie, D-Rob, was on point with the reads all day, all week,” said Kokrak, referring to caddie David Robinson. “I gave myself more opportunities today than I did the last couple of days. The birdies were out there. Made some nice putts on the front nine, couple par saves here and there. Couldn’t be happier.”

Kokrak, who finished with an eight-under 64 on Sunday to win by two, made 400 feet of putts on the week. Upon hearing this, he once again gave all the credit to his looper.

“It was all D-Rob’s work. He reads ’em pretty dang good. I did a good job of hitting the spots where we were trying to putt to.”

Prior to this week, Kokrak, 35, had amassed 27 top 10s and six finishes of third or better in his career on tour. But a maiden victory continued to elude him. Putting was often the missing piece. This week, he finished first in strokes-gained/putting, a combination of his caddie’s green-reading expertise and knowing the course better than anyone in the field. Kokrak is a BetMGM ambassador, and Shadow Creek is owned by MGM Resorts. Kokrak says he had played the course roughly 20 times before this week.

“The MGM ambassador crew, I’ve been here in Vegas. I’ve got an aunt and uncle that live here, my dad lived out here for a little while. It kind of feels like home, and I’ve played this golf course enough. I should know it by now.”

Vegas is always a fitting place to get your first victory in a sport that requires you to gamble on yourself every week. The fact it’s Kokrak who got it done, with a BetMGM logo slapped across his hat, makes it almost too fitting.

Christian Petersen

Xander Schauffele wouldn’t go away, until he did
As Kokrak’s journeyman, underdog story was playing out, Xander Schauffele was happily trying to step in as the spoiler. He went birdie-for-birdie with Kokrak, creating a match-play-like atmosphere after the third member of their group, Jason Day, withdrew on the second hole with a neck injury. At the par-3 13th, the momentum appeared to completely swing in Schauffele’s favor when he drained a 46-foot bomb from the fringe for birdie, his third straight. That tied him with Kokrak at 19 under, setting up an intense two-player race to the finish.

As it turned out, that wound up being Schauffele’s final birdie of the day. The four-time tour winner played the last five holes in one over, failing to birdie the par-5 16th or par-5 18th. He finished with a six-under 66 to lose by two, giving Schauffele his sixth runner-up finish since his last win at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions. There’s little doubt Schauffele will win many more times, including at the biggest events. But he’d be the first to tell you that that’s six runner-ups too many.

Keyur Khamar

Jason Day gives the haters more fuel with latest WD
After shooting a six-under 66 to get into contention on Saturday, Day withdrew after playing just one complete hole on Sunday. The Aussie made a triple-bogey 7 on the opening par 4, then pulled out, citing neck pain. According to the PGA Tour’s Ben Everill, Day couldn’t move his head or neck prior to the round, but tried to give it a go until he ultimately called it quits.

Sadly, this has become a large part of the story of Day’s career, which, even if it ended today (it’s not ending today), would still be damn good. Twelve PGA Tour victories, one major (2015 PGA), a Players Championship (2016) and a short stay at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking. Yet when it’s all over, barring another major or two, most will remember how often he was seen being carted off the course. Sunday marked Day’s 11th official WD from a PGA Tour event dating back to 2009. It also marked the third time he’s done it on the weekend since 2014. It’d be nice to see him at full health and back to his peak, 2015-’16 form, but his body might not allow that to happen.

Christian Petersen

Russell Henley played OK, but OK isn’t good enough on Sunday
As Dustin Johnson learned at the PGA Championship, two under on Sunday often doesn’t cut it, even with a lead. Russell Henley learned this lesson in Las Vegas, too. The four-time tour winner entered the final round with a comfortable three-stroke lead, then went out and shot a two-under 70. Pretty good. Pretty clutch. Surely, he won for a fifth time?

Actually, he ended up three shots back, despite moving forward in terms of relation to par. In these PGA Tour birdie-fests, a two-under 70 simply does not get the job done on Sunday, even if you’re up by three. To feel truly comfortable, you need to be up seven or eight on this tour. Even then, somebody might throw up a 61 and clip you. Has to be deflating, but Henley’s in fine form. He should be back in the mix soon.

Jeff Gross

Tyrrell Hatton gave it a hell of a run
Nothing but respect for the Englishman this week. No, he didn’t win or even finish second, but he pulled out a T-3 thanks to a seven-under 65 on Sunday. This after it looked like the jet lag had finally caught up to him on Saturday, when he shot a one-over 73. To bounce back like that down the stretch, just one week after winning in England, is extremely impressive. The more successful he is, the more he’ll rise in the world ranking and the more we’ll see him on TV. That’s a great thing, because everything he does is absolute gold.

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By Christopher Powers
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Among the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking in the U.S. Open field, just one posted a round under par on Thursday at Shinnecock Hills. If you went with the chalk pick, you’d be right.

On a brutal day on Long Island, Dustin Johnson stood strong, carding a one-under 69 on a course he had not seen before Monday. He’s tied for the lead with Ian Poulter, Scott Piercy and Russell Henley, the only four men in the 156-player field to break par.

“I’m very pleased with the round,” Johnson said. “Anything under par on this golf course is very good, especially in the conditions we have today. I felt like, you know, from start to finish, it was very difficult.”

Related: Traditionalists, you got your wish. The U.S. Open is a brute once more

Playing alongside Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas, Johnson was the only one of the trio to provide any highlights, none better than his hole-out for birdie from a green side bunker at the par-4 eighth. That shot came two holes after Johnson caught a huge break at the par-4 sixth, where former PGA champ turned TV commentator Rich Beem accidentally stepped on his ball in the thick rough and DJ was given a helpful drop.

“Well, there was [a volunteer] standing there, they watched it bounce in there, and he kind of just stood on the hill and waited for all of us to come up,” he said. “You would think he would go and at least mark kind of the spot where it was.

“Probably should have never even had to come to that. But, yeah, it was—obviously, it was nice for him to find my ball. Even though I did get to drop it. I still played the same kind of shot that I would have played if he wouldn’t have stepped on it.”

After turning in two-under 33, Johnson made birdie at the par-3 11th to get to three under. Bogeys at the 12th and 14th brought him back to the pack, but with more wind in the forecast in the coming days, it’s still a great place to be as the rest of the field has to play catch up.

“Tomorrow is still going to be another difficult day,” Johnson said. “Every day out here is going to be difficult. It’s going to take the same kind of focus, and I’ll have to shoot the same kind of quality golf shots if I want to shoot another good score.”

Poulter, who went off in the morning wave, looked as though he may defy the odds and post a low number, turning in two-under 33 with birdies at the par-4 third and the treacherous par-3 seventh. Even after making his first bogey of the round at the 10th, the Englishman rebounded, making another birdie at a difficult par 3, the 157-yard 11th that played far longer than 157 yards with the buffeting winds. It was a par-3 performance he knows he’ll have trouble matching any of the next three days.

“To post that number today, very pleased, and I played very well, hit some great shots,” Poulter said. “Seven, 11 were obviously highlights of the day. I think, to play those two par 3s in four shots was a big help to, obviously, posting 1 under par.”

At the 13th, Poulter hit a wayward drive that found the thick left rough, a spot that brought a big number into play, especially after he hacked it out and left it in a fairway bunker just 100 yards away. From there he played a deft 50-yard shot that came spinning off the green and back into a green side bunker, where he displayed the resolve we’ve come to know from Poulter and got up-and-down for bogey. He closed with five straight pars, including another impressive sand save at the par-3 17th.

“Scrambling when you are out of position on this golf course is also key, and I did that well,” Poulter said. “I limited the mistakes.”

Related: Why Ian Poulter’s solid round was unexpected, even to him

Henley was one of the very few to reach three under on Thursday, recovering from a bogey at the par-3 second with an eagle at the fifth (his first ever in seven U.S. Open appearances) and birdies at the seventh and eighth holes. Shinnecock’s back nine gave him a bit more trouble, as he made double bogey at the par-4 10th and bogeyed the last to come in at two-over 37. While he’s never had a top 10 in a major, the three-time tour winner knows he can play with anybody.

“I feel good. I also know I’ve got a lot of golf to play,” Henley said. “But I do feel good about my game. I’ve beaten all these guys before. I’ve won out here on tour. Haven’t won a major yet. But I believe in my game, and I just try to stay patient.”

Piercy, who walked off the course during Wednesday’s practice round frustrated with his game, hit 11 of 14 fairways and just nine of 18 greens, but still managed three birdies against two bogeys to grab a share of the lead.

Related: Scott Piercy can thank Instagram for his impressive first round at Shinnecock

The lone man at even par is Jason Dufner, who has just one top 10 in 17 major championship starts since his victory at the 2013 PGA Championship. His position on the leader board through one round is proof that Shinnecock fits no particular player, as Dufner ranks outside the top 50 in every strokes-gained category on the PGA Tour this season.

Seven players are at one over, including Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, who are each in search of a second major championship.

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By Dave Shedloski
AUGUSTA, Ga. — On the third day of the Masters, Russell Henley finally arrived.

The Georgia native didn’t light up a rain-softened Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday the way some of his fellow competitors did. His one-under 71 was a grind. But he walked off in style, sinking a 10-foot birdie putt at the last to give himself a chance to improve on his career-best T-11 finish here last year.

More importantly, Henley finally felt more like himself, more at ease and able to enjoy the year’s first major, even with the intermittent rain showers. Turns out, he’s had a dark cloud over his head for weeks.

“I was finally able to breathe,” he said with a slight smile.

Henley’s wife, Teil, gave birth to the couple’s first child, son Robert, on Tuesday in Charleston, S.C., via C-section after going through a difficult pregnancy. Later that evening, doctors informed the new parents—Russell was at the hospital after playing a practice round at Augusta on Monday—that Robert needed to be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit because his head had begun to swell slightly, and they wanted to more closely monitor his condition.

That kicked off a sleepless night as Russell and Teil received updates on their son every few hours. It wasn’t until late afternoon Wednesday, around 5 p.m., that doctors were certain Robert was out of any danger. Henley arrived back Augusta late that night and teed off in the first round of the Masters at 12:32 p.m. with Shubhankar Sharma and 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize.

He didn’t start to full relax until around noon Friday. That’s when he learned from his brother-in-law, while making the turn during this second round, that Teil could take Robert home. Henley spent Friday night on FaceTime with Teil and got to watch her feed Robert.

“It was great to see them lying on our bed, seeing him home,” said Henley, 28. “It’s amazing that when you go through something like this, you don’t sleep for two days, [that] you get a lot more emotional. Well, you get emotional over more things, I guess. But, yeah, it’s been a pretty trying time even beyond this past week.”

Henley seemed buoyed at the start of the day, converting birdies at Nos. 2 and 3. But he suffered three bogeys in four holes starting at the ninth before making a late rally.

The University of Georgia alum will begin Sunday’s final round T-21 at even-par 216 but with a chance to improve his final standing for the fourth straight year after missing the cut in his debut in 2013. Since then he’s finished T-31, T-21 and T-11.

“My game feels so good, I feel so confident,” he said outside the Augusta National clubhouse as rain began to fall again. “I haven’t capitalized throughout the week like I know I can, but I’m still in position to have a really nice tournament, so I’m going to keep hanging in there.”

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