If you want to make some noise or have any hope of contending come Sunday at the Wyndham Championship, you best be ready to go low — like Russell Henley did on day one at Sedgefield Country Club.
Henley had six birdies and an eagle on his way to an eight-under par 62 that gave him the first round lead. He got out early and that was a good thing as threatening weather rolled in late in the afternoon and play was halted just after 5 p.m.
They never made it back onto the course and the first round will be finished early Friday morning.
In the meantime, Henley has a chance to pick up some real momentum heading into the playoffs next week. Henley is currently 44th in FedEx points and a win on Sunday would jump him way up the list. He’s also ranked 56th in the world so he’ll be motivated to land in that top 30 and make it to the Tour Championship at East Lake in three weeks.
Henley’s putter treated him well on Thursday and it has been the most reliable club in his bag over the years. He has an alert on his cell phone that tells him every morning, “I’m a great putter.” He used only 25 putts on Thursday so he obviously listened to the alert.
“Yeah. I have (an alert) on my phone right now that says, ‘I’m a great putter,'” Henley said. “You know, it’s weird, the first years I was on Tour, my ball-striking was kind of inconsistent and my putting was, I think it was top-10 the first couple years. It might have been (No. 1) in overall putting my second or third year.”
He used to be one of the Tour’s premier putters, ranking first in total putting in 2015. But by 2019 he dropped down to No. 167. That forced Henley to turn off his alert, but he’s since turned it back on and that seemed to work for his first round in Greensboro. “It pops up I think like mid-morning, yeah,” he said. “I don’t know, I don’t know. I turned it off for a few years because it was making me mad because I wasn’t putting well, but I put it back on recently. Maybe I need to keep it there.”
Scores were extremely low at birdie-friendly Sedgefield, all a two-under par round of 68 got you was a tie for 61st.
A lot of eyes are on Rickie Fowler but things are looking good for Mr. Endorsement. Rickie shot 71 and was tied for 130th and looks like he’ll miss the playoffs and will end up driving the team beverage cart at the Ryder Cup next month.
