GREENSBORO, N.C. — Russell Henley is turning back the clock – just a bit, to 2021.
That was the year he raced out of the gate with a 62 and 64 to grab the 36-hole lead, but he sputtered on Sunday and missed out on a six-man playoff. This week, he posted another 62 in the opening round and followed it up on Friday with a 66 at Sedgefield Country Club to grab a one-stroke lead over Billy Horschel at the midway point of the regular-season finale.
Henley’s goal is to avoid as Yogi Berra once said, déjà vu all over again. In other words, don’t fold like the Sunday paper on Sunday.
“I was in control of the tournament. Had a couple three-putts, missed a couple short ones and a couple bad swings on the back and missed out on the playoff by one shot. Definitely stings to kind of lose it right there because I played so well the first however many holes, 60 holes,” Henley said of blowing the lead here in 2021. “But again, you know, it’s why I’ve got to play all 72 holes. It’s just hard to do, hard to finish it off, but I’m excited hopefully for another good weekend.”
Here are four more things to know about the second round of the 2023 Wyndham Championship.
Fear Horschel's beard
Billy Horschel, the 2014 FedEx Cup champion, is making an 11th-hour push to make the 2023 FedEx Cup playoffs.
On Friday, Horschel fired an 8-under 62, his career low in 1,058 rounds on the PGA Tour, to catapult into solo second place, which just happens to be enough for Horschel to be projected to make the playoffs.
“I’m excited where my game’s going,” said Horschel, who hit rock bottom with an 84 at the Memorial in June. “We’ve still got a long ways to go to get back to where I would like to be in this game of golf, but at least we’ve got momentum behind us pushing us forward now.”
Horschel recorded his sixth consecutive round in the 60s — all since he grew a beard. Coincidence? We think not! Beginning the week at No. 116 in the season-long standings, Horschel drilled a 20-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole to get the party started and made 121 feet, 10 inches of putts on the day, including a 40-footer at No. 11. And he didn’t even use his putter at the eighth, holing out from 94 yards with his 56-degree wedge. When he made his third birdie in a row at No. 17, a 20-foot right-to-left bender, he vaulted from projected No. 84 to projected No. 65 in the points standings.
“I know I have to win or finish solo second, I realized that I think Sunday night when I got here. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” he said. “I have a trip planned with my kids and my wife to Abaco Club next week if we don’t get in. Listen, it’s a win-win, I either go to Memphis or I go to Abaco with my kids and wife for the week. So we’ll see what happens this weekend.”
Glover loves his putter
Lucas Glover is having a late-season renaissance thanks to a putter change.
Glover ranked 167th in the FedEx Cup heading into the RBC Canadian Open in June, but reeled off three straight top 10s — a T-4 at Rocket Mortgage Classic, a T-6 at John Deere Classic and a T-5 at the Barbasol Championship — and after a missed cut last week, he’s back in the trophy hunt at Sedgefield CC after rounds of 66-64.
“Putted OK, didn’t make a ton but made the ones I guess I’d say I was supposed to,” he said. “Yeah, solid. Seven birdies and a bogey, take that about any day.”
Indeed, he should. But a few months ago, Glover’s yips had become such a concern that he decided he was going to try putting left-handed or with a long putter. He tried the latter first, switching to a broomstick style L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max putter and a split-hand grip. He began using it at the Memorial, then shot 63 in his opening round at U.S. Open final qualifying. At the Rocket Mortgage Classic, he ranked fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting and registered his first top-10 finish of the season.
“It’s been all the difference in the world,” he said. “Making all your tap-ins is nice. Yeah, just I feel good with it. When my speed’s good, I seem to make a lot of putts, so it’s been really good.”
Always a wonderful striker of the ball, Glover’s improved putting has given him new-found confidence that he can notch his fifth career Tour title and make a playoff run. But the former U.S. Open champion, who is making his 19th start at the Wyndham Championship, the most of any player since Glover joined the Tour in 2004, isn’t sweating over whether he makes the FedEx Cup Playoffs — he’ll need no worse than a two-way tie for second.
“Play great, you get to play next week. If you don’t, you get to go home for a few weeks,” he said. “It’s a win-win for me.”
Walk-off eagle for An
Ben An’s day ended with a bang.
From 94 yards away in the middle of the fairway, An hopped in his second shot at the 406-yard par 4 for an eagle.
It was his second eagle of the day — he also holed a 67-foot putt at 15.
“Still four shots worse than yesterday,” he said of his second-round 3-under 67, “but it’s golf, I guess.”
An is flat-out golfing his ball around Sedgefield CC, recording his 10th straight round in the 60s here. He improved to 10-under 130, two strokes back of the lead and in a tie for third with Adam Svensson (67), Brendon Todd (63) and Glover (64). An, a former U.S. Amateur champ and winner on the DP World Tour, is still searching for his first win on the PGA Tour.
“Hopefully today was my worst out of all four days,” he said. “I’ve got two more days to play golf, so we’ll see.”
Thomas, Lowry and Woodland make cut but work to be done to make playoffs
Justin Thomas forgot to get his Grandma, who lives in Charlotte, a scooter to watch him play on Friday, but she had plenty to cheer about all the same.
“She somehow finagled a ride all day, so I’m happy to see that,” he said.
Thomas also was quite please to card a 5-under 65 on Friday and make the cut with plenty of cushion. Now, he can set his sights on making a weekend charge in his bid to make the playoffs (as well as impress U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson). Thomas entered the week having missed the cut in five of his last seven starts and on the outside looking in at No. 79 in the FedEx Cup standings. An even-par start on Thursday did him no good. Asked how badly he needed to make a cut, he said, “Very badly, I mean, if I wanted any chance at what I want to do the rest of the year. You know, it is what it is.”
Thomas traded three birdies with two bogeys in his first eight holes and was straddling the cut line until he made a birdie at No. 12. He tacked on another at 15 and then stole what could be a crucial stroke in his playoff pursuit by chipping in from 78 feet short of the hole at the par-3 16th.
“I told Bones, we kind of high-fived there, I said I feel like I deserve that,” he said.
But Thomas still has his work cut out for him over the weekend. He’s projected at No. 75.
Shane Lowry squeezed through to the weekend with a 1-under 69, which included some nervy moments down the stretch after he putted off the green and made double bogey at 16 to fall back to 2 under and on the cut line.
“I just had like a brain fart or something, I don’t know,” Lowry said. “I was like, wow, going from thinking if I birdie two of the last three, I’m well in the tournament to I could be booking a flight this evening, which is difficult.”
Lowry bounced back with a birdie at 18 and is T-40. He’s projected at No. 77 in the points standings.
“Sometimes in this game making the cut is quite satisfying and I’m proud of how I played the last two holes, especially 18 there,” he said.
Gary Woodland is going to need a special weekend. He survived the cut with a 67 on Friday but is currently projected at No. 97 in the points standings.
