GREENSBORO, N.C. — Russell Henley has unfinished business at the Wyndham Championship.
The 34-year-old Georgia grad has finished in the top 10 at Sedgefield Country Club the last three years, including in 2021 when he raced out of the gate with a 62 but blew the lead on the final hole and missed a six-man playoff by a stroke.
“I think about it a lot,” he said. “I mean, I was leading by three going in the final round a couple years ago and was leading the tournament by a few going into No. 11 the last, or a couple years ago and didn’t get it done. That’s a good learning experience, you know, and feel like I’ve gotten better as a player because of it.”
On Thursday, Henley made an eagle and six birdies and shot another opening-round 8-under 62 to take a one-stroke lead over Canadian Adam Svensson and South Korea’s Ben An and two better than fellow American Andrew Novak.
Henley, who played in the afternoon wave, benefited from better scoring conditions after a steady morning rain stopped.
“The first little bit of the front nine it was raining and felt like, man, this could be a tough day, especially if it picks up a little bit,” he said. “So just kind of hoping it would slow down a little bit. And it did on the back nine, so we were fortunate.”
Henley, the winner of the World Wide Technologies Championship in November, led the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green in the first round. His bogey-free 62 was his eighth score of 63 or better since the start of the 2020-21 season, tied for the most of any players on the Tour during that span with Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele. Henley opened with a round in the 60s for the seventh time in as many starts at Sedgefield and improved his first-round scoring average to 66.14. But Henley has never converted one of his hot starts into a victory — he’s 0-for-7 converting the first-round lead/co-lead to victory, including the 2021 Wyndham. Unfinished business, indeed.
Here are four more things to know from the first round of the Wyndham Championship.
Wallace has no love for Sedgefield CC
Blame it on the two bogeys over his last three holes but regardless, Englishman Matt Wallace ripped into the Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield Country Club after shooting an opening-round 3-under 67.
Wallace was asked a softball question: Overall, pleased with the first round?
But Wallace said he was “pissed off” with how he finished and then revealed that he didn’t like the course. That begged a follow-up question and it didn’t take much to wind up Wallace.
“Because the runoffs are just absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “It’s just not fun to play. Hit a shot out of the rough on the last and it landed on the front and runs backwards 40 yards. Like, it’s just not great. Yeah, I shouldn’t be in the rough, but it’s difficult to hit the fairway all the time, especially like this. And then hit shots to the front and just – this is my third time playing. Every single time like, yeah, 83 percent of the winners hit green in regulations pretty much, so a lot of green in regulations is key, but the penalty for missing – even on the par 3 down the hill, 12, you can’t go long because you can putt it off the green, so you play the smart play and you play it towards the front, the middle and, from 220 yards, I mean, it’s just – it’s too severe, so they need to do something about it.”
Wallace said his sports psychologist was trying to help him enjoy the tournament this week, but it didn’t seem to be working based on his comments.
“I’m trying to like it,” Wallace said. “Great tournament, great sponsor, just for me, I just don’t like — if I don’t have to come here, I wouldn’t, but I kind of need to.”
Wallace, who climbed to 45th in the FedEx Cup standings after notching his first PGA Tour win at the Corales Puntacana Championship in March, has slipped to No. 80 in the points list and needs a big week to keep his playoff dreams alive. But it sounds daunting to do so at a place where he clearly isn’t in a good head space.
“Yeah, hopefully I can turn that tune around and at the end of the week I’ll tell you I absolutely love this golf course and thanks for having me and I’ll be back again next year,” he said.
Thomas goes back to ‘old faithful’ but still can’t break par
With his back against the wall to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs and show some signs of life in his game to U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Zach Johnson, Justin Thomas ditched the Scotty Cameron Phantom X 9 tour prototype putter with a counterbalanced build that he used last week at the 3M Open seeking a spark. It was a short shelf life.
“I just went back to my old faithful. I putted with it on Saturday last week after I missed the cut for probably like an hour, maybe a little more, on the putting green, it felt great,” Thomas explained. “I think if it was a little different situation or a little different part of the season I’d probably keep messing with it, but with a week like this, I want to have the putter in my hands that I’ve made the most clutch and successful and good putts with and that’s what that one is.”
Thomas entered the week at No. 79 in the FedEx Cup standings and finds himself in this predicament in part because he has missed the cut in five of his last seven starts. On Thursday, he made two birdies and two bogeys and shot 70.
“Even par’s not going to kill me,” said Thomas, who by end of day trailed by eight and had dropped to T-68 in the tournament and projected No. 81 in the season-long points standings.
But it does mean Thomas’ bubble is in danger of bursting if he can’t make the cut and rocket up the leaderboard over the next three rounds.
Novak shines at his ‘home game’
Andrew Novak is just the type of player that makes the Wyndham Championship so intriguing every year – it’s now-or-never time for Novak, who enters the week at No. 106 in the FedEx Cup standings with just two top-10 finishes this season and needs to do much better than that if he plans to be playing next week at the first playoff event. All he did was shoot 64 in the opening round, including chipping in for birdie at the last.
“I left it in a spot I knew I could get up and down from,” he said. “With ball in hand, it makes that shot a lot easier, get yourself a nice lie. Grain was back into me, same with the slope. So just kind of threw a 60 underneath it, put a little spin on it. It bounced perfectly and rolled right in.”
Novak, who grew up in nearby Raleigh, said he’s had this event circled on the calendar all year long. “It just happens that I need it,” he said.
He blamed a balky putter for a missed cut here last year, claiming, “It was the probably one of the worst putting performances anyone’s ever had.”
What a difference a year makes. He holed 109 feet of putts on Thursday and said, “if I putt like I did the next three days I should have a chance to win come Sunday.”
And he’d be booking a ticket to Memphis for the first playoff event, too.
Bubble watch
With one round down and three to go in the Wyndham Championship, only one player has moved in and out of the top 70.
Adam Scott, whose 65 was the low round of the morning wave, is projected to move from No. 81 to 68. In doing so, he would bump out the ‘Bubble Boy,’ Austin Eckroat, who is projected to fall on the wrong side of the cut at No. 71 after an opening-round 1-over 71 (T-92).
Among other prominent players:
Former British Open champ Shane Lowry shot 68 (T-35) but it didn’t help his cause. He went from No. 76 to projected No. 77.
Former U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland fell from No. 97 to No. 100 after shooting 70 (T-68).
