Russell Henley steals Colonial title as 1 pro’s long wait gets longer

Eric Cole was minutes away from his long-awaited first PGA Tour win – then Russell Henley stole it.

Henley birdied the final three holes of regulation and then added a fourth straight on the first playoff hole to dispatch Cole and win the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday at the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Both players found the fairway on the first qualifying hole – the par-4 18th – although Cole’s drive somehow got there through tree branches. Cole stuck to 13 feet; Henley to 5. When Cole missed his birdie attempt on the high side, it set the stage for Henley, who earned a spot in the middle of the cup with his fourth birdie in a row.

“I kept telling myself, I want to win,” Henley told CBS reporter Amanda Balionis. “I want to hit these putts and get into contention. That’s why I practice so hard, and then I go back to the playoffs and do that, I’m still nervous. That was as nervous as I’ve ever faced a putt in my life.”

It was the first win of the season (and sixth of his career) for Henley, the 37-year-old champion ranked 12th in the World. While it’s another disappointing loss for Cole, the 37-year-old was winless in his last 119 starts on the PGA Tour but entered Sunday as the 54-hole leader (and three ahead of Henley).

Cole started Sunday 12 under and birdie-birdied his opening round, and still had a two-over lead when he reached the par-4 9th hole, when his fairway found water and he made a double bogey. Cole and JJ Spaun went on the back nine tied at 11 under.

“Double bogeys are not good,” Cole said. “I just said to myself after that, when I got to the 10th tee, I just said, this is a good place to be, maybe I should have taken that to start the week, so try and benefit from being in that situation.”

Henley’s rollercoaster circuit took a turn for the better during the day. He eagled the first par-5 hole and birdied the second, but then made three straight bogeys and fell. After birdied 11 he still looked out – but then reeled off three straight birdies at 16, 17 and 18 to shoot 67.

“I was feeling a little jittery or fast or something in the front and I was hitting some, I was hitting the fairway, I wasn’t changing well with the iron,” Henley said. “So it’s very tiring to turn around in one place. [My caddie] said, ‘Let’s reschedule,’ and I calmed down a little bit and started hitting good shots and I felt like I was hitting good putts all day and they just went in at the end.”

When Cole got to the 18th – coming off six straight birdies – he needed to birdie 18 to win, but his approach went off the green and he couldn’t put it away. One hole later, Henley finished in the playoff.

Henley, a veteran of the PGA Tour, has played good but not great golf this season, although this last round has been very poor. He’s had seven top-25 finishes in his 11 starts this week (including a T3 at the Masters) but hasn’t cracked the top 20 in his last three starts. Before this week, he missed the PGA Championship.

For Cole, he will have to wait a little longer.

On a tour where other young stars were making their mark in their 20s, Cole spent those years playing small tours and trying to get a spot on the big tours. When he finally found his footing he saw six of five finishes and two second-place finishes in 37 starts, helping him win the Tour’s 2022-23 Rookie of the Year Award at age 35. He was the second oldest winner in PGA Tour history, behind only Todd Hamilton, who was 38 when he won in 2004. (Cole also followed in the footsteps of his mother, Laura Baugh, who won LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 1973.)

But Cole hasn’t had the same success of his rookie year over the past few seasons. But despite his position (117th in OWGR), he entered this week trending. He tied for 14th at the Valero Texas Open, tied for 6th at the Zurich Classic team event and tied for sixth at the Myrtle Beach Classic, a single-course event. He was 31 at Byron Nelson in his most recent start. He started well this week but then shot up the leaderboard with a 63 on Saturday, which was two strokes better than anyone else in the third round (and four better than anyone expected for a single player).

“I just needed to shave somewhere,” Cole said. “But I was proud of the way I played, and it’s disappointing, but I still feel happy and happy with the way I played.”