On a sun-drenched Sunday at the historic Colonial Country Club, Russell Henley authored one of the season’s most thrilling final-round comebacks. The 37-year-old Georgia native birdied the final three holes of regulation to force a playoff, then capped an astonishing run of four straight birdies with a clutch 5-footer on the first extra hole to defeat Eric Cole and claim his sixth PGA Tour title.
Henley entered Sunday’s finale trailing Cole by three strokes. Playing in the group ahead, Henley got off to an eagle-birdie start but then gave them all back with three straight bogeys on Nos. 3-5. A fourth bogey on the 9th saw him turn on 1-over 36 and five shots back of Cole. He stayed patient and got a shot back with a birdie on 11. Then, after saving par on the 15th, the momentum shifted. He drained a 15-footer for birdie on the par-3 16th, followed it with another 15-footer on the par-4 17th, and then stepped up on the iconic 18th hole to sink a 17-footer for his third consecutive birdie to set the clubhouse target at 12 under.
Cole, who looked in control until a double bogey on the par-4 9th, finished with seven straight pars to post 70.
The two headed to sudden-death overtime, playing No. 18 until a winner was decided. Henley, continuing his hot play, nailed a pinpoint 134-yard approach shot that settled just 4 feet below the cup. Cole followed with a nice approach of his own, landing his second to about 10 feet below the hole. He would miss the birdie putt, though, and then watch as Henley dropped his putt dead center for career win No. 6.
“Yeah, I mean, I just kept telling myself, I want to win,” said Henley. “I want to make — I want to be here. I want to be hitting these putts and be in contention.
“This is why I practice hard and, yeah, then to come back to the playoff and do that, I’m still just kind of shaking. That was as nervous as I’ve been over a putt in my whole life.
He added, “I think the longer you play this game, the more you want more, you want more success and I feel like I’ve just worked harder and harder and I feel like I’ve been a little off just mentally this year, really.
“Just feel like I just fought really hard through the end, so it just felt really good to see an awesome result.”
No one has seemingly benefited more from LIV’s talent drain of the PGA Tour than Henley. When LIV Golf started in June 2022, Henley was a 33-year-old journeyman, ranked outside the top 50 in the world, with three career wins and no career top-10s in the majors, who’d never been ranked higher than 40, never made a U.S. Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup team. He just turned 37 and is ranked 5th in the world, with six career wins, a regular on the biennial U.S. teams, and owns six career major top-10s (all post LIV).
Henley earned $1.782 million, 500 FEC points, a Colonial tartan jacket, the massive Leonard Trophy, and a customized 1982 Jeep Scrambler. Cole, who played solidly all week, finished runner-up and earned a little over $1m and 300 FedExCup points.
