FT. WORTH – (Wire Service Report) – Russell Henley did some of his most difficult work during Sunday’s final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge to get into a playoff. Yet he still had to put aside his nerves to finish the task. Henley birdied the first playoff hole with a putt from inside 5 feet to defeat Eric Cole and complete a comeback victory in Texas.

“This is why I practice hard … to come back to the playoff and do that, I’m still just kind of shaking,” Henley said. “That was as nervous as I’ve been over a putt in my whole life.”

Henley shot 3-under-par 67 with birdies on the final three holes before beating Cole in the playoff. They were tied at 12-under 268.

Cole, who shot 70 in the fourth round, failed to convert a 13-foot putt for birdie before Henley sank the winning putt when the duo replayed the par-4 No. 18 at Colonial Country Club.

“The putt was good, I hit it pretty much where I was aiming, I just kind of misread it,” Cole said. “I thought it might start breaking left a little earlier.”

Henley, now a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, won for the first time since the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“I think the longer you play this game, the more you want, 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,” Henley said. “Just feel like I just fought really hard through the end, so it just felt really good to see an awesome result.”

Henley’s round began with an eagle on the par-5 first hole and a birdie on the next hole followed by three consecutive bogeys. He played Nos. 3-9 in 4 over before recovering. His tying birdie putt on No. 18 was from about 16 1/2 feet.

He recalled “feeling a little jittery” on the front side. Then that changed.

“I just kind of calmed down a little bit and started to hit some good shots, and felt like I was hitting good putts most of the day and they just went in at the end,” he said.

Cole, the third-round leader, was bidding for his first victory on the PGA Tour. He had birdies on the first two holes but didn’t maintain the momentum and was hurt by a double bogey at No. 9.

“I was proud with the way I played,” Cole said. “I think I played solid for the most part. I drove the ball pretty well. I just needed to shave a shot somewhere.”

Defending champion Ben Griffin (65), Mac Meissner (69) and Alex Smalley (68) shared third place at 11 under.

Meissner, playing in the last pairing with Cole, needed a birdie on No. 18 to join the playoff. Instead, his second shot ended up in a bunker and he scrambled for par.

Griffin moved into second place by the midway mark of the round, catapulted by playing the front nine in 5 under. He was even par the rest of the way. Griffin’s 65 matched Steven Fisk for the best round of the day.

“I felt like I was going to make a nice run when I woke up this morning,” Griffin said. “My game was trending in the right direction. It’s a course I have experience on and I kind of know what you have to do on Sunday here.”

He nearly rolled in a 50-foot birdie putt on the last hole.

J.J. Spaun (70), Gary Woodland (67), Michael Brennan (68) and Colombia’s Nico Echavarria (68) all tied for sixth place at 10 under.

Brennan pulled into a share of the lead by mid-afternoon, but across his final seven holes, he had three bogeys and two birdies.

Woodland was happy to move into contention.

“I’m excited about where the game is at,” Woodland said. “I definitely didn’t get the most out of it this week, I played a lot better than what I scored, but happy with where it’s at.”

England’s Jordan Smith, who led at the tournament’s midway mark, finished at 8 under and tied for 13th place after a final-round 68.

–Field Level Media

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – After a few months off, Cameron Young was pleasantly surprised to come out to the Bahamas and shoot an 8-under-par 64 at Albany Golf Club for the first-round lead on Thursday at the Hero World Challenge.

A field of 20 players is in Albany for the exclusive exhibition event hosted by Tiger Woods. Young has a two-shot lead on Justin Thomas after Day 1.

“Yeah, kind of (surprised). I didn’t play great (Wednesday),” Young said. “You always feel like you can shoot a number like that, but I really felt very well in control, which isn’t necessarily surprising but it’s a nice thing to come out and just feel like yourself.

“Yeah, really happy with it. I feel like with the driver I was just really comfortable and that’s a huge key out here.”

Young spread eight birdies across his card without recording a bogey. His 21-foot birdie putt at the par-3 second hole set the tone for his round, and his last birdie was a 14 1/2-footer at another par-3, the 17th.

“I’m sure I missed a fairway or two, but for the most part I was really well in position,” Young said. “Then I made a couple putts early, which was nice. Just kind of got off to a nice start with the putter. There’s a bunch of par 5s and a couple drivable holes, so I feel that if you’re on top of it, especially off the tee, you can make a bunch of birdies.”

Young, 27, is one of the highest-ranked players in the world who’s yet to win on the PGA Tour. If he were to win the Hero, it would not count as an official tour victory nor gain him any FedEx Cup points, but Official World Golf Ranking points are on offer this week.

Thomas shot a blazing 6-under 30 on the back nine after posting one bogey and one birdie through nine holes. He rolled in four birdies in a row at Nos. 14-17.

“It was nice to make that birdie on 7,” Thomas said, “and had good chances there on 8 and 9, but then once 10, 11 happened I felt like I got in a nice
rhythm there on the back nine.”

Tied for third at 5-under 67 are World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Ludvig Aberg of Sweden, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala.

Scheffler, the defending champion, made a change to his putting grip and rolled in six birdies with one bogey Thursday.

“You know, this year I had thought about it from time to time and it was something that we had just said, ‘Let’s table that for the end of the season, take a look at it,’” Scheffler said. “Took a look at it this offseason and figured this is a good week to try stuff just because you can practice and practice and do all the stuff at home, but there’s just something different about being in competition. I really enjoyed the way it felt, I felt like I’m seeing some improvements in my stroke.”

–Field Level Media

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SILVIS (Illinois) – Following T9 and T2 finishes in his two most recent starts (U.S. Open and Rocket Mortgage), Davis Thompson made nine birdies en route to a bogey-free (62) to reach 21-under (192) after 54 holes.

He holds his second 54-hole lead/co-lead on TOUR (2023 American Express).

Thompson’s (62) matched his career-low score from round one of the 2023 American Express when he finished second.

With birdies on six of his first nine holes – including five straight on Nos. 4-8 – Jordan Spieth turned at 6-under (29) before signing for an 8-under (63). The (63) falls two strokes shy of his career-low score of (61); the first of 61s he posted in round three of the 2015 John Deere Classic en route to his win.

A week removed from his second top-10 finish of the season, a T6 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Eric Cole followed a 9-under (62) in round one with scores of 68-64 in rounds two and three to reach T2 at 19-under (194). Cole played his last three holes in R3 in 3-under par (eagle-birdie-par).

Making his first start in the John Deere Classic, Aaron Rai (T2/-19) followed a second-round 8-under (63) with a 5-under (66) and sits T-2 with Cole.

John Deere Classic | Leaderboard After 54 Holes

1 Davis Thompson 63 67 62 192 (-21)

T2 Eric Cole 62 68 64 194 (-19)

T2 Aaron Rai 65 63 66 194 (-19)

T4 Hayden Springer 59 71 66 196 (-17)

T4 C.T. Pan 65 63 68 196 (-17)

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McKINNEY, TEXAS – It’s back to Texas for the fourth PGA Tour event of the season. This time, it’s THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson to be held in the northern suburbs of Dallas, past Plano and not too far from Frisco.

TPC Craig Ranch will host THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson for the fourth time, honoring the legacy of the tournament namesake, Byron Nelson, the first PGA TOUR event to be named in honor of a professional golfer. Nelson had 52 career PGA TOUR wins, and took a record – 18 titles with 11 straight – in 1945.

Last year, 2,021 birdies were recorded at TPC Craig Ranch course, the third most of any course on TOUR last season with the most: 2,094/El Cardonal at Diamante/World Wide Technology Championship).

This season, the field includes:

• Seven of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, led by No. 9 Byeong Hun An
• 10 of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, led by No. 20 Jordan Spieth
• Four past champions (Adam Scott/2008, Sung Kang/2019, K.H. Lee/2021-22, JasonDay/2010, 2023)
• 61 PGA TOUR winners
• Four PLAYERS Championship winners
• Six major champions, led by Jordan Spieth (3)

Jason Day, the popular 13-time PGA TOUR winner, snapped a winless streak of 105 starts since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship with his victory at the Byron Nelson back in 2023. Day, who won his maiden TOUR title at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in 2010, became the seventh player in tournament history with multiple titles and seeks to become the fifth back-to-back champion (Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, K.H. Lee).

This week, the CJ Group ambassadors in the field include: Sungjae Im, Si Woo Kim, two-time CJ CUP Byron Nelson champion K.H. Lee and 16-year-old Kris Kim, who received a sponsor exemption and will make his PGA TOUR debut.

THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson | Tournament Facts

COURSE: TPC Craig Ranch, McKinney, Texas

YARDS/PAR: 7,414 yards/Par 72

ARCHITECT: Tom Weiskopf

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $9,500,000/$1,71,000

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Jason Day

PAST RESULTS: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points to Winner: 500

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup

BYRON NELSON ORGANIZATION: (link)

How to Watch | THE CJ CUP | Byron Nelson

Thursday, May 2, 2024 – All Times Eastern

• 7:45am to 7:00pm – ESPN+ Streaming
• 1:00pm to 7:00pm – PGA Tour Radio online and on Sirius XM Radio
• 4:00pm to 7:00pm – Golf Channel and Peacock Network Streaming

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: SiriusXM Radio will have live radio coverage of the Byron Nelson with Thursday and Friday broadcasts from 1:00pm to 7:00pm (ET). PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92 or online via PGATourCom.

How to Watch: In case of changes, visit: (PGATourCom)

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