UGA alum Russell Henley off to good start in Masters

Russell Henley is the low Bulldog after the first round of the Masters Tournament, which shouldn’t surprise anyone given the fact that some of his biggest professional victories have come on difficult golf courses.

What may surprise some is his 4-under-par 68, beating his best score at Augusta National by two shots.

One of seven players in the field who spent all or part of their college careers at the University of Georgia, Henley found the going difficult in his first two trips to the Masters. He missed the cut in 2013, mainly because of a second-round 81; and tied for 31st last year after a mildly promising start, then a slide down the board with a 75-75 weekend.

Has it taken only six rounds for Henley to figure out the course? Hardly. He’s not getting ahead of himself that much.

“I feel like you can’t play here enough times,” he said. “I feel like this place has so much course knowledge and it’s just so tricky, it makes you really think. The main thing you learn is where not to hit it.”

Henley hit 13 greens and nine fairways. He birdied three of his last five holes on the first nine, including a 19-foot putt at No. 9, then rallied from his only bogey of the day at No. 11 to birdie No. 14 from 28 feet and two-putt for birdie from 17 feet at No. 15.

The putt at the 14th hole was particularly sweet for Henley. He had to come off the back shelf with a sweeping right-to-left break to sink the putt through the side door.

“That was one of the best putts I’ve made here,” he said. “It was super-tricky to read.”

Henley got up-and-down for par at No. 18 to preserve his 4-under, after missing the green on the right. His putt from 33 feet off the fringe wasn’t high enough, leaving him with a 5-footer for par. He drilled it in the heart of the cup.

Two of Henley’s victories have come at the Sony Open, on the tight fairways of the Waialae Country Club, and at the Honda Classic on the brutish PGA National. He also won the Web.com Tour’s Jacksonville Open in 2012 on the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley, the sister course to the Stadium and believed by many players to be every bit the test.

“I know I can do it … it’s just a matter of believing in myself and enjoying it,” Henley said.

Part of his approach this week is to loosen the pressure valve on himself. That might sound a bit strange coming from a guy who jumped onto a stage to play the guitar with Darius Rucker at the McGladrey Classic pre-tournament concert at Sea Island last fall, but Henley said he could stand to loosen up even more.

“Whenever I start taking things too seriously and putting a lot of pressure on myself, trying to be too structured … I become a very average player,” he said. “When I show up like I got invited at the last minute, just to have fun, I’m a lot more fun to be around and I play better. So I took it light last week. I’m going to keep doing that until it stops working.”