The 2022-23 PGA Tour season could prove to be a redemption year for Russell Henley after his fourth career victory at the 2022 Tech World Championship at Mayakoba. Following in the footsteps of Keegan Bradley and Mackenzie Hughes, Henley’s victory at El Camaleon Golf Course broke a five-year drought in the winner’s circle and marked the first trophy lift since the 2017 Houston Open.
Ending the week at the age of 23, Henley not only broke his own unbeaten streak but also broke numerous goalscoring records along the way. The 36-hole and 54-hole records fell at Mayakoba earlier in the week to finally allow Henley to take the tournament scoring record, matching Victor Hovland’s under-23 record in 2021.
For Henley this week in Mexico, his excellent iron play and accurate driving matched that. Henley, who has finished second, sixth and third in stroke play over the past three seasons on the PGA Tour, has had his fair share of gut-wrenching and heartbreaking moments in the latter stages of tournaments.
Earlier this year, Henley took full control of his weekend play for the 2022 Sony Open. Playing the final 36 holes at 8-under, the Georgia Ray was spotted through a Herculean effort by Hideki Matsuyama, featuring consecutive rounds of 7-under 63.
Henley missed the extra holes entirely at the 2021 Windham Championship, having been eliminated in a playoff at Waialae Country Club a few months earlier. The 33-year-old, who had a three-stroke lead entering the final round, bogeyed four on the back nine, including one on his 72nd hole, which came off a three-putt from 25 feet.
“I’ve just tried to learn from my past and my mistakes,” Henley said. “I took that from the last two events I’ve played since the start of this season and just trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and how I can improve. I didn’t close all those events, they hurt. You don’t know if you’re going to win another one. It’s very difficult out here. To win four out of 18, it was great. It’s still… I don’t know what to say.”
Those painful moments make this moment of joy at Mayakoba all the more profound and meaningful because of Henley’s failure to convert the last five 54 holes into victory.
The consistency with which Henley has put himself in this position is commendable, but consistency is hard to come by in the game of golf without the support of tools, especially on the PGA Tour. With such a strong green, similar to Bradley, it boggles the mind to imagine what this win will do for Henley’s confidence and if this streak of his can translate into even more titles.
The First Cut podcast team is back to bring you a recap of the Tech World Cup in Mayakoba. Subscribe and listen to The First Cut Apple Podcasts the and Spotify.
From 2013-18, Henley was one of the top players on the PGA Tour. Although Henley has struggled with the flat stick in recent seasons, his victory at the 2022 World Tech Championship shows what he is capable of with the club.
While the non-major champion — the 54-hole leader at the 2021 U.S. Open — and absent from the Ryder Cup and United States Presidents Cup, conventional wisdom and the PGA Tour’s deep depth suggest so. It will change in 2023. But don’t be surprised if the main season of the Championship comes around, or when Zac Johnson comes to Rome to choose his captain, if not Henley’s name. at least brought up in conversation. Grade: A+
Here are the remaining leaderboard values for the Mayakoba 2022 Tech World Cup.
T3. Scotty Scheffler (-18): After a quiet fall, Scheffler lit up the course at Mayakoba on Sunday with a 9-under 62 and the week round at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. It’s what we’ve become accustomed to from him earlier in the year, and even if he doesn’t win, his finals make it easier to imagine a bridge between 2022 and 2023. Grade: A-
“I feel good, the game feels good,” he said. “I’ve been hitting it really well this week, except for a couple of breaks, you know, bad breaks. And a couple of things went my way, a couple of putts, and I would have been OK in the tournament, but Russell is obviously playing great golf right now. And he’s just I just hope the cruise continues.”
T15. Collin Morikawa (-15): Morikawa had his best finish of the fall this week at Mayakoba and it coincided with his work with a new coach. Interestingly, he turned to analyst Trevor Immelman, who said Immelman is a little troubled by how difficult it is to reach the ridiculously high standard Morikawa set for himself by winning so many times (including two) early in his career. his first eight majors). Morikawa’s response was…weird.
“Wow, that’s hard to hear,” Morikawa told Golf Channel. “I couldn’t care less about what he said there because it’s not my lane. I think I have things to improve on. I was close to last place. I didn’t think I even ended up being average in putting. if i can rate my performance as average i think i have a lot of room for improvement. i don’t know where that came from but it has such a bite in there. love to hear it.
“I don’t know if it was a compliment, to be honest. If he said it, maybe I heard it wrong. For me, I’ve never seen a ceiling. I just want to keep getting better. .Obviously, we’ve taken a few steps back this year. It’s just trying to get better every day, trying to get better at the little things. I expect myself to play well. I set myself some really high goals. Going in.”
There must be a misunderstanding here, as Immelman was in no way trying to offend Morikawa. He just said that it was difficult to get back to the high bars early in his career, which is true. Morikawa’s response did not match Immelman’s treatment of him. Grade: B+
T10. Viktor Hovland (-16): It wasn’t a three-peat Hovland, but Hovland has now lost at Mayakoba, shooting 67-69-63-65-67-65-62-67-65-69-66-68 in the last three years. to nine of 393 competitors during that time. This, of course, is absurd. Grade: B-
