JJ Henry earns a spot in the PGA Championship after a victory in the Reno-Tahoe Open
JJ Henry recorded four birdies and an eagle during the final round of the modified Stableford Reno-Tahoe Open to earn the second PGA Tour victory of his career on Sunday, August 5, 2012.
After turning professional in 1998, he had to wait for 176 PGA Tour events to record the first victory of his career. Thereafter, he once again waited almost the same number of events to take the title home.
The victory also earned him a place in next week’s PGA Championship, the fourth and last major golf championship of the season.
“It's been a long time coming," Henry said. "I've been out here 12 straight years, so I've done something right. But it's been six years since I've won. To finally get over that hump again means a lot. ... Hopefully, I don't have to wait another 176 starts".
Henry started off with four straight pars prior to recording three birdies during a four-hole stretch starting from the fifth hole.
Thereafter, he parred each of the next six holes before birdying the 15th hole. The only point that he lost during the final day was a bogey on the 16th hole.
According to the modified point system, a player gets two points for recording a birdie, five for eagle and eight for an albatross.
On the other hand, par putts do not earn anything for the players and bogeys penalize them with one point. Moreover, if someone goes worse than a bogey, three points get deducted from their overall score.
According to Henry, Alexandre Rocha, who took the second spot on the leaderboard, gave him a tough competition till the end.
Rocha earned nine points in the final round. Yet, he settled one stroke behind Henry and missed the chance of forcing the game to enter the playoffs.
"Alex played great and really kept the pressure on down the stretch to make it interesting out there," Henry said. "To be honest, those are some stressful holes coming in -- 16, 17, 18. There's a lot of drama and a lot of things that kind of go through your
mind, good, bad and indifferent on those last couple of holes".
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