Russell Henley misses the chance of first Web.com Tour victory as a professional
Russell Henley came close to his first Web.com Tour victory as a professional, when he participated in the Midwest Classic, presented by Cadillac. The event was held at the Nicklaus Golf Club at LionsGate, from August 16 to 19, 2012. Earlier, he won the
Stadion Classic at UGA as an amateur.
Henley was sharing the third position while standing on the first tee of the final round on Sunday. A confident start – two birdies on the opening three holes – challenged his rivals on top of the leaderboard.
Through 16 holes, he was four-under for the round and 16-under for the tournament. Moreover, he shared the lead with Shawn Stefani while teeing off on the 17th hole.
At that time, Stefani was playing his final hole of the tournament and recorded a birdie to take the sole lead. Meanwhile, Henley bogeyed the 17th hole and he had to eagle the final hole in order to force the game to enter into the playoffs.
However, he only managed to turn in the ball for a par putt and tied for the second place, along with Luke List.
"I was between clubs on No. 17 and was having a little difficulty reading the wind on that hole because the houses block the wind a bit. I hit my shot about five feet left of where I wanted and it plugged in the bunker," Henley said.
"The bunkers have a ton of sand in them. I've never played on a course that had so much sand. It was a little disappointing since I thought I hit a pretty good shot".
In the meantime, Matt Weibring, the 54-hole leader, spent the whole day moving up and down on the leaderboard.
He had a one-stroke lead over James Nitties while starting his final round campaign. The advantage was lost when he double-bogeyed the opening hole.
He then made a strong comeback when he birdied each of the final five holes on the front nine. However, he failed to keep his momentum going into the back nine and bogeyed four of the first five holes after the turn.
His final score at the end of the tournament was 14-under par, three behind Stefani, who won the tournament in the end.
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