Henley grabs 2-shot lead in Wyndham

Aug. 13—GREENSBORO — Russell Henley talked of losing his focus on his final hole because he was affected by the sweltering heat that smothered Sedgefield Country Club for most of Thursday.

Fortunately for the three-time winner on the PGA Tour, he rammed in a birdie from 19 feet on No. 18 for his third in the last four holes to finish at 8-under 62 and hold a two-shot lead overnight lead in a Wyndham Championship first round that was interrupted by.a late afternoon storm and suspended because of darkness.

"I'm definitely glad it hit the hole," Henley said. "I lost a little focus there. I think everybody's about to pass out at this point, it's so hot. Yeah, after three weeks off, obviously I feel really excited about my score. I was a little bit rusty with the swing but had a few good breaks, but also didn't capitalize on a few holes that I was hitting it well."

Henley, who last won in 2017, made an eagle and six birdies in a bogey-free round. He made the eagle on fromfive feet on No. 5 and followed it with a long birdie putt on 6 and chipped in from 70 feet for birdie on 7 to reach 4-under and kick start the round.

"I had one chip-in, one long putt and hit it close one time," Hensley said. "Things got going there."

Sung Kang, Ted Potter Jr., Michael Thompson, Hudson Swafford, Scott Piercy and Chris Kirk completed play in a tie for second at 6-under 64, and Adam Hadwin is at 6-under with two holes to play. A total of 24 golfers will finish their first round this morning.

Henley, who is a native of Georgia, admitted that he is not the most expert at dealing with the heat.

"I don't know, I'm trying to figure that out," Henley said. "Maybe I need to drink more Gatorade. It's hot out there and there's a couple tee boxes where there's no air flow. Growing up in the South, I guess I should be used to it."

Kang, who like Henley teed off early, was also surprised that the temperature rose so quickly. He plays in the afternoon today.

"I didn't think it was going to be this hot," Kang said. "I'm going to bring probably some towels, maybe a light umbrella, Sunbrella, something like that. It's really hot. I've never really had this hot in Greensboro. I think it's probably a little bit warmer than normal, so I think I've definitely got to make sure I've got to take some rest, get refreshed and get ready to go."

Potter, who has two tour wins, thought conditions were ripe for scoring despite the heat.

"It's nice and steamy out there, so you've definitely got to drink a lot of Gatorade and water out there," Potter said. "But the course is dry. It's rolling in the fairway, so you can hit some big drives out there and give yourself some lower irons to the greens to score.

Perennial Wyndham contender Webb Simpson made two late birdies to join Tyler McCumber, Andrew Landry, Brian Staurd, Jhonattan Vegas and Michael Gligic and Denny McCarthy are another stroke back at 65.

Simpson overcame a double bogey on his first hole.

"You know, I had a great last couple days, a great warmup, and that's the last start I had in mind," SImpson saId. "I just reminded myself walking back to 2 that there's 71 holes left and there's going to be plenty of birdie opportunities today and I've got to move on. It's hard to do that in that moment, but it was my only choice."

Simpson rebounded immediately with a birdie on 2. He was on 15 green when play was interrupted, made a birdie when it resumed and birdied 17.

"The break lasted long enough where I didn't think we were going to go back out, but I'm glad we got it done, I'm glad they kept us around," Simpson said. But it was nice to — I had a short putt for birdie on 15 and then birdied 17, so it was a good finish. It's going to be a quick turnaround for tomorrow.Matt Kuchar, Olympic silver medalist Rory Sabbatini, K.J Choi, Tommy Fleetwood and former major winners Padraig Harrington, Adam Scott and Justin Rose finished among a huge knot at 4-under. Scott is trying to stay in the top 125 in points and qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs which begin next week while Rose needs a top 10 finish to climb into the top 125..

"It was important to get off to a good start today because that's kind of been the theme of the year is go backwards on Thursday and then fight my way back," Scott said. "So to kind of move in the right direction felt good. I hit a lot of good iron shots, a couple bogeys that were a bit soft, but hopefully I can have a couple days where I clean them up and get myself right in the mix."

Two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson, Francesco Molianri, Harold Varner III and Doc Redman are in a big group at 3-under. Hiedki Matsuyama and Zach Johnson finished at 1-under but former winner J.T. Poston and Rickie Fowler are at 1-over and are in danger of not making the cut.

gsmith@hpenews.com