Russell Henley is a very good fit for Colonial, a very tough golf course. He's a conservative player who doesn't take many chances, doesn't have many highs or, more importantly, lows. At Colonial, you just want someone who can make a lot of pars, avoid bogeys and throw in an occasional birdie.
But when you are down three shots with three holes to play? That's no time to play it safe.
Henley went on a torrid stretch to close regulation by draining three straight long birdie putts to stunningly catch 54-hole leader Eric Cole and force a playoff. He then birdied the first extra hole to complete the comeback and capture the Charles Schwab Challenge, leaving Cole still in search of his first PGA Tour victory.
In winning for the sixth time in his career, Henley sank birdie putts of 15, 15 and nearly 17 feet to close with a 3-under 70 and four-day total of 12-under. In the playoff, his X-iron did the trick, hitting his approach from 134 yards to inside five feet. Cole was nearly as good, though his 12-footer did not drop.
"Yeah, still kind of speechless about it," Henley told reporters in his victory media session. "I was on 15, let me think, 15 in the rough, after my tee shot, and was just like, man, I got to save par to not go over par on the day. So, yeah, I didn't really start thinking about birdieing the last three until when I made the putt on 17. … I just got a little bit of momentum and, yeah, hard to believe I'm sitting here."
The 37-year-old Henley entered the week ranked first on Tour in driving accuracy and fourth in bogey avoidance, just what you want at Colonial, annually one of the toughest courses of the season.
For the week, Henley was again first in fairways hit, plus greens in regulation, while second in Strokes Gained: Approach. He actually did have a high number of bogeys for him (six, plus a double), but still tied for fourth-best in the field. Really out of character, four of those bogeys came on the front nine on Sunday.
"Oh, man, I don't know," Henley said. "I was feeling a little jittery or quick or something on the front and hit some, well, I was hitting the fairway, I was just some poor iron swings. So just very frustrating to turn at 1-over par."
Henley was coming off a missed cut at the PGA. But he tied for third at the Masters, for sixth at Bay Hill and for 13th at THE PLAYERS, with four other top-25s. He's now won once the past two years, and is back up to fifth in the OWGR.
"Yeah, I've had some good tournaments this year," Henley said. I've also had a few that I've been frustrated with. Like I said earlier, I feel like mentally I've kind of let my frustrations get the best of me this year. So I felt like this week I wanted to start just being better about that and fighting all the way through the finish line. So, yeah, it's amazing to be 11th on the FedExCup and kind of fighting my way back up closer to the top there. I'm excited about the rest of the year and I'm going to keep trying to work hard at it and see if I can be in contention as much as I can."
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Eric Cole
Cole deserved better. He deserved to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. Instead, he left Texas with his career runner-up. He led for almost all of Sunday, holding off so many different guys who were on his heels, until he was finally chased down by the insanely hot Henley at the end. Cole may look back at a double-bogey on 9, but that happened so early in the round. It was his last bogey of the day, which is no easy task for a player looking for a first career win, especially on such a difficult track. This hadn't been a great season for Cole, but this runner-up gets him into his first signature event of the season this week at the Memorial. He's part of the Aon Swing 5 along with Wyndham Clark, Brandt Snedeker, Mac Meissner and Mark Hubbard.
Ben Griffin
Griffin won the Charles Schwab last year, And he came darn close to joining Ben Hogan as the only back-to-back winners ever at Colonial. He ended one shot out of a playoff after a final-round 65 moved him 16 spots up the leaderboard. Griffin has not played at the same level as last season, though he has come on of late. He was third at the Cadillac and tied for 14th at the PGA before this tie for third. His approach play has been the cause of season-long woes. He entered this week ranked 137th on Tour in Strokes Gained: Approach. At the Charles Schwab, he ranked 27th.
Alex Smalley
Smalley is not slowing down. He tied for third thanks to a 12-foot birdie putt on 18. He now has four top-10s and nine top-25s on the season, and seems destined for the TOUR Championship. There is zero weakness in his game right now. Smalley almost won the PGA; there's no reason he can't win a tournament this season. Smalley led the Aon Next 10 for the just-ended period, meading he will be in the Memorial this week. He'll be joined by Min Woo Lee, Kristoffer Reitan, Nicolai Hojgaard, Adam Scott, Jake Knapp, Gary Woodland, Aaron Rai, Alex Fitzpatrick and Nico Echavarria.
Mac Meissner
Meissner registered by far his best showing of a down 2026 by tying for third. His lone top-10 all season came in an opposite-field event, a tie for ninth at Myrtle Beach. But at least that was recent, offering some indication that Meissner is turning a corner, and now he gets to play in the Memorial this week.
J.J. Spaun
Spaun was within a shot of the lead for a good chunk of Sunday. He just couldn't take that final step forward. Instead, he took a couple of steps back with bogeys on 10 and 13 and wound up in a very disappointing tie for sixth. Spaun's putter has been his trouble spot all season, and he ranked 40th in the field in SG: Putting on Sunday.
Michael Brennan
The surprise winner in Utah in the fall has endured a brutal 2026 season. But on Sunday, Brennan briefly had a share of the lead. That was before a wacky back-nine left him in a tie for sixth. He had three birdies but also three bogeys. Brennan had had only one top-25 all season coming in, though it was at the Masters (T24).. He entered the week ranked 99th in SG: Approach and 150th in SG: Putting, and those are Exhibits 1 and 1A on why his season has been so bad.
Gary Woodland
The surprising season of Woodland continues. He used two late birdies to climb into a tie for sixth, giving him a third top-10 and fifth top-25 on the season – and all of those have come in the past two and a half months. Next up for him is the Memorial. This is more than a small sample size, Is it too early to give Woodland the Comeback Player of the Year award?
Nico Echavarria
Echavarria birdied four of the last six holes to zoom into a tie for sixth. He's had only three top-25s all season, but all three have doubled as top-10s and one of them, at the Cognizant, was a victory. Obviously it would be better for Echavarria to not run so hot and cold. It's hard to back someone in fantasy playing like that. But at least he'll play in the Memorial this week.
Steven Fisk
Fisk tied for seventh and, while it was his first top-10 all season, there might be some real change happening. He recently tied for 12th at the RBC Heritage, then for 19th at the Byron Nelson last week.
Justin Thomas
Thomas shot four rounds in the 60s, which sounds pretty darn good. But 69-67-67-69 netted him only a tie for 13th. Still, it was a fourth straight top-25 for Thomas, indicating he might finally be finding his form after missing the early past of the season following back surgery.
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama still hasn't missed a cut this season. In his 13th start, he tied for 13th. On the other hand, he has not had a top-10 since early February.
Jordan Smith
The veteran Englishman who is a rookie on the PGA Tour held the 36-hole lead after a pair of brilliant 65s. But a 74 on moving day did him in. He rallied on Sunday with a 69 to finish in a tie for 13th.
Ludvig Aberg
Aberg was the betting favorite entering the week. And, after arriving with top-8 finishes in six of his past seven starts, why not? But against a very beatable field, Aberg managed only a tie for 17th.
Max Homa
Homa had one of the best results of his season this week. Of course, that was not a high bar to surpass. His tie for 22nd was just his third top-25 of the season. It did move him inside the top-70 in the point standings – at exactly No. 70 – which is the cutoff point to make the playoffs.
Matt Kuchar
The 47-year-old Kuchar is pretty much counting the days, weeks, months and years till he's eligible for the Champions Tour. He got in the Colonial field on a sponsor invite and made the most of it with just his fourth cash in 10 starts. His T22 finish was also his second top-25 and the first in a full-field event. On Monday morning, Kuchar got a sponsor invite into the Memorial this week.
Akshay Bhatia
Since the signature win of his young career at Bay Hill in March, Bhatia has not had a top-10 in seven starts. After opening 67-65, he closed 71-73 to tie for 28th
Keegan Bradley
Bradley opened with a 65 but couldn't keep it going and tied for 35th, and thus a pretty bad season has also kept going. Bradley has only three top-25s – zero top-10s – all season and would not be in the playoffs if they started today.
Robert MacIntyre
MacIntyre has had a weird season. He has a runner-up and two fourth-place showings – one of those at THE PLAYERS – which combine to account for just about all his success this season. He has missed the cut at both majors so far. He tied for 42nd at Colonial, plummeting 15 spots on the leaderboard on Sunday after shooting a 73.
Tom Kim
Kim's terrible season – he didn't even qualify for the PGA Championship – continued even when it looked as if it wouldn't. He opened with a 64, but couldn't break 70 the rest of the week and ended up tied for 54th.
Sahith Theegala
Theegala has missed only one cut all season. But his past three starts have not been much better. He has not finished better than the tie for 60th he managed this week. He was due for some off weeks, but you have to wonder after three in a row whether he has hit a wall.
MISSED CUTS
Rickie Fowler, Keith Mitchell, Tony Finau, Rasmus Hojgaard, Sungjae Im, Kevin Kisner, Sudarshan Yellamaraju. Fowler had been playing so well lately and was among the favorites to win. Instead, he ended up with his third MC of the season – all of them in Texas, if that means anything. … Mitchell did outstanding last week in a birdie-fest at the Byron Nelson, finishing fifth, and missed the cut in a tight-scoring tournament. Because of course. … Finau's one-week jump at the Nelson turned out to be just that – one week. … Hojgaard has been playing better than his results, but this week both were off. … Im continues a wildly up-and-down season in which it's hard to count on him from week to week. … Kisner doesn't play much anymore, and it showed. … Yellamaraju has now missed three cuts all season, but two have come in his past two starts. The other one was the PGA Championship. The grind of a long season may be starting to catch up with the surprising rookie.
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