Four Georgia Bulldogs teed it up at Augusta National in the first two rounds of the Masters. Three will continue to play into the weekend.
Bubba Watson, most notably, is the second-round leader at 7-under par. But Russell Henley is also on the leaderboard. His 2-under-par 70 put him at 1-under for the tournament and in a tie for 10th. Chris Kirk shot 72 to slip under the cut line at 3-over.
Masters rookie Harris English shot 76 on Friday and 150 over two days to miss the cut by two strokes.
“I don’t know what Harris is ranked in the world (36) but he’s going to be ranked high for a long time,” said Henley, who played with English for four years at UGA. “Everybody out here knows what a great player he is. All he needs is experience. I’m not worried about him. I think he’s going to be competing out here for a long time. He’s got a really nice game.”
So does Henley, and it was on full display at Augusta National on Friday. He recorded five birdies and just barely missed a sixth when he missed 10-foot putt on 18. The highlight of his day was a 55-yard chip-in for birdie on No. 17.
“I was talking to (Adam) Hayes, my caddie, and I said, ‘do we want to be short of this or past it?’” Henley recounted. “He said, ‘to be honest with you buddy, we want to be right next to it.’ I was like, ‘oh, thanks for being honest with me.’ It was cool.”
Henley’s chipped slammed into the cup off the flagstick. He also birdied 16, which followed a somewhat unlucky bogey on the par-5 15th hole. His ball looked to be headed dead for the flag but hit a foot short of the ridge in front of the green and ended up rolling back into the pond.
“I really didn’t beat myself up too much and I think that’s the key,” said Henley, who recorded five birdies Friday. “If you can stay even keel and just kind of roll with the punches a little bit out here, keep hitting good shots and stay confident, you can make some birdies out here.”
Kirk made four birdies as well. He credited a series testy putts on Nos. 13 (10 feet for birdie), 14 (20 feet to save par) and 15 (a sliding, downhill 10-footer for birdie) for making the cut. He made bogey on the final hole yet still had a stroke to spare.
“I’m very pleased to make the cut, to know that I could still make it with not my best stuff. It feels pretty good just to play OK and hang around,” he said.
English wasn’t mourning missing his first cut. All it did was motivate him to get back as quick as possible.
“It was unbelievable,” English said. “Such a cool experience out here. Everybody can tell you how the Masters is going to be, but until you go through it, that’s how you learn. Hopefully I’ll be back next year and know a little better what to do.”
Henley had a similar experience last year when he missed the cut in his first Masters. This year not only did he make the cut but he feels like he’s contender.
“When they always talk about the guys 25 and under, they don’t talk about me that much, which is OK,” Henley said. “At the same time, I’m ranked 43 in the world and I’ve won twice on the tour. I’ve played in a bunch of majors. I haven’t had that much success in them, but I do have that experience. Not to say that makes me a favorite for the weekend on anything. I mean, I’m a confident golfer and I’m getting more and more confident out here playing with these guys. It may be somewhat surprising to some people, but I feel like I’m right where I need to be.”
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