Say this for Russell Henley: He knows his Masters’ history.
Asked how he managed to four-putt No. 1 during to open Saturday’s third round, Henley channeled his best Seve Ballesteros impression.
“I putt, I miss; I putt, I miss; I putt, I miss; I putt I make,” Henley said, trying to parrot famous the quote of the late Spaniard Seve Ballesteros.
Like his game Saturday, Henley was just a little off. When asked about four-putting No. 16 in 1990, Ballesteros said: “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make.”
Other than that first hole, Henley actually played fairly well on Saturday. He followed up the double bogey by carding birdies on four of his next seven holes. Only a bogey on the No. 9 kept it from being a truly blistering front nine.
Henley followed eight pars on the back with a bogey on 18 to shoot even-par 72 and enter Sunday’s final round as low Bulldog at 2-under-par for the tournament.
“I played pretty good,” said Henley, one of four UGA alums remaining in the field. “I left a couple out there for sure. I still hit it great and thought I made a lot of good decisions. A couple of more putts fall in on the back and I’d have had a pretty good round. So I hung in there pretty good.”
Two-time champion Bubba Watson continued to struggle with the putter and fell back to 1-under with a third-round 73. Chris Kirk rallied from a front-nine 40 to shoot 32 on the back and stay at 1-over. Erik Compton also struggled on the front on the way to 74 and a three-day total of 219, or 3-over-par.
None of the Bulldogs will be in the hunt for any hardware this year at Augusta. But Henley is among those that can play his way into the top 12 and ties that get the automatic invite back to next year’s competition. With that in mind, he’ll take an aggressive approach into Sunday.
“I’m in a spot now where it’s not really (important) if I shoot a couple over or 10-under, it’s not going to make a difference,” Henley said. “Ten-under would make a big difference but 10-over is not. Twenty-fifth or 40th, I’m going to try to finish as solidly as I can. I’ll be a little more aggressive if I get the chance.”
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