It is fitting that as legendary UGA Men’s Golf Coach Chris Haack hangs up his spikes
that his charges, current and former, do what he did best: win.Russell Henley has just emerged victorious in a playoff against mythical mini-tour champion Eric Cole in a PGA Tour playoff at Colonial Country Club, taking the trophy for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
And the current Men’s Golf program is now competing in the stroke play portion of the NCAA National Championship, the 24th time the Bulldogs qualified for
Nationals under Coach Haack. If they do not make it to the top 8, that will end the season for the Bulldogs and unofficially be Coach Haack’s last meaningful task at the helm.
Henley now continues a run of 17 consecutive years a former Bulldog has won a PGA Tour event. He also moves to 2nd place (in my admittedly limited research) of ‘Dawgs in PGA Tour career wins with 6. Chris Kirk also has 6, and Bubba Watson remains at 10 (with 2 Masters titles included).
The Macon native (and I hear the current Macon resident) was hanging around the top of the leaderboad all week, opening in Fort Worth with consecutive rounds of 4 under par 66. As the weather warmed and the course firmed up, those low scores became scarce, but Henley still shot 69 Saturday to move within 3 of the lead.
That lead was held by Eric Cole, the 2023 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, after a blistering 3rd round 63 on the bouncy greens of Colonial. Cole began Sunday with a 1 stroke lead but a pack of chasers just behind. Playing 1 group ahead of Cole, Henley opened Sunday with a 20 foot eagle on the first and a birdie on the 2nd. Unfortunately he fell victim to the “Horrible Horseshoe”, and bogeyed holes 3, 4, & 5. Another bogey on 9, and Henley’s chances appeared doomed.
But the leaders never distanced themselves, and everyone carded a bogey or two as the play moved to the 2nd nine. And Henley took advantage: a birdie on 11, then closing out with clutch tweets on 16, 17, and a huge 15 footer on 18 to take the clubhouse lead.
Cole meanwhile played steady, and held serve with pars to close out an even par round of 70 and to tie Henley at 12 under par. A playoff ensued.
After a solid drive on 18 again, this time as a sudden death playoff, Russell hit a wedge to just inside 5 feet. Cole hit an admirable approach within 16 feet but couldn’t get the birdie to drop. So Russell did the admirable thing and drained the putt to cap his win, pick up $1.4 million, 500 FedEx Cup points, a restored and modified 1982 Jeep Scrambler, a ton of consideration for the President’s Cup team this fall, and great momentum heading into some big summer tournaments.
A tip of the cap to Coach Chris Haack, his many SEC accomplishments and two national championships for UGA, and for turning out the most productive school alumni in the most competitive golf tour in the world. Congrats to Russell, fingers crossed for the current Men’s team, happy retirement Haacker, and as always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!
