Sean Martin: Big week ahead for Russell Henley, the surprising stat that's cool again and more morning musings

MONTREAL – Some musings from a Canadian coffee shop after the United States’ sweep of Thursday’s Four-ball session at the Presidents Cup:

Surprising stat alert

Is Driving Accuracy cool again? It’s something I was thinking about after the TOUR Championship, where four of the top five in that metric competed (Aaron Rai, Collin Morikawa, Sepp Straka and Russell Henley).

Driving Accuracy is often viewed as a U.S. weakness, but the Americans have four of the top 20 in that stat at Royal Montreal: Morikawa (second in Driving Accuracy), Henley (fifth), Scottie Scheffler (17th) and Brian Harman (19th).

Even Scheffler shows a different way to do it. He has copious length, but it’s not his focus. He hits a variety of shots off the tee to find fairways. He’s 56th in Driving Distance even though he has more in the tank (he was 16th in driving distance in his rookie season).

Driving it long (and in play) will always provide an advantage, but there are always risks to trying to max out speed, whether to one’s body or swing. But now we’re seeing a roadmap to success for players who have a game built around accuracy instead of distance. It also helps that technology helps everyone be long enough.

Russell Henley poised for breakout week

I foresee a big week for Henley at Royal Montreal (being paired with the world No. 1 for at least two matches definitely helps). At 35, he’s representing the U.S. for the first time as a professional. It took longer than expected after an incredible start to his professional career, but he’s making the most of it.

He birdied the opening hole of his Presidents Cup debut Thursday, then made the two birdies on the back nine that propelled him and Scheffler to the United States’ biggest win of the day (He stuffed a short-iron to 2 feet on 14 and holed a 20-footer on 15).

Henley is playing some of the best golf of his life as a father of three in his mid-30s who ranks 150th in Driving Distance. It’s an inspiration for people in a similar life stage who may feel like it’s tough to keep up.

Henley has three major top 10s in his career, and all have come in the past two years. He had two this year. This success came after Henley decided to re-dedicate himself to his craft to make one final push in his professional career. Four years ago, he fell out of the top 250 in the world ranking. He reached a career-high ranking of 12th earlier this year.

“I definitely feel like I've put in the work, and I feel like I've worked on all the right things,” he said. “Over the last five or six years, I feel like I've started to do things the right way.”

This is a good opportunity to revisit Henley’s wild career path:

• He was an amateur when he finished T16 in the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He won a Nationwide Tour (now Korn Ferry Tour) event as an amateur in 2011 and represented the U.S. in the Walker Cup before turning pro. He won twice and finished third on the Nationwide Tour money list in 2012. His first Nationwide win as a pro came in the 2012 Chiquita Classic (an all-time tournament name).
• He beat Patrick Cantlay and Morgan Hoffmann in a playoff that featured three of the game’s rising stars (I remember live tweeting it during the U.S. collapse in the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah).
• He then won his first PGA TOUR start as a member, the 2013 Sony Open in Hawaii. The following year, he won the Honda Classic in a playoff that included Rory McIlroy. Henley was a two-time TOUR winner and top-50 player in the world before turning 25.
• He struggled with the expectations that followed, however, and has won just twice in the decade since (2017 Houston Open, 2022 World Wide Technology). You can make a case that he’s playing the best golf of his career now.

New U.S. pairings hint at promising partnerships

The U.S. used five new pairings Thursday, teams that had never been used before. Of course, it helped that they had two rookies (Henley and Sahith Theegala) out there, as well as a player in Keegan Bradley who hadn’t played for a U.S. Team in a decade. I like the Theegala and Morikawa pairing, and it seems that Furyk does too. They’re one of two teams returning Friday after playing together Thursday (along with Scheffler and Henley).

Watching the contrast between the robotic Morikawa, who swings it like a human "Iron Byron," and the gangly, loose-limbed Theegala makes them a fun watch. Morikawa is one of the game’s most accurate players because he hits fades on repeat. You never know which shot shape Theegala is going to unveil until the ball is in the air.

If they have a good week, this could be a pairing that lasts for Morikawa. That’s something he has lacked in the team events, which is rather shocking considering his stature in the game and strong ballstriking. Part of that is due to circumstances out of his control.

In his first two team events – the 2021 Ryder Cup and 2022 Presidents Cup – the prevailing thought was to pair him with a long hitter primarily in Foursomes. It made a lot of sense. Give one of the game’s best iron players an extra 20-30 yards off the tee and let him go to work.

But his partners in those two events, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Young, haven’t played on a U.S. team since. Last year, Morikawa played with three separate partners in Rome (Rickie Fowler in Foursomes, and Xander Schauffele and Sam Burns in a pair of Four-ball matches).

I think this pairing – like Scheffler and Henley – is as much about the relationship as it is the data. Morikawa and Theegala are a pair of Californians who were teammates at the 2018 Palmer Cup. The easygoing Theegala could bring out some smiles from the serious Morikawa.

Final thoughts

Splitting up Cantlay and Schauffele on Thursday wasn’t surprising. They’ve been split in Four-ball before. Foursomes is their specialty, and they’re together again today.

The International Team is up against it. They’ve been much more competitive in Four-ball in the history of the Presidents Cup. That’s why they chose to use that format for Thursday’s opening session. The United States has dominated Foursomes.