Someone check on Russell Henley to make certain he has a pulse. We assume that he does. But one can never be too sure. He just stunned Collin Morikawa over the closing holes in the Arnold Palmer Invitational to win $4 million, and he walked off the final green at Bay Hill Club acting like he got a great deal on paper clips at Dollar General.

It’s either that or he is a champion sleepwalker.

Either way, Henley is a man whose inner mobile phone is set on silent. Nothing seems to move him.

Henley didn’t quite pull off a vintage Palmer charge, but the Georgia native hit enough key shots down the stretch at Bay Hill Club to register a one-stroke victory for his fifth PGA Tour title. A chip-in eagle from 54 feet at the par-5 16th hole turned out to be the most consequential stroke in enabling Henley to rally past the hard-luck Morikawa, who had to settle for his 11th runner-up finish and second of the season after losing to Hideki Matsuyama at the Sentry to start the year. He looked poised to win for the first time since the 2023 Zozo Championship in Japan until all of a sudden he wasn’t.

Instead, Henley, 36, ended a victory drought that was even longer, having last lifted a trophy at the 2022 Worldwide Technology Championship in Mexico, a run of 47 starts.

Just one week after a desultory final nine holes left him T-6 at the Cognizant Classic, Henley was executing a series of ice-in-his-veins shots, including clutch par saves on the final two greens for a two-under 70 that gave him a winning 277 total.

“I just tried to hang tough,” said Henley, who said more than once this week that he is playing the best golf of his life the past few years since he began working with instructor Phil Kenyon. “This game is just so unbelievably hard, and this was so difficult.”

Apparently, Kenyon has helped to simplify things for Henley, especially on the greens, and some short-game work with Mark Blackburn the past two weeks has stabilized the one area that still needed some refinement. As good as his ball-striking has become, it was chipping and putting that largely made the difference as he played his last seven holes in four under par. Henley led the field in strokes gained/around the greens at +6.382.

A pair of two-shot swings essentially decided the outcome.

As Henley was struggling with bogeys on both front-nine par-5s and Canada’s Corey Conners was stuck in neutral, Morikawa, the 54-hole leader, missed a chance to put away the tournament. He turned with a three-shot lead but traded bogeys with Henley at 10 and birdies at the par-5 12th.

Then came the first two-shot swing. Morikawa, his iron game showing some cracks, came up short of the green at the par-3 14th hole. He pitched past the cup to 13 feet and missed the comebacker. Henley then rolled in a birdie from 10 feet.

Then there was the crucial 16th. Morikawa found the fairway bunker off the tee and had to lay up short of the water, while Henley found the right fringe with his second shot. After Morikawa’s wedge stopped 23 feet behind the hole, Henley worked his magic to leap in front. Other than slapping hands with his caddie Andy Sanders, his lowkey reaction suggested he’d just found an extra nickel in his pocket.

At the 17th hole, he saved par from six feet. This time he delivered a roar and a dramatic fist pump. Just kidding. He turned and calmly handed his putter to Sanders.

You just knew that the 18th just had to be different if he closed out the victory. Had to be.

Henley played safely left of the flagstick, leaving a putt of 42 feet that he lagged three feet past the cup. Morikawa’s tying attempt from 26 feet downhill veered way off the mark, but he managed to drop a nine-footer for par to force Henley to convert the knee-knocker. Which he did, and then he calmly put the ball in his pocket. No fist pump. No rousing cheer. Just a smile and a handshake with Sanders followed by hugs with his wife Teil and three children.

“That was as nervous as I can ever remember being,” said Henley, who so expertly hid it.

“He has a funny, goofy side at home, but on the golf course, he just doesn’t get too high or too low,” Teil said. “His focus is just so intense.”

A two-time Palmer Cup player as an amateur, Henley later admitted that he was in shock. “I mean, it’s still surreal wearing this thing [the winner’s red cardigan sweater] up here,” Henley said. “I’ve tried to just work really hard in all aspects of my game to try to put myself in position to win tournaments and compete at the highest possible level on the biggest and best courses, and just crazy that it happened like that. It’s just hard to take in. I can’t explain it.

“I’ve grown up watching this event and just seeing all the amazing finishes coming down the stretch, and you never really think you’re going to get that opportunity to come down the 18th and make a par to win,” he added.” It’s really just hard to take in right now. It’s a tremendous honor, and that’s what’s so cool about this game, is to go play where all the legends have played.”

Morikawa, who began the day with a one-stroke lead, closed with a 72 for a 278 total. He did not stop to take questions from the media afterward.

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Richard Heathcote

Conners toured Bay Hill without a bogey, but it wasn’t that exciting; he converted just one birdie, a 10-footer at 16, that momentarily nudged him within a shot of Morikawa. A 71 left him third at 279, good enough to qualify for the British Open this summer via the Open Qualifying Series.

Henley has risen to seventh in the world, a career high and a station he hasn’t yet embraced. But maybe that lack of acceptance is another indication that he is built a little differently. No sense in letting some numerical status in the game cloud your goal of being the best player you can be. Henley is more impressed by the guys he beat this week than he is with himself.

“I don’t really feel like a top-10 player,” Henley said, shaking his head. “I just, I have so much respect for this game and all these amazing players, and it’s just, it’s so difficult to even put yourself in the position to try to win a golf tournament in on the PGA Tour. I definitely don’t feel like it. I mean, I guess the rankings would tell you that, but I have so much respect for so many players out here who are all so talented, and so it’s hard for me to kind of comprehend that.”

Well, Russell Henley probably deserves their respect as well. After you wake him up.

Main Image: Richard Heathcote