Russell Henley thought the weather suspension at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday would last more than 21 minutes.
It was raining so hard during the first round of The Players Championship when the No. 6-ranked player in the world ran off the green on 2 into the clubhouse that he didn’t think he was going to be held-in position.
So he did what many of us would do in that situation: took a lunch break.
“I didn’t stay in place,” Henley told reporters after his first 18 holes were complete at The Players. “We ran in because I thought it was going to be like a tornado, it was raining really, really hard. When I went inside I was hitting the lunch table and Ben Griffin said, ‘You have a restart in four minutes.’”
After sprinting back out to the course without a warm-up, the 36-year-old Henley parred the second. If the ordeal rattled him, he didn’t show it. He made three birdies on the front nine on his way to a 4-under 68, good for tie for sixth with Justin Thomas.
Henley, Thomas and Taylor Moore trail Maverick McNealy, Sepp Strake and Lee Hodges by a stroke entering the second round.
On a day full of wild scorecards, Thomas had six birdies and two bogeys. He was coming off a 79-79 missed cut at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in his first action on Tour since back surgery in November.
Henley and Thomas are each set to tee off at TPC Sawgrass at 1:42 p.m. ET on Friday, when the weather is forecast to be much nicer.
“It was coming down really hard, like sideways, so I just ran into the clubhouse,” Henley said. “I didn’t think that would be a hold-in-position type of weather based off my experience. But it was.”