The Punter's De-Brief: Hot Henley cruises to victory in Mexico

• Henley wins in style by four
• Tournament scoring record (-23) equalled
• Sony Open link firmly cemented

Pre-event 55.054/1 chance, Russell Henley, who was matched at a high of 75.074/1 before the off, began the fourth and final round of the World Wide Technology Championship leading by six and trading at 1.21/5.

It was a huge lead and the stats suggested odds of 1/5 were more than fair but as highlighted in the in-play blog, Henley's record in-contention hadn't been great of late.

Since winning the Sony Open nine years ago, Henley had led or been tied for the lead with a round to go five times on the PGA Tour and he'd failed to convert every time so anyone that piled in at long odds-on would have been starting to worry when he began his round slower than he had earlier in the week.

Henley had been bogey-free over the first three days but after opening round four with four straight pars, he dropped his first shot of the week on the par five fifth when he hit his approach to the green into the trees left of the putting surface.

Given he'd lost a five stroke lead with nine to play at the Sony in January, where he'd traded at as short as 1.061/18, it wouldn't have been a huge shock if the bogey at five was followed by some nervous play and last week's Bermuda Championship winner, Seamus Power, who had birdied two of the first five holes to get within four, was matched at a low of 8.615/2 but if Henley was nervous he didn't show it.

Henley's response to the drop at five was to birdie six, seven and eight and that gave him a big enough buffer to coast home with the minimum of fuss.

After a string of pars he bogeyed the 16th and the three-in-row from the sixth were the only birdies he made on the day but his one-under-par 71 was still enough to see him win by four over fellow Georgia Tech grad, Brian Harman.

Will Gordon, who had led after round one, Scottie Scheffler, Seamus Power, Troy Merritt and my 90.089/1 pre-event pick, Joel Dahmen, all finished tied for third and five back of Henley.

Russell Henley gets his 4th PGA Tour win, tying the tournament scoring record (-23) and margin of victory record (4 shots) at Mayakoba.

Henley led the field in driving accuracy and ranked 2nd in the field in scrambling (19-for-21).

? Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) November 6, 2022

Having sat second after round one, Henley led by three at the halfway stage and his backers had very little to worry about after that.

The World Wide Technology Championship has only been in existence since 2007 but Mark Wilson, Johnson Wagner, Patton Kizzire, Matt Kuchar, and now Henley, have all won both this event and the Sony Open so that really is a fabulous angle in and the runner-up, Harman, also boosted the link given he led the 2018 Sony by three at halfway before eventually finishing fourth.

Power boosted the link between this event and the Bermuda Championship and one of the reasons Dahman was backed before the off was because he'd won the Corales Puntacana Championship last year so that event remains a strong a pointer.

We're back to two events this week with the Houston Open on the PGA Tour and the Nedbank Challenge on the DP World Tour. I'll be back tomorrow with the previews.

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