Russell Henley has had more to battle than just a golf course this week.
The defending Sony Open in Hawaii champion is dealing with a stomach illness that forced him to withdraw from Wednesday’s Pro-Am after 12 holes at Waialae Country Club.
Still feeling the effects two days later, Henley, who torched the course for a tournament-record 24-under finish in 2013, showed flashes of the same form to shoot 5 under and make the cut on Friday.
"I’m getting there," said Henley, who sits at 2 under and will tee off at the 10th at 8 this morning. "I didn’t come close (to withdrawing); I wanted to play no matter what, even though I wasn’t feeling 100 percent, but I was still good enough to play."
It obviously made a difference as Henley, who shot no worse than a 67 last year, double-bogeyed consecutive holes on Nos. 10 and 11 to finish with a 73 on Thursday.
"I hung in there the best I could," Henley said.
With the projected cut on the other side of par Friday morning, Henley needed to go low to survive to the weekend.
He again failed to get anything going out of the gate, settling for bogey on No. 15 to drop back to 3 over.
His errant approach on 15 into the bunker on the right and failure to get up and down seemed to awake the beast inside of him that shot 63 three out of four rounds last year.
Henley began his ascent up the leaderboard rolling in a 13-footer for birdie on 16. His chop on 18 from roughly 70 yards away nestled to within 3 feet for an easy birdie and he got another on the par-4 second.
He saved his best for No. 6, where he rolled in a 21-footer from the back left portion of the green and closed with his fifth birdie in 11 holes on No. 8, sinking one from 16 feet.
"Today, I just tried to stick with the process and got the putter working and shot a good number," Henley said.
The 24-year-old University of Georgia alum sits eight shots behind leader Brian Stuard, but showed last year no deficit is large enough to overcome on this course.
In shooting the third-lowest score in tour history, Henley showed the putting stroke necessary to bring Waialae to its knees.
With a split-tee start today in advance of potential weather delays in the afternoon, the course should play a lot more difficult, which is to Henley’s liking.
"If I just keep putting the way I’ve been putting, I’ll be fine," Henley said. "I think this place is a lot of fun when the wind blows. It makes it a great course and adds a lot of character to the course, so I like it when it blows."
After becoming the first rookie to win in his first PGA Tour start in 12 years, Henley cracked the top 10 only twice more in 2013.
"I’ve put in some good work in the offseason and I’m just excited to get the year started," said Henley, who finished 27th in last week’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions on Maui. "You don’t get to defend (a title) that often, so coming out here, a couple more people know who I am than before, but other than that, I’m just teeing it up like everyone else out here."
