Russell Henley Calls Penalty on Himself at Travelers to Teach His Son a Lesson

Henley is three strokes back of the 54-hole lead at TPC River Highlands after calling a penalty on himself when he took the club back and 'saw the ball move a dimple to the right.'

Russell Henley is in the hunt at the Travelers Championship despite calling a penalty on himself in Round 2. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

CROMWELL, Conn. — Golf is a game of honesty. 

Russell Henley enters the final round of the Travelers Championship three strokes behind Tommy Fleetwood’s lead. It could be two, though, if Henley didn’t call a one-stroke penalty on himself in Round 2 on TPC River Highlands’s par-3 8th hole. 

“When I took the club back, I saw the ball move a dimple to the right,” Henley said after a third-round 61. “I saw it fall to the right. And so I know that for a fact. And right when it happened, it kind of shocked me a little bit, I still hit the shot, and as the ball was rolling on the green, I was thinking, 'Something just happened there.' So I knew, I knew that the ball moved. I just felt it was the right thing to do. The rule says you have to be, I don't know if it's 19 out of 20 times or 95 percent, but just definitely sure the ball moved. And I am. And so I just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Maybe he could have gotten away with it, but it wouldn’t be worth agonizing over. 

“There’s been a couple times where I've been unsure that it moved,” the 36-year-old said. “And I've had a talk with [rules official] Ken Tackett about it, and multiple officials I’ve had that conversation with. And I’ve kind of beat myself up about it and feel guilty, kind of, like, 'I wasn’t sure. Is that a penalty?' It was like, 'Well, if you're not certain, then it's not a penalty.' So I've had that battle. It's like, 'Well, I think it might of, but I don't know.' I can't stand that part of having to decide. 

“But, yeah, it was hard, it was hard to put it behind me, just because it was such a hard day and it was such a good par save, and to make a 3 but to count it as a 4 was like, 'Ugh,' but part of it.”

Most importantly, however, Henley wanted to set a precedent for his son. 

“It was a good teaching moment,” he told CBS on Saturday.

If Henley comes away with the victory, he’ll be the best and most honest golfer in Connecticut.

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