Russell Henley slam dunks eagle from 150 yards out at Honda Classic

Here’s one way to make a move up the leaderboard into second place.

Russell Henley’s play has been a mixed bag since he arrived with a win at the Sony Open last January. His putting at that event made it look like he would be force throughout his rookie season and become one of America’s top prospect golfers, but it’s been a grind at times since that first win at Waialae.

Henley is making one of his bigger pushes this week at the Honda Classic, opening with a 6-under round of 64 to sit one shot off Rory McIlroy, who lit up PGA National on Thursday with a 63. Henley fell back a bit on Friday, but he’s making another charge at Rory late in the afternoon of the third round.

The biggest reason for the move was this one-hopper slam dunk for eagle at the 14th hole. Henley bombed his drive 314 yards and was left with a full pitching wedge from 150. And that was just the right number (GIF via Adam Sarson of The Score):

Not a perfect slam dunk, but a one-hopper is pretty damn good. The eagle pushed Henley to 10-under, and he came within a shot of McIlroy for about 15 seconds before matching the Ulsterman with a bogey. He’s back to 9-under while Rory’s at 11-under. Here’s the top of the leaderboard as the third round gets into the final hour: