Russell Henley had made the same shot his entire life.
But staring at the 18th green at Idle Hour Club from the tee box Sunday, Henley faced an entirely new challenge.
Flanked by a few hundred of his closest friends and family, the Macon native was one hole away from realizing his dream of winning the 87th Georgia Amateur Championship on his home course.
Henley, 19, stuck his tee shot on the correct tier of the green and two-putted from 20 feet for a 1-under-par 69 to win the Georgia Amateur by one stroke over his University of Georgia roommate and defending tournament champion Harris English.
Henley's final score of 270 broke the Georgia Amateur scoring record held by former Masters champion Tommy Aaron and Allen Doyle, who has gone on to success on the Champions Tour after a long amateur career.
"There was some amazing pressure standing there," Henley said of the tee shot on the 18th hole. "I've played that shot my whole life, but never with this much riding on it. This is the biggest tournament I have ever won."
Henley became the first Macon native since Peter Persons in 1984 to win the Georgia Amateur and joins Persons and Arnold Blum, who won the tournament five times, as the only winners from Macon.
"This is just so incredible," said Persons, who has served as one of Henley's Idle Hour mentors. "It was absolutely his destiny to win this tournament at this golf course. But he still had to go out and do it."
Joined by his caddie and brother Adam, Henley completed the task many had expected of him when Idle Hour was awarded the tournament. Henley, who has been a golfing prodigy since his days on the junior circuit, has long been anointed the next great player from Macon, following in the footsteps of Persons, who also was a star at Georgia and later played on the PGA Tour.
Henley has won his share of area tournaments. He was the youngest player from Georgia to qualify for the U.S. Open Sectionals and also the youngest player to ever win the Macon-Middle Georgia Championship, both in 2005. As a freshman at Georgia, Henley led the team in scoring average and was named a second-team All-American.
"Everybody has seen for a long time that Russell is an extremely talented golfer," Persons said. "You're beginning to see how good he is. He's grown up a lot since high school, and he's getting better each week."
Henley, however, aimed much of his energy toward winning this tournament at Idle Hour. The opportunity to win the biggest amateur tournament in the state in front of his family and friends was his dream come true, he said.
But that came into doubt Sunday when Henley fell behind by four shots midway into his final round. He relied on his brother to calm him and his putter to lead him. He made a 20-foot birdie putts on No. 9 and a 30-footer on No. 11 to get back into the tournament. Henley eventually pulled away with steady play and English's errant shot out of bounds on No. 15 that cost him two strokes when play resumed after bad weather caused a two-hour delay.
"Russell kept it steady. He got a little nervous but got things rolling with those putts," Adam Henley said. "We bump fists a lot, and he about dislocated my finger after that putt on No. 11."
Because of commitments to his Georgia team, Russell Henley missed an opportunity to qualify for this tournament but was granted an exemption after he wrote a letter to the Georgia State Golf Association explaining his desire to play in the tournament at Idle Hour.
"Nobody deserves to win this more than Russell," Persons said. "He worked so hard to get to this point, and now he reached his goal for now. He has some bigger ones in the future, though."
To contact writer Jonathan Heeter, call 744-4208.
