The Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas — Russell Henley went from standing in the rough and just trying to avoid going over par in the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge to winning the tournament.

After saving par at the 15th hole Sunday to remain three strokes off the lead, Henley made four consecutive birdies. He finished regulation with three in a row to force a playoff with Eric Cole, then got his fourth with a 5-footer on the first extra hole.

“Still kind of speechless about it,” Henley said after a closing 3-under 67 and his sixth PGA Tour victory. “Hard to believe I’m sitting here.”

Henley’s late surge denied fellow 37-year-old Cole his first PGA Tour win on a day when Ben Griffin came up just short of a shot to become the only player other than Ben Hogan to win consecutive tournaments at Colonial.

Playing in the group ahead of Cole, Henley made 15-foot putts at the 171-yard 16th hole and the par-4 17th. He got to 12 under with a 17-footer on the par-4 18th.

Cole shot an even-par 70. He parred the final seven holes — eight counting the playoff.

Griffin (65), Alex Smalley (68) and Mac Meissner (69) finished 11-under 269 at Hogan’s Alley.

Henley, whose best finish this year had been a tie for third at the Masters, earned $1.78 million, the plaid jacket and a customized 1982 Jeep Scrambler vehicle.

“I’ve been playing really well the last three or four years, or even more, really. And even though I’ve been playing well, I still feel like I keep coming back to this realization that it’s just so hard,” Henley said. “So to get to win out here and to play consistently well, it takes everything out of me. … There’s just the mental grind of it as well. So just each time I’ve gotten over the finish line and gotten a win it’s just very special.”

The drives for Henley and Cole on the extra hole, playing the 18th again, stopped in the fairway — Cole got a huge break when his ball somehow bounced through the left rough and settled on the edge of the short grass. Henley then hit his wedge shot first, and Cole hit his to 13 feet before missing his birdie attempt.

Cole, in his 120th PGA Tour start since his debut in 2021, never fell out of the lead in regulation during the final round, even when finishing the front nine with his first double bogey (or worse) in a span of 316 holes. After a wayward drive at the 398-yard ninth and an approach into the water fronting this green, his long bogey chance stopped an inch from the cup.