{"id":938927,"date":"2026-10-24T05:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938927\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T05:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:56:14","slug":"hot-hensby-one-off-pace-in-schwab-cup-playoff-opener-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/938927\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Hensby one off pace in Schwab Cup playoff opener \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A double-bogey did not deter Darren Clarke from setting the pace at the Stifel Charity Classic, the Northern Irishman taking a one-shot lead over Australia\u2019s Mark Hensby after the first round of the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs opener \u200cin St Louis.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke rattled off nine birdies in his opening round at Norwood Hills Country Club on Friday (local time), three of \u200cthem coming over the last five holes after he doubled the par-4 13th.<\/p>\n<p>At seven-under-par 64, he is one stroke ahead of Hensby and two in front of Americans Vaughn Taylor and Tim Petrovic.<\/p>\n<p>Hensby had four birdies on his front nine and two after the turn to card a six-under 65 and be outright second.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792821374_234_.jpeg\" alt=\"Darren Clarke\"\/>Darren Clarke has a one-shot lead after the first round in St Louis. (<a href=\"https:\/\/photos.aap.com.au\/search\/20140412000928571368\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EPA PHOTO<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>The 58-year-old Clarke, who has six PGA Tour Champions wins to his credit, came into the playoffs 12th in the standings. He\u2019s \u2060projected to move up to fifth if he wins the first \u200cof \u200bthree playoff events, while Stewart Cink could maintain a healthy lead. Cink is currently fifth on the leaderboard at four-under \u200b67, three behind Clarke.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200ctop 72 players in the regular season qualified for the playoffs, and the top 54 in the standings \u200bafter this week advance to the Simmons Bank Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hensby sits in 62nd and has an opportunity to rocket up those standings if he continues to play how he played on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>However, he revealed after his \u200bround \u200bthat he has booked a trip back \u200bto Australia and doesn\u2019t intend on missing it, even if \u200che advances in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think my time\u2019s done out here,\u201d Hensby said after his bogey-free 65. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed it. I\u2019ve not really \u2013 let\u2019s just say I\u2019ve had enough and I want to spend time at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously if I win (this tournament), then at the end of the day, next year if I felt like coming out in the summertime, which I \u200bwon\u2019t be out here but if I did come out, it would be in the summertime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut yeah, I\u2019d like \u2060to have that choice so to speak, I guess. But in saying that, \u200bthere\u2019s a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hey @FrankCaliendo \ud83d\udc4b  Got a @DarrenClarke60 impression? https:\/\/t.co\/XNoc5rfdbw<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChampionsTour\/status\/2113721533487272346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of the other Australians in the field, Greg Chalmers and Steve Allan are both at three-under, a shot clear of David Bransdon, Richard Green and Michael Wright.<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Appleby is one over, while Cameron Percy and Mathew Goggin are both even with the card.<\/p>\n<p>Rod Pampling opened with a four-over 75, with Scott Hend two shots further back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A double-bogey did not deter Darren Clarke from setting the pace at the Stifel Charity Classic, the Northern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,405163,85,2614],"class_list":["post-938927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-overseas-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}