Sleeper Picks: Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide

Click here to read the full article…

Russell Henley knows better than to quit his day job. Even so, he has enjoyed occasionally getting up on stage and playing his guitar with the likes of Keith Urban, Darius Rucker and the alternative rock band, O.A.R. over the years. “I was nervous,” the three-time PGA TOUR champion admits. “But I was excited to play – I probably had some false confidence.” Henley’s first jam session came courtesy of a bet made with Rucker during the pro-am of what is now known as the RSM Classic in 2014. When the TOUR pro won, he soon found himself on stage after the tournament, playing the Hootie & The Blowfish classic “Wagon Wheel.” “I just said, hey, do you want to play a match today, and he said, sure,” Henley recalls. “And by like the 12th hole, he said, you win. And so, I just asked him if I could play a song with him, and he nicely enough said yes.” Then at The Genesis Invitational in 2015, Henley played three songs with O.A.R. during a free concert on the range at historic Riviera Country Club. And Peter Jacobsen, who once had his own band on TOUR called Jake Trout and the Flounders, set up a date with Urban at the CVS Charity Classic later that year. These days, though, Henley’s spare time is spent with his two kids, 3-year-old Robert and Ruth, who’s 2. Besides, he says the real talent in the family belongs to his wife, Teil Duncan, an accomplished artist whose impressionistic paintings and prints are sold all over the world. “I think it’s amazing that she’s brought her business to where it is,” he says. “To where it’s just something that everybody can appreciate, whether you’re an artist or just somebody like me who doesn’t know much about art and can just say, I like the way that looks on that wall.” Henley, who is self-taught, has played guitar since he was 8 years old. His best friend and brother-in-law – they actually married sisters — always seemed to be in a band, and Henley loved music, too, particularly newer country music and anything from the ‘90s. “There was a time in my life, early to mid-twenties where I traveled with my guitar and played a lot,” Henley recalls, adding that his caddie did the same. Just don’t ask him to sing, though. “I’m terrible at singing,” Henley says. Duncan, who studied art at Auburn, wasn’t in the audience for Henley’s performances with Urban, Rucker or O.A.R. But she does remember her husband playing for her when they started dating after meeting at the wedding of her sister and his best friend. “Probably the first time we hung out, he would pull his guitar out,” she says. “So, he would just sing, like there was not a shy bone in his body. I was kind of laughing to myself because I was like, I can’t believe this. The guy’s just singing in front of me. “He just doesn’t even care, but it really put me at ease because I just knew that he didn’t care. He wasn’t nervous. So, it made me not nervous.” Just as Henley shared his music with her, Duncan made art a part of their relationship, too. She would do a sketch of her husband on the front of his birthday card every year. “And then I was like thinking to myself, I’m going to do this as a tradition every year,” Duncan recalls. “But then you know, kids happen. And so maybe one day we’ll pick that back up again.” Although she says she was “flying by the seat of her pants,” Duncan already had her business up and running when she met Henley. Rather than hanging her paintings in a gallery with limited exposure, she had utilized Facebook and Instagram to build a much broader audience. She paints – usually acrylics, watercolors and some oils – in a backyard studio at their home in Columbus, Georgia. Duncan’s style is distinctive, a delightful and colorful mix of reality and the abstract. “I’ll work on one collection at a time and produce about 15 paintings,” she explains. “And about every other month, I’ll say this beach collection is available July 6th at 11 a.m. They all become available on my website and people buy in from all over the country.” Her past collections include animals, pool scenes, flowing dresses and portraits. She has done coffee table books, stationary, notecards and wrapping paper, as well as collaborations with nationally known retailers like Crate and Barrel, One Kings Lance and Anthropologie. The couple’s two children often make “appearances” in her paintings of beach scenes or settings by the pool. One day, she plans to do their portraits. For now, her favorite painting at their home is the large abstract figure hanging in the “manly” room where Henley’s golf memorabilia are displayed. “This job is just so ridiculously wonderful,” Duncan says. “I feel like I get to go play in my backyard and have this amazing hobby, but I also get to make a living out of it. And it doesn’t demand a ton of time out of me. It’s okay if I take time away. “And then if I do, like during the pandemic, Russ for the first time ever could say, oh, I don’t have to practice. There’s literally nothing coming up. So, he watched the kids a ton. I got to paint a ton and it’s just, it’s always there. I can go back to it when it when I can and I can step away from it whenever. And it’s fine.” Henley enjoys seeing how others react to Duncan’s paintings. He says sometimes he’s too close to it to fully appreciate the artwork she creates. “I know it’s impressive,” Henley says. “And I should probably just look at it the same way she thinks about my job. They’re both very difficult. They’re very cool, interesting jobs, but they both require time and to practice it and figure out how to do it. “People seem to always love it and want to check it out. We have a studio we built for her in our backyard in Columbus and they’ll come over and just want to walk around it and look at it and see how, how does this happen? What’s going on here? “She always has some work she’s been working on, on the wall and it’s just paint everywhere. It’s all over the floor. It’s everywhere. And it’s a cool spot to come check out and people always love seeing it.” Duncan estimates that several dozen TOUR players or their wives have purchased her artwork. So, does she ever get the urge to paint golfers or golf courses? “People ask me that all the time,” she says. “And I never really have only because I’m kind of more drawn to an unmanicured landscape, but I’m not totally closed minded to it. “I really am surprised it hasn’t happened to be honest.” Not to worry. Golf is Henley’s job.

Click here to read the full article…

There was something about the eyes. Jonathan Randolph had just seen one of the “Star Warsâ€� movies, and when he looked at that puppy he and his wife Lacy had adopted, well, let’s just say a light dawned. “I just kept looking at these dogs and they looked like Yoda; eyes way off the side and stuff,â€� Randolph says. “So that was in the back of my mind. When we found her, Yodi for some reason just came out. “Seemed like a good dog name.â€� Indeed, and the name stuck. So did Yodi, a brown and black and white Chihuahua, who has traversed the PGA TOUR and Web.com Tour with Randolph for nearly three years now. Randolph and his wife have recently added another traveling companion, too. Their son, Boyd, was born in March, and made his first trip – with Yodi in tow, of course – to A Military Tribute At The Greenbrier in July. “We said it was a traveling circus before, because we had a dog with us,â€� Randolph says with a grin. “And now we’ve got a baby. “It’s a lot more bags and stuff, but when they’re able to be on the road with me it’s just so awesome. It makes you feel a little bit more like home.â€� There are days when an excited Yodi entertains her humans by running circles around the hotel room. And she’s happy to help Randolph when he practices putting on the carpet, picking up golf balls and bringing them back to him. Yodi is still getting used to the new addition to the family, though. When Lacy picks Boyd up, for example, Yodi clamors to be in her arms as well. “She’s definitely gotten jealous, but also shows off like crazy when she knows he’s watching and she’s playing,â€� Randolph says. “She’ll start high stepping around and doing stuff to make him happy, which is pretty awesome.â€� In time, though, Randolph knows the Yodi and Boyd will be thick as thieves. “She’s got a new best friend,â€� Randolph says. “She just doesn’t know it yet. He’s been grabbing at her and doing that fun stuff. … Her life is going to get a whole lot more interesting when he gets mobile and can grab her. “For now, she’s got it made.â€� Yodi, who will be 3 years old in December, joined the family in early 2016. The couple was looking for a dog and Lacy had owned Chihuahuas in the past. When Randolph headed to South America to open the Web.com Tour season, the puppy stayed behind with Lacy at the couple’s home in Oxford, Mississippi. Once the Web.com Tour went stateside in March, their adventure began. “She’s been to almost 40 states,â€� Randolph says. “She’s well-traveled.â€� Yodi is remarkably calm for a breed that is known to be a bit skittish. And she’s perfectly content when Randolph puts her in a carrier and takes her on a plane. “She just sits there and looks at everything,â€� Randolph explains. “We’ve never gotten a complaint. So it’s a credit to her, not to us.â€� Yodi has been a positive influence in other ways, too. The first time Yodi came out to the golf course during competition, Randolph finished birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie-par at the 2016 BMW Charity Pro-Am. A year ago at the Albertsons Boise Open, the puppy watched as he played the final three holes in 7 under for the week. “I’m not going to say she’s a good luck charm, but good things happen when she’s around,â€� the Ole Miss grad says. On Tuesday, Yodi made her second straight appearance in the media center at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Randolph’s a member at the Country Club of Jackson, which hosts the tournament, and tied for third last year. “She had a good run here last year so she’s allowed to come back, I guess,â€� Randolph says. “I had my best finish on TOUR the only time she’s ever come to the media center, so it’s good to have her back in here.â€� The family has also been there for the not-so-good times, too, though. Take a month ago when Randolph found himself back at the Web.com Tour Finals after finishing 174th in the FedExCup. He thought his game was rounding into form but he ended up missing the cut in three of the four events – a stretch he called “one of the most devastatingâ€� of his career. Lacy, Boyd and Yodi were waiting for him beside the 18th green, though, and suddenly life was good again. “Just to have them there — it’s hard to put into words, you know, like what that’ll do for you,â€� Randolph says. “But it’s pretty awesome to have the little guy on the road. “Last year I said we were a traveling circus. We are legitimately a traveling circus now with the baby and the dog and everybody, but it’s like the most fulfilling thing ever.â€�

Click here to read the full article…