In this week’s “The Starter,” Russell Henley turns Colonial into a late-Sunday test of nerve, Eric Cole leaves Fort Worth still chasing but hardly empty-handed and Celine Boutier returns to a familiar LPGA Tour winner’s circle at Seaview just as the women’s game heads into a major week at Riviera.

The PGA TOUR: Russell Henley’s Colonial Finish Had Everything This Place Demands

There are wins that look clinical on a leaderboard and feel entirely different when you trace the path.

Russell Henley’s victory at the 2026 Charles Schwab Challenge was not clean, easy or inevitable. That is part of why it fit Colonial so well.

He started the final round three shots back. He stood on the 15th hole simply trying to keep the round from slipping away. Then he birdied 16, 17 and 18 to force a playoff with Eric Cole, went back to the 18th tee, and beat Cole with another birdie on the first extra hole. It was Henley’s sixth PGA TOUR win, his second victory in the last two seasons and the kind of closing sequence that turns a solid week into a career marker.

Colonial Did What Colonial Does

Colonial Country Club has never been a place that lets players fake their way around it for long. The golf course asks for shape, distance control, patience and a willingness to accept that birdies have to be earned more than chased.

Henley said after the win that Colonial is “such a unique course,” and that it forces players to be in the fairway, control irons and stay fully committed. That was the story of Sunday. It was not just that Henley made the putts late. It was that he stayed engaged long enough for those putts to still matter.

The numbers made the finish even better. Henley became only the second Charles Schwab Challenge winner to make birdie or better on the final three holes of regulation, joining Jordan Spieth in 2016. He also moved from No. 26 to No. 11 in the FedExCup standings, a major jump with the Memorial Tournament, the U.S. Open and the heart of summer now waiting.

Eric Cole Lost the Playoff, But Not the Week

Eric Cole will not want to hear about moral victories. Players at this level do not come to Colonial to almost win.

Still, there is something meaningful in the way Cole handled Sunday. He entered the final round with the lead after a brilliant Saturday 63, survived a double bogey on the ninth hole, and still had a putt in a playoff to keep the tournament going.

Cole said afterward he was proud of the way he played and called trying to win at Colonial “a big spot.” That matters because Cole continues to put himself in places where a first PGA TOUR win becomes less a distant hope and more a matter of time, execution and one better bounce or read.

He also earned his way into the Memorial Tournament through the Aon Swing 5. For a player who said he had not played any Signature Events this season, that is not a small consolation. It is another start on another big stage and another chance to move the story forward.

Ben Griffin, Alex Smalley and Mac Meissner finished one shot back at 11 under. Smalley’s T3 continued a run of seven straight top-25 finishes, while Meissner also earned a Memorial spot through the Aon Swing 5. Those are the details that often get buried beneath a playoff, but they matter when trying to understand where the PGA TOUR season is headed.

The LPGA Tour: Celine Boutier’s Seaview Win Felt Like a Reset Button

Celine Boutier did not arrive at the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern looking like a player poised for a breakthrough.

She came back to a place that already meant something to her, stayed close enough through the first two rounds, then shot a final-round 66 to win by one over Arpichaya Yubol. Boutier finished at 9 under, with Yubol at 8 under and rookie Lauren Walsh alone in third at 7 under.

This was Boutier’s second ShopRite LPGA victory, her first coming in 2021, and her first LPGA Tour win since the 2023 Maybank Championship. The final-round notes put the gap at 954 days. That is a long time for a player of Boutier’s caliber to keep doing good work, keep showing up, keep believing and keep waiting for the result to match the standard.

Seaview Rewarded Patience, Not Panic

Boutier overcame a four-shot deficit on Sunday, made five birdies, one bogey and needed only 26 putts. That last number matters because Seaview’s Bay Course can look gettable until the wind changes, the angles shift and the greens ask a different question.

Boutier explained that the course can be played “so many different ways,” with wind and club selection keeping players uncomfortable. That is often where her best golf lives. She is not always overpowering a course. She is solving it.

This win also made her the first European winner on the LPGA Tour this season and the eighth unique winner of the year. It was her seventh career LPGA Tour victory and another reminder that when Boutier’s game finds rhythm, she is one of the most complete players in the women’s game.

The Timing Could Not Be Much Better

The LPGA Tour now turns toward Riviera, and Boutier’s timing is hard to ignore.

She has already won a major, the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, and she said winning at Riviera would be “iconic.” That is the right word. Riviera is not just another host course. It is a stage with weight, texture and history, and it should reward the same traits Boutier showed at Seaview: patience, precision, mature decision-making and the ability to handle uncomfortable shots.

Yubol’s runner-up finish deserves attention too. Her closing 66 included seven birdies, and it marked her second runner-up finish of 2026. Walsh’s solo third was also a significant moment, giving the rookie her best LPGA Tour result and first finish inside the top 60.

But the week belonged to Boutier because it felt like more than a win. It felt like a player reconnecting with the version of herself that had never really gone away.

The Closing Thought

A late charge at Colonial and a comeback at Seaview told different versions of the same story.

Henley did not win because he was perfect. Boutier did not win because the last two years had been easy. They won because they stayed close enough to let their best golf show up when the tournament finally asked for it.

That is usually where the season starts to reveal something.