For Rancho Mirage's Berry Henson, the next shot at the PGA Tour comes in Kentucky

All Berry Henson wants is a chance, the right moment and the right place to fulfill a dream of making it to the PGA Tour.

Monday, the Rancho Mirage resident gave himself that chance.

With an 8-under 64 in a Monday qualifying tournament, Henson, a former Palm Desert High School golfer and veteran of the Asian Tour, earned his third PGA Tour start and his first in the United States. Henson will tee off Thursday in the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky, the alternate PGA Tour event to the British Open.

“This is the first one I have qualified for in the U.S, and first one in the U.S., so it’s kind of cool,” Henson said after playing a practice round Tuesday at the Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Ky., just outside of Lexington.

The event is more than his first U.S. PGA Tour start for Henson, who previously played in the PGA Tour co-sanctioned CIMB Classic in Malaysia in 2014 and 2018. It’s also a chance to put up a performance that could get him closer to the PGA Tour, if not in the 2019-20 season then perhaps in the 2020-21 season.

Backdoor to the PGA Tour

“The way it is set up now, if you get enough FedEx Cup points, if you can get around 80 points, that gets you into the Korn Ferry (developmental tour) playoffs,” said Henson, who turned 40 on July 4. “That’s one of those back doors most people don’t know about.”

The Korn Ferry Tour playoffs offer 50 spots onto the PGA Tour for the following year, as well as about 100 spots onto the next season’s Korn Ferry circuit. Since the Barbasol Championship is an alternate event offering only 300 FedEx Cup points to the winner rather than the 500 for a regular tour event, Henson will need at least a top-five finish to earn those 80 precious points. But it’s a goal within reach, he believes.

“It’s definitely peaking,” Henson said of his game. “We’ve put a lot of work in the last four months getting my body good, keep getting stronger. There is a correlation with my grip strength and my lower body, so we did a five-week training session (at Kinetix Health & Performance Center in Palm Desert) on grip and lower body and that combination helped my ball striking. My ball striking has been fantastic.”

A difficult qualifying process

In his last Asian Tour event in June, where he is fourth on the tour’s money list, Henson posted an eighth-place finish in the Korean Open. With no other events on that tour until August, Henson decided to come back to the United States, work with his trainers and play four Monday qualifiers. He has continued to play well, but the Monday qualifying process that gives four berths into that week’s event is highly competitive.

“I shot 67 in Minnesota for the (3M Open) and was knocked out after the third group finished,” Henson said with a laugh. “I shot 66 in Colorado (for a Korn Ferry qualifier) and missed the playoff by two shots.”

In Kentucky this week, his bogey-free 8-under 64 had Henson in position for a Barbasol berth, but a rain delay made for a long wait as Henson had played early in the day.

“One guy went out in the rain delay and birdied two of his last three,” Henson said. “Two guys had a chance to get to 8 on the 18th and they both missed, and that got us in clear (no playoff). It was a stressful afternoon.”

It was a rare success for Henson in the difficult world of qualifying, either through weekly events like Monday qualifying or other kinds of qualifying. An even-par final round in the Korean Open would have qualified him for the British Open this week. Instead, Henson shot 2-over 74 and missed the major championship.

Learning the course is key

“There have been so many close calls in the last year and a half,” said Henson, who has said he is happy with his life in Asia but still dreams of the PGA Tour. “Miss by one shot here, one shot there. I talk to my trainers after the 64 and they said ‘Do you think you will get in?’ and I said we’ve worked too hard to not make it.”

Now in the Barbasol field, Henson feels like it's just a matter of posting a good week in an event when most of the game’s top names are in Northern Ireland at the British Open.

“It's a tier two event. I have played with a lot of these guys before,” Henson said. “It’s just primarily getting comfortable with the golf course, getting to know the lines, where to hit the shots. It’s the second year on this course, so it’s not too much of a disadvantage for me.”

Henson admits he's not resting just on the Barbasol event. There is a Monday qualifier for the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev., on Monday, and there are European events in Czech Republic and Sweden in August where he can strengthen his European Tour status before returning to Asia.

"It will be a busy time," he said.