Berry Henson, a 43-year-old golfer who on Monday qualified for the U.S. Open, shortly thereafter went back to work. As an Uber driver.
Next week he will be competing against the likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm at the Los Angeles Country Club in the biggest tournament of his life.
But this week he’ll driving Uber passengers and working on his golf game that looked to be in pristine condition Monday. With more than 500 golfers competing on the final day of qualifying for the 123rd U.S. Open, Henson secured one of the coveted spots with a 7-under, 36-hole total of 134 (64-71) at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey.
When qualifying was over, Henson was not only on the range but behind the wheel.
“You know, I go to the golf course, play golf, pick up an Uber ride on the way back and maybe get two, three, four rides a day,” Henson told USA TODAY Sports his routine. “I’ll be doing a few Uber rides in L.A. probably next week.”
Henson, also known for dancing after big shots and for referring to himself on social media as “The Hensonator” and to his fans as “Hensonator Nation”, has put the journey in journeyman.
Henson spends most of the year at his home in Thailand. That was not the original plan.
He grew up in Palm Desert, California, 120 miles east of Los Angeles, and played golf for the University of San Diego from 1998 to 2003. Then he set out to play pro golf and, in search of his PGA Tour card, headed to Q-School.
Seven times he entered Q-School, and seven times he failed to get his card. The final attempt came in 2011, said Henson, who recalled a conversation he had with Marshall McComb, one of his financial backers.
“I was so bummed out, and we had to make a decision on what we were going to do next year,” Henson said. “All my other money was tapped, and he’s like, ‘Hey, I got five grand.’”
With that money, Henson headed to the Asian Tour Q-School.
“I won first stage and finished 11th in finals and got my card,” he said, adding that he won his fifth and sixth events on the Asian Tour. “And then things just kind of snowballed.”
Henson has been a top-30 player in Asia for the past decade, ranks 438th in the world rankings and said he has made as much as $325,000 in a year, with additional winnings from European events. He also has continued to chase his dreams of qualifying for the U.S. Open − so many times he’s lost count.
From the start of his round Monday at qualifying, Henson said he felt the presence of his mother. She died in March from dementia at the age of 72, according to Henson. He said he’s still grieving because he was not with her at the time of her death.
With his mother’s health failing, Henson said, he opted to play a tournament on his home course in Thailand rather than fly back to United States.
“Yeah, it was a really tough decision,” he said. “I talked to my stepdad. He’s like, ‘You know what, your mom’s going to want you to play.’”
On the first hole, Henson made double-bogey.
“That was pretty shocking,” said his caddie, Narayan Murti.
But Henson did not falter. Over the 36 holes, he chipped in for birdie twice and made three putts of more than 30 feet and thought of his mother.
“I could feel her out there today,” he said. “I just knew something special was going to happen, and I was fighting back tears on the back nine. I was telling myself, ‘Nope, you can’t go there yet, you can’t go there yet.’ And there was just some special moments today where I was like, ‘Man, I got to do this for mom. I got to do this for mom.’”
Though Henson lives in Thailand, Palm Desert remains his home base for golf. It’s also where the Uber gig started, specifically in 2016 when a wrist injury sidelined him from golf.
He said he was looking to kill time when he decided to give Uber a shot.
“I was like, you know what, I’m going to raise some money for charity and I got some time off and I just want to do something to keep my mind busy,” he said.
At that point, however, Henson had sold his car and home in Palm Desert so he rented cars that also could be used for Uber. And seven years later continues to do so.
“I just booked my Uber car when I got on the phone here with you,” Henson told USA TODAY Sports on Monday.
The journeyman was journeying again. He chose to play at the qualifier site in New Jersey because he said the course suited his game better than the qualifier at Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
He flew back to Los Angeles on Tuesday and returned to Palm Desert in his Uber car.
“I’m primarily doing it because I’ve got time,” he said. “I don’t have kids and I want to pay off the expense of the rental car when I’m home because, why not?”
