It’s been a slow start to the 2016 season
for Michael Hendry but the PGA Tour of Australasia regular is rounding nicely
into form with a top-five finish at the Gateway to the Open Mizuno Open this
week.

A one time winner on the Japan Tour, Hendry
hit back from a missed cut last start to post his best result since claiming
the first event of the 2015 season more than 12 months ago.

While the T5 finish this week is
encouraging, Hendry will be disappointed with his Sunday performance after
sharing the 54-hole lead on the back of a brilliant Saturday 65.

But on a day where scoring proved difficult
for most of the field, he couldn’t maintain the momentum and made some back
nine errors to slip down the standings.

To add to the disappointment he also missed
qualifying for this year’s Open Championship as one of the top-four finishers
not otherwise qualified.

Hideto Tanihara, who also finished T5 at
9-under for the week, was awarded the spot in the field at Royal Troon based on
his higher Official World Golf Ranking.

However, Hednry will take a lot of
positives from the week after a difficult 2015 season and two missed cuts in his
first six starts this year.

The 36-year-old showed signs of improvement
with a T12 at the prestigious Crowns tournament a month ago and this week’s
performance will boost his confidence further.

Brad Kennedy, winner of this event in 2012,
was next best of the Australasians at 4-under for the week and T16.

He, too, found the going difficult on
Sunday with a 2-over 74 but like Hendry is trending in the right direction
after a slow start to the year.

Adam Bland was the last of the
Australasians to finish under par, his 2-under total good for T24, while
veterans David Smail and Brendan Jones were both T42 at 1-over for the week.

Kurt Barnes (T48) and Matt Griffin (T54)
were the only others to make the cut, Won Joon Lee, Aaron Townsend and Scott
Strange all missing the weekend’s action.