“She really believes in herself and I believed in myself”.
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The 18-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the second major of the LPGA season, at Sahalee Country Club on Sunday, impressively pulling off clutch shot after clutch shot while shooting a final-round 65 and knocking off the world’s No. 1, Lydia Ko, on the first hole of a sudden death playoff.
At 18 years and nine months, she became the second-youngest woman to win a Major after New Zealander Ko, who won last year’s Evian Championship aged 18 years and four months. Ko, 19, closed with a 67. Ko missed to the left, and Henderson tapped in to cap a week that started with a hole-in-one on her fourth hole Thursday and ended with a major championship.
Henderson is just the second Canadian to win a women’s major, following Sandra Post who won the Women’s PGA Championship in 1968. She also ranks first in sub-par holes, with 240, and is 3rd in scoring average, 10th in driving distance and ninth in greens hit in regulation.
Four points ahead after taking five of six matches Saturday at Dun Laoghaire, Britain and Ireland added 3 1/2 points in the eight singles matches to win the biennial event for the third time in 20 years. “Every week, when we step up to the hole-in-one auto hole, I say to Britt ‘If I get that, I’m giving it to you, ‘” she said.
“I’m happy with the way I played, I just got outplayed”, Ko said.
“For Brooke to shoot 65 on the final day at a major at a course like this”, she said, “it’s very impressive”.
This was a different Sahalee layout than from the first three rounds.
Ariya Jautanugarn, in search of a fourth straight victory, shot 66 to finish a stroke back.
Lydia Ko compliments the play of 18-year-old Brooke Henderson for defeating her in a playoff to capture the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. After hitting a flawless tee shot, Ko left her short birdie putt out to the right and missed the chance to take a one-shot lead to the final hole.
That moment likely decided the tournament.
Langer held off Miguel Angel Jimenez and Joe Durant, saving bogey with a 6-footer on the par-4 17th and getting his birdie putt to drop on the par-4 18th after it caught the edge and circled the cup. “I didn’t know if it would actually come true”. “I can’t really put words to it”.
Ko was much closer, too, but her 4-foot birdie bid rolled by the right lip. The Canadian pulled off the comeback with a ideal back nine after going out in 2 under.
She had to come from be-hind to beat Ko as she forced the playoff by draining a 50-foot putt on No. 17 and then made a 20-footer for a dra-matic par-save on 18.
The fairway was lined with both the towering Douglas firs, red cedar and hemlocks trees and thousands of cheering fans who yelled their encouragement as the carts passed by them. Ko was 15 when she won her first LPGA title, the 2012 Canadian Women’s Open, which was also Henderson’s first LPGA tournament.
She continued to be in front for most of the final round before Henderson made a late move.
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But Henderson had one more birdie remaining that will only raise the expectations for the Canadian star. “I’m looking forward to the summer”. She is a major champion.
