“And even just down the playoff hole, for her to go that Tiger line, just right of the left trees, going right for the pin and to have the flawless yardage, she just played great”. And for good reason.
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“The Canadian support has really been unbelievable leading up to this championship, and then yesterday, text messages, Twitter messages, emails, it was all pretty insane”, she said. “I’d never experienced that before”.
Over the weekend, 18-year-old Brooke Henderson became the second Canadian female to win an LPGA major, beating Lydia Ko in a playoff at the KPMG Women’s Championship.
At 18 years, 10 months, Henderson is the second-youngest female victor of a major championship, after Ko, who won at 18-years four months of age. Ko finished with a 67.
When Ko failed to convert one last birdie in regulation, it set the stage for Henderson’s laser approach on 18 that gave her a kick-in birdie to win on the first extra hole. Ko missed to the left, and Henderson tapped in to cap a week that started with a hole-in-one on her fourth hole of the tournament and ended with a major championship.
Ko may have the “youngest ever to win a major” category sewn up, but Henderson became the youngest to capture the Women’s PGA (the former “LPGA Championship”).
Aged 18 years and nine months, she is five months older than Ko was when she won last year’s Evian Championship.
“I think it’s great”, Ko said. So maybe I misread it a little bit.
“I’m a very happy teacher as well”.
“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.
Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn, who was attempting to tie Nancy Lopez’s record with a fourth straight victory on the Tour, shot a 66 to finish in solo third place at 279.
Her major victory also came under intense pressure – defeating Kathy Whitworth by seven strokes in an 18-hole playoff – and she sees similarities between Henderson and herself.
On the first extra hole, the duel went quickly to Henderson. She later holed another monster putt, this time from 40 feet at the 17th, to draw level with Ko. Sahalee, with its tight, tree-lined fairways, was an ideal laboratory for her to test her natural game, and she said there were times when she was hitting all of her shots: high, low, draw, fade.
That moment likely decided the tournament.
Henderson’s scrambling par and winning birdie on the 18th hole were far from her only highlights. “I didn’t feel like it was a bad stroke”. The Canadian pulled off the comeback with a flawless back nine after going out in 2 under.
She rolled in a 90-foot putt for eagle from in front of the green at the par-5 11th, drained a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 17, and at the par-4 18th, needing to make a 12-footer to stay tied with Ko, her putt was center cut.
She took a one-shot lead into the final round and led for most of Sunday, before Henderson made a late move. Henderson won the tournament in a playoff hole.
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“Looking forward to the rest of the summer”, Henderson said. She is a major champion. “You work so hard to get here and to finally be able to put the trophy up, there’s no way I can describe it”.
