The 18-year-old Canadian Brooke Henderson beat the world number one with a stunning approach on the first playoff hole.
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The 18-year-old Canadian claimed the title when she rolled in a short birdie putt on the first playoff hole at the Sa-halee Country Club course near Seattle, Washington. “I’m just speechless. I don’t know what’s going on in my head right now”.
65 Henderson’s final-round score at Sahalee Country Club on Sunday, the lowest score of the day and the best single round of the tournament.
Brooke Henderson became the first Canadian woman in 48 years to win an LPGA major championship on Sunday, and then made it clear that she is just getting started. Ko’s putt missed to the left, and Henderson tapped her birdie in to win the championship. Her brilliant, bogey-free, 6-under-par 65 only got her into a sudden-death playoff with Ko, who fired a 67.
Henderson is just 18 and is about a year removed from her arrival among the world elite that started with a third-place showing in San Francisco 14 months ago, and later a T-5 showing at the same Sahalee venue.
I thought I needed to do something special here because I didn’t want to go to extra (play-off) holes, especially against her. “I think she’ll go running by my record and I think it’s gonna be fun to watch”.
“Everyone was cheering”, said Brittany Henderson, Brooke’s sister and her caddie for the week.
Her round included four birdies and an eagle on a terrific day for the teen sensation as Ko gave little away.
“I think it’s great”, Ko said of Henderson’s win. “And for her to go right at the pin on the 18th in the playoff, it’s fantastic”.
PGA: Daniel Berger won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis for his first PGA Tour title, shooting a 3-under 67 to hold off Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Brooks Koepka by three strokes.
“I’m not really sure if I pushed it”, Ko said.
When Henderson sank a 13-foot putt to complete a scrambling par on the final hole of regulation, Jutanugarn, stretched out, leaning against her bag while lying down in the fairway, applauded.
“I just kinda patiently walked up to the green”.
Henderson’s patience paid off during the hard middle rounds, understanding that “par is your friend”, in major tournaments.
Henderson pulled into a tie with a 36-footer for a 2 on the par-3 17th hole.
The eagle got Henderson within a shot of Ko, who had stiffed approaches on the first and fourth holes to set up easy birdies and added another one from eight feet on the hard par-4 eighth.
Henderson has been looking up to Ko for a while, using her for motivation.
When Brooke Henderson announced late in 2014 that she was planning to turn pro, there was plenty of skepticism that she would be better off accepting the scholarship she had been offered to Florida.
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Langer won in 2014 at Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh and previous year at Belmont in MA. After being well over 200, she’s now No. 2 at age 18, a Canadian hero in the vein of 2003 Masters champion Mike Weir, and could soon become one of the faces of the sport.
