It did seem inevitable that the Smiths Falls, Ont., product would get a win. Lydia Ko won here as a 15-year-old amateur back in 2012, and she’s back to take a shot at winning once again this weekend. This week, many of them figure to be there to watch another teen – this one a Canadian.
Henderson is currently the 17 ranked female player in the world.
There were congratulatory tweets and e-mails to read from the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Henderson is still a teenager, but she is quickly becoming the face of Canadian female golf.
“I didn’t really feel nerves until the 18 hole yesterday, which is pretty cool”. “I’ll always be a No. 1 player in the world”. “I love hockey. Got to meet a lot of great girls on my team”. “I was just trying to keep going low and push it to get even further under par which I wouldn’t have had a couple of months ago”.
Henderson made her final birdie at the par-4 17th, knocking in a 10-foot putt from the fringe.
The 198 is a personal best, though, she said.
Henderson became the first Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour since Lorie Kane won the 2001 Takefuji Classic (when Henderson was 3) for the last of her four wins. She would need a special waiver to join the LPGA before turning 18, which she will do next month.
“She’s kinda given me more motivation to play better this year”, Sharp said. Yet she has already won enough money as a pro to guarantee a tour card for next year. Now, she’ll be playing at the Evian Championship in, where else?, France.
It is also the first win by a Canadian on the LPGA Tour in 14 years. She will be fully exempt in 2016. (Ms. Ko won, at 15, making her mark as the youngest-ever LPGA Tour victor.). Needless to say, she’s excited for the post-victory homecoming.
“My schedule has been busy but I wouldn’t change it for the world”, Henderson said on a Monday conference call, shortly before playing in a pro-am at the Vancouver Club.
Here is a young athlete in what should be an overwhelming situation, having just made history in several ways by utterly dominating a field of older, more experienced golfers.
And she didn’t do it the easy way. By not being a full-time Tour member, Henderson must rely on sponsor’s exemptions or Monday qualifying to participate in LPGA tournaments. “Hopefully, this week I can secure my card for next year and be full time on the LPGA”. On Monday, when she played a pro-am at the Vancouver Golf Club, she felt more assured, seeing similarities in the course to the one she won at in Portland.
Henderson insisted today that she is not feeling any extra pressure heading into this week’s event on home Canadian soil.
“It’s definitely my putting”, Pressel said of what fueled her round.
Henderson set up her victory with bogey-free rounds of 66 and 65 on Thursday and Saturday. “I just remained focused and played my own game … keeping to the same game plan I had for the whole week”.