HENDERSON HEADS UP LPGA FIELD IN REGINA
CP Women’s Open features biggest names on tour, including Canadian sitting sixth in season earnings, writes John Grainger.
1 — CP Women’s Open With Regina on the world stage for the CP Women’s Open, this makes a perfect place to start this week.
Canada’s Brooke Henderson leads an impressive list of LPGA stars who will be playing at The Wascana, a great track with a great reputation.
Henderson enters the week sixth on the earnings list for the year at $945,881. In the Race To the CME Globe award, Henderson is seventh.
Henderson has been playing well and is a solid contender this week.
She finished tied for seventh at last week’s event in Indianapolis helped by a Sunday round of 63 which vaulted her up the leaderboard.
With a strong fan base expected at this tournament, Henderson could feed off the good vibes and finish strong. In last year’s event, won by South Korea’s Sun Hyung Park, Henderson finished tied for 12th.
It’s a very strong field this week as 89 of the top 100 in yearly earnings on the LPGA Tour are playing.
Of interest locally, Moon Lake pro Bobbi Brandon finished tied for second in Monday qualifying and earned a spot in this week’s event after firing a two-over 74. Also playing is Saskatoon native and Symetra Tour player Anna Young. There are 15 Canadians in the field. 2
— Taylor punches ticket Canadian Nick Taylor saw the hurdle in front of him last week at The Wyndham Championship and did what he had to do to get over it.
With Wyndham being the final PGA Tour stop of the wraparound golf year, Taylor needed to play well to get inside the Top 125 of Fedex Cup points to ensure his playing privileges for next season.
Taylor took care of business on Sunday by firing a 63 to finish tied for 8th and jumped 10 spots to 119th.
Canadian David Hearn also finished tied for 8th at Wyndham and finished in 138th in Fedex Cup standings. He was in the final group, but could only manage an even par 70 in the final round. He will have some status next year and should get in about 20 starts.
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— Fedex Cup playoffs
Taylor and Adam Hadwin are the only two Canadians in this week’s first stop of the four-event Fedex Cup playoffs, The Northern Trust, being played in New Jersey.
Hadwin tees off at 12:22 p.m. with Americans Brice Garnett and Kelly Kraft. Taylor is out in the second-last group of the day with Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, and Sean O’hair.
Hadwin should be in a good place to move on to the second tourney of the playoffs, the Dell Technologies Championship being played in the Boston area. 4 — Web.com Tour playoffs
Canadian Adam Svensson picked up his PGA Tour card for next season by being one of the top 25 players on the Web.com Tour, finishing 14th on season.
This week is the first stop of the playoffs, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship. The next four stops are essentially a race for another available 25 PGA tour cards.
A number of PGA Tour professionals who missed out of the Top 125 on that tour will be playing in these events in an effort to get back to full privileges. That includes Canadians Corey Conners and Ben Silverman. But a number of hungry Web.com players are also looking to cash in on the $1 million available in each event. Other Canadians in this event are Svensson, Roger Sloan and Ryan Yip. 5
— PGA Tour Champions Canadian Stephen Ames is the lone Canuck in this week’s PGA Tour Champions tournament, the Boeing Classic, being held in Washington State.
Next week, the old guys move north of the border to Calgary for the Shaw Charity Classic, one of the most favoured stops on tour. A good field is always there and makes for great interaction between players and spectators.
If you have a free weekend, it’s worth the journey to Calgary.