Henderson putts herself into early title contention
Canadian 2 under, thanks to hot flatstick, after first round of U.S. Women’s Open
BEDMINSTER, N.J. There’s enough stress through the week of a major golf championship, especially at the biggest, the U.S. Women’s Open, that players don’t need to create more for themselves.
There’s only so many times the nerves and the synapses and the fast-twitch muscles and the slowtwitch muscles can be called upon to get the job done over sliding fivefoot putts for par.
Pars are good at a major and tapin pars are great.
Brooke Henderson had her share of tap-ins on her way to a bogeyfree opening round of 2-under-par 70 Thursday at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. That was good enough for a tie for 14th on a jammed leaderboard, within four shots of the lead established by the charming Shanshan Feng of China when play was called for the night at 8:33 p.m. ET. Play will resume Friday morning with tee times delayed by 15 minutes.
“To shoot 2 under in the first round of a major championship, that’s great,” Henderson said. “I can’t complain at all. I know there are some low (scores) out there like minus-6 and usually I feel like the USGA gives us an opportunity to score on Thursday as long as you hit it in the right places and it will get tougher as the week goes on. If I can shoot 2 under every day, I’d be extremely happy.”
Play was suspended for more than two hours Thursday when thunderstorms moved through the area.
South Korea’s Amy Yang had a 67. Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko and current world No. 1 So Yeon Ryu were at 68. Carlota Ciganda was 4 under through 17 holes.
American Cristie Kerr and 17-year-old Hye Jin Choi, the second-ranked amateur in the world, were part of a group of six players to complete their round at 3 under.
Amateur Maddie Szeryk of London, Ont., had an even-par 72 and was tied for 47th and Hamilton’s Alena Sharp had a 4-over 76 and was tied for 115th.
The heat and humidity were already building at the course that Donald Trump built when Henderson teed off at 7:07 a.m. from the 10th tee in a marquee group with Americans Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis. Henderson had a bit of trouble on the first two holes of the day. Her approach spun back on the apron on the 10th as the greens started out unusually soft and she made a nice up-anddown from there. On 11, she drove in the rough, which is punishing this week, gouged it out left of the green and made a 12-footer for par.
She birdied the par-five 18th and par-5 first hole for back-to-back birdies from three and 20 feet respectively. She hit 16 greens on the day, playing conservatively away from precarious pin placements and made a bunch of tap-in pars set up by some solid lag putting.
That’s something that also helped her to a second-place finish in defence of her KPMG Women’s PGA Championship a couple of weeks ago in Olympia Fields, Ill.
“That’s extremely important,” she said of feeling the pace of the greens. “That’s something that I’ve been working on really hard over the last few years to see it pay off at KPMG. I had long putts and I was able to tap them in. It takes a lot of stress off when you know you can just tap them in. I did a lot of that today, which was great, especially on those downhills where they get really fast. It’s nice not to have a big comebacker.
“I’ll go work on that again this afternoon and hopefully it will be the same over the weekend.”
Henderson’s best putt of the day was that one for birdie on the first hole. She was just in front of the green of the 541-yard par 5 in two and then hit a mediocre chip shot that ran by the hole and up the hill, leaving her with a treacherous attempt that swept to the left for birdie.
“I definitely would have liked to have a shorter birdie opportunity with such a short chip shot, but to make the birdie there, it really got my round going and gave me a lot of confidence through a lot of tough holes on my back nine,” she said. “I feel like that putt, I actually hit it too hard, but it hit the hole and went in. Two birdies back to back and no bogeys today, which is great.”
The temperature climbed to 33 C as Henderson’s group approached the end of their five hour 20 minute round.
Henderson’s group can expect cooler temperatures Friday with a high of 25 C, but there is a 60 per cent chance of precipitation in the afternoon.
Thursday’s rain, along with more expected Friday, will keep the course soft and keep a lot of players in the mix.
That might not be the best for Henderson, who has shown she has an advantage when the conditions get tough.
To shoot 2 under in the first round of a major championship, that’s great. I can’t complain at all.