Henderson builds 3-stroke lead at fourth women's major
Brooke Henderson is setting the pace in recordbreaking style at the Evian Championship.
The Canadian shot a second straight 7-under 64 to take a three-stroke lead after the second round of the fourth major of the year on Friday at Evian-Les-Bains, France.
She is the first player in the history of the U.S. LPGA to begin a major with two rounds of 64 or lower.
And Henderson, who is 14 under for the tournament, thinks there’s a reason for her fast start.
“I’ve been having a lot of crêpes in France,” she said, smiling. “To keep the momentum going, I’d better have some more.”
Nelly Korda is the only player in the 132-woman field within four shots of Henderson.
The Olympic champion and former No. 1 was three back, having finished birdieeagle at the picturesque Evian Resort Golf Club to shoot 67.
It is Korda’s fifth event since returning to competitive action after more than four months out because of surgery on a blood clot on her arm.
South Korean players Sei Young Kim (65) and So Yeon Ryu (66) were tied for third place on 9 under, five shots adrift of Henderson. Among the bunch of six players on 8-under par was a Frenchwoman, Perrine Delacour, after her round of 68.
Henderson, who won her only major title at the Women’s PGA Championship in 2016, started her afternoon round four shots behind Korda — who was part of the morning wave — and birdied her first two holes.
There was a bogey at No. 3 and a birdie at No. 9, before Henderson went on a roll over the back nine. She had back-to-back birdies from No. 11 and then made putts from 15 feet, 8 feet and 10 feet for birdies on the final three holes.
“It feels really nice to get off to a fast start in a major championship,” Henderson said.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been able to do that. To get it this far under par is really awesome and I feel like I’m hitting the ball really well, which is nice, and making some putts.”
The highlight of Korda’s round was her second shot at the par-5 18th, a high fade which landed in the middle of the green and rolled to inside 3 feet from the cup. She made no mistake with the putt for eagle.
Korda said she has been suffering from jet lag and barely slept ahead of the early start to her second round, which opened with what she described as 10 “stress-free” pars.
Like Henderson, Korda has won one major championship — last year’s PGA Championship — and was No. 1 in the world when she stopped playing in February.
Now she is No. 3 and is coming off three top-10 finishes in that little stretch since her return.
First-round leader Ayaka Furue shot 72, nine strokes worse than Thursday, and was in a five-strong group on 7 under.
PGA Tour
Scott Piercy shot a 7-under 64 on Friday at TPC Twin Cities to take a threestroke lead in the 3M Open at Blaine, Minn.
Piercy had a 13-under 129 total. The four-time PGA Tour winner opened with a 65 on Thursday in windy conditions.
Emiliano Grillo was second after a 65. Callum Tarren had a 63 to reach 8 under and Tony Finau (68) was 7 under with Robert Streb (67), Tom Hoge (68), Sungjae Im (70) and Doug Ghim (68).
Starting his afternoon round on the back nine, Piercy birdied the first four holes. He added birdies on No. 2, 6 and 7 coming home to extend his lead and made a 10-footer for par on the par-3 eighth.
“It’s been a little bit since I’ve played like I feel like I should play,” said Piercy, who had missed four of his last six cuts. “To kind of prove it to myself again, I know it’s in there, it’s just like, okay, how do we get it out of me.
“There’s a lot of business to take care of this weekend, but to come out the first two days and do what I did gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend.”
The 43-year-old Piercy, at 138th place in the FedEx Cup standings with only the top 125 making the playoffs and keeping full PGA Tour status, needs a strong finish over the final three weeks of the PGA Tour season.
Senior British Open
Chasing a maiden senior major title, Darren Clarke opened a two-shot lead at the Senior British Open after the second round at Gleneagles, Scotland.
Clarke, from Northern Ireland, shot a 3-under 67 that left him alone on top of the leaderboard, at 8 under. He had two bogeys and a birdie on the front nine but an excellent back nine punctuated by four birdies.
“Around the front nine today, I was so-so,” Clarke said. “My right foot slipped a couple of times but apart from that I played really nicely.”
Scott Parel of the United States was two back after an up and down 68.
A group of seven players with nine major championships between them was three strokes off the lead. It included four-time winner Bernhard Langer, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, David Frost, 2016 champion Paul Broadhurst, Stephen Ames and Jerry Kelly.
Colin Montgomerie, 2018 champion Miguel Angel Jiménez, Miguel Angel Martin, Steven Alker and Glen Day were four shots off the lead.