Henderson’s medal hopes take a hit

One of Brooke Henderson’s hardest swipes of the day came when the round was over. Stalking past the cameras and reporters, unwilling to stop to talk about a disastrous 75 in the third round of women’s Olympic golf, the Smiths Falls native whacked one of the headcovers on her clubs.

The poor maple leaf pompom didn’t know what was coming.

Then the teenage No. 3-ranked player in the world, one of Canada’s best medal hopes at Rio 2016, was gone with the only thing left to show for a round in gusty conditions being a 4-over 75 on the day that dropped her from two shots back of leader Inbee Park when play began to seven behind.

Henderson, winner of two LPGA tournaments this season, is four shots back of second place, meaning she must go low Sunday to make the first Olympic podium in women’s golf in more than a century.

Henderson was in decent shape with three holes left: 7 under and three shots back of South Korea’s Park at the time. But after a fine pitch on the short par-4 16th hole, Henderson packed all her putting woes into one dismal stretch. Four whacks later, she walked off with a doublebogey. After a bogey-par finish it was all over.

The unfortunate thing for the young Canadian is she hit the ball more than well enough on a day when a lot of players on the leaderboard were hitting it sideways. Park steered it home to a 1-under 70 despite spending much time in the scraggly junk that surrounds the fairways and greens. Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn, the first-round leader, was 12 over after just 13 holes when she withdrew, citing a knee injury. Stacy Lewis of the United States and Charley Hull of Great Britain shot 5 over and 3 over, respectively. Canada’s other entry, Hamilton’s Alena Sharp, shot 4 over and is 3 over for the tournament.