Canada’s Henderson just misses out
Rising star finishes third at LPGA’s Swinging Skirts
DALY CITY, CALIF.— Lydia Ko celebrated another birthday week at Lake Merced with another victory Sunday in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic.
Canadian Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old from Smith Falls, Ont., holed a bunker shot for eagle on the par-5 14th to stay close to the lead and she had a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole to join the playoff. It missed and she had to settle for a 74.
Ko, meanwhile, won for the second straight year, this time beating Morgan Pressel on the second playoff hole by rolling in a five-foot birdie putt on the par-518th for her seventh career LPGA Tour victory. She turned 18 on Friday.
Ko made two birdies in the three times she played the closing hole at Lake Merced.
Pressel had to settle for three pars on the 18th. She missed a 15-footer in regulation for the win, closing with a 72. Her best chance was a 10-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole that grazed the edge of the cup. Pressel badly pulled an eight-foot birdie putt on her third try with Ko in close.
It was a tough loss for Pressel, whose last victory was in 2008 at the Kapalua LPGA Classic. She had a two-shot lead with four holes to play until making back-to-back bogeys, and then failing to make a birdie on the 18th.
Henderson, trying to become the third player in history to win on the LPGA Tour before turning 18, was shaky from the start. She hit her opening tee shot to the right behind trees and had to punch out to the fairway, leading to bogey. She came up well short on the par-3 third and made another bogey, and fell out of the lead for first time since Friday.
The Canadian never caught up, though she was never out of it until missing her 25-foot birdie attempt on the 18th.
“It was one of the least nervous putts I had all day,” Henderson said. “I could see it going in in my mind, but it didn’t happen in real life.”
She headed for Texas to try to Monday qualify for the next LPGA event. Finishing in the top 10 only makes a player eligible for the next tourna- ment if she is an LPGA member. Henderson last year was denied a waiver to the LPGA’s minimum age requirement of 18. PGA: Whatever derailed Justin Rose’s game appears long gone now.
Sensing he needed to birdie the final two holes to keep the lead, Rose pulled it off with aggressive swings and clutch putts for a one-stroke victory over Cameron Tringale on Sunday in the Zurich Classic.
“Earlier this year it looked impossible to win,” Rose said, referring to his three missed cuts and failure to finish better than 37th in his first five starts of 2015. “I’m very happy to have turned my game around.”
David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., tied for sixth at 18-under par.