SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Canada’s Brooke Henderson stood by the side of the 14th green at Le Golf National on Saturday and practised her putting motion several times before walking to the next hole.
She never did regain her touch on the greens after a 67 a day earlier gave her an outside shot at a medal.
Henderson threatened midway through the final round after reeling off three straight birdies, but her putter didn’t co-operate when she needed it.
“I gave myself a lot of good opportunities,” Henderson said. “I feel like if I had made two or three different putts throughout the round then I feel like the momentum would have been more in my favour.
“It might be a different story standing here. But overall I feel like it was a good fight these last two days.”
At one point Saturday, the 13-time LPGA Tour winner was in a tie for fourth place and within striking distance of gold medallist Lydia Ko of New Zealand.
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A bogey on No. 13 stung and a missed seven-footer for birdie on the par-5 14th hurt too. She was just short of the green in two and had a chance to get a stroke back.
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“I hit that chip and I thought it had a chance to go in,” she said. “I was shocked when I got up there and it was seven feet short.”
After missing that putt, any remaining hope was snuffed when she bogeyed the 15th. Henderson (71) finished at 3-under-par 285, seven strokes behind Ko.
Germany’s Esther Henseleit (66) took silver at 8 under and China’s Xiyu Lin (69) picked up bronze at 7 under. The only other Canadian in the field, Alena Sharp of Hamilton (73), was tied for 42nd place.
“It feels like I played really terrible but I still shot one under,” Henderson said. “So it was kind of a mixed bag. I feel like I hit a lot of great shots and sometimes they just didn’t turn out as well as I thought they were going to.”
American Scottie Scheffler won the men’s tournament last week. Corey Conners was the top Canadian in a tie for ninth.
Henderson started strong Saturday by rolling in a 12-foot birdie putt on the second hole. She chunked an eagle chip and settled for par on the third before getting hot around the turn.
The 26-year-old Canadian needed to keep pressing and hope for a little help elsewhere on the leaderboard.
“She sees it as a challenge,” said Canadian women’s team lead Emily Phoenix. “She’s going to go get it and that’s definitely what she did. Gave it a run, put it all out there and was aggressive.”
A cool putter though killed any chance of momentum. Henderson finished in a tie for 13th place.
“Any week on tour, a top-10 or a top-15 result and you’re pretty happy,” Phoenix said. “Here it’s tough. It’s kind of one, two (or) three.”
The 43-year-old Sharp, meanwhile, mentioned earlier in the week that this may be her last Olympic Games.
“I tried to just really enjoy today and take it all in,” she said.
It was the third straight Olympic podium appearance for Ko, who had a silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo. She also secured a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame with the victory.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2024.
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