Henderson Will Play The Weekend At CP Women’s Open

OTTAWA — If you’re carrying the weight of your small town, its nearby capital city, along with a nation’s golf fans on your shoulders on a sunny Friday afternoon in August, this is what pressure looks like. With a gallery of fans circling the final green six or seven deep — the same picture she faced throughout a nerve-wracking five hours — Brooke Henderson needed a birdie in order to survive to play on Saturday and Sunday. Let’s not understate this. Without Henderson, the bloom would completely come off the rose of the CP Women’s Open at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. On Monday, Henderson said she welcomed the pressure, hoping it helped inspire her. And she had also done this many times before, finishing a round with a clutch birdie. Well, it brought to mind an old interview from a sports psychologist for Canada’s Olympic team, all about how the weight of colossal expectations that can take hold of an athlete swimming in a fishbowl.

An Olympic-calibre gymnast, he said, can typically walk across a balance beam without thinking twice about it. Now, he said, take that same balance beam, lay it across Niagara Falls and ask the gymast to walk across it. Now, consider all of the above and Henderson’s situation Friday. Beginning her round on the back nine, she was one-under on the day, two-over for the tournament, unable to take advantage of her excellent driving skills all day. After missing the green and bogeying the par-3 eight hole, she needed a birdie on the Hunt’s 481-yard, par five nine hole to live another day. She answered the first challenge, stroking her drive 260 yards down the left side of the fairway. Her tournament boiled down to the next shot. She then hit a 7-wood that started left, drew back, landed on the green and finished 25 feet above the hole, a perfect 220-yard shot. It was the very definition of clutch.

Henderson left the eagle putt one foot short, tapping in for birdie. And then she left out a sigh of relief that could be heard all the way back to Smiths Falls. “At the end, (playing partner Christie Kerr) hugged me and said, ‘more pressure than a Major (tournament) there. I said, ‘yeah, it was. “I knew I needed something special on No. 9, so I’m really happy I was able to hit the green in two and take a little bit of pressure off myself, kind of ease the nerves a little bit. Come tee off time, the crowd was 10-deep and the fairway was lined with fans, many of them wearing “Brooke’s Brigade” T-shirts. After smacking her first drive down the middle and lined up for her second shot, a couple of ladies in the crowd offered up their assessment. “She looks like a princess,” said the first. “Oh, yes, she does,” replied the second.

Henderson couldn’t say enough about the “amazing” crowd, the largest she says she has ever played in front of. “I know everybody’s out here to support me, to cheer me on,” she said. “I know they’re all on my side. I was a little disappointed (Thursday) after the way I played. Early in the round today I was, as well. But I was able to turn it around. Henderson only missed one fairway all day, but couldn’t make several makeable putts early. She bogeyed the par-3 13th hole, moving her to four over par, in severe danger of missing the cut. The tension grew. You could hear a putt drop. But Henderson didn’t find the range until the 17th hole, when she drained a curling putt to begin a birdie train. The crowd erupted. She also birdied the 18th hole and followed up with a birdie on the second hole — her third in four holes. From there, she strung together five consecutive pars, before the bogey on the eighth hole, her 17th of the day.

Then came the final hole drama. The beginnings of a nasty, purple, golf-sized bruise was taking shape on Al Pollock’s left arm, as a fellow golf fan greeted him with a wide smile. “Thanks for taking one for the team,” he said to Pollock. On the par-5 sixth hole, Henderson hit her drive slightly left, towards the large gallery gathered to watch. Only at the last second did Pollock see the ball, putting up his arm to protect himself. The Titleist Pro V1 dropped at his feet, one foot on the fairway side of the cart path. After receiving relief, Henderson hit a clean second shot, setting up a par. If Pollock hadn’t been in the way, Henderson’s drive might very well have bounced under a tree, putting her in a difficult position for her second shot. On a day when every stroke counted for Henderson, Pollock’s arm might have made all the difference in Henderson surviving to play the weekend.