Winning any pro tournament is never easy and Brooke Henderson is finding that out. The wind made the Pacific air on the tough Lake Merced lay out feel close to 50 degrees, and overnight rain made the course soft and longer. Only 2 players, Morgan Pressel (67) and Min Seo Kwak (69) were able to break 70 and they trail Henderson by just 1 shot. The average score was 74.6
The 17 year old Canadian star was leading by as many as five shots, until she closed with a pair of bogeys. She had been in control all day hitting fairways and greens until the end. From a bad lie in the left rough on the 17th, she was short and left with her second thinned he pitch shot over the green, but made a good up-and-down to get away with no more than a bogey.
On the par-5 18th, her 3rd was long and in the rough, and she couldn’t get up-and-down and made bogey 6 to sit at -9 207
So today Morgan and Kwak begin a shot behind, with defending champion Lydia Ko, who shot a 71 three back while Stacy Lewis and Shanshan Feng of China each had 71 and are four shots behind.
Henderson is used to pressure, winning three times on the Canadian Women’s Tour as an amateur, capturing the Canadian Women’s Amateur and finishing runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She also was medalist at the Women’s Amateur Team Championship.
She was denied a waiver to the LPGA Tour’s minimum age requirement of 18 last year. Commissioner Mike Whan has granted only two exceptions to the rule, Ko and Lexi Thompson mainly because both had already won on the LPGA, so Henderson playing only her second LPGA event since she turned pro in December, may change all that with a win.
Sue Kim shot 77 and is T58
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