AIG Women's Open: final leaderboard here.
At first blush Brooke Henderson's 70 72 T13 -6 weekend at this year's AIG Women's Open at a relatively calm Carnoustie is disappointing to many, however I'd suggest in hindsight you may reconsider.
She clearly didn't have her A game which as I illustrated previously is the norm for her at the Women's Open where her best finish in 6 starts was T11, with a MC and the rest out of contention
She drove the ball poorly by her standards just 31/60 fairways, and used 29,32,29,31, average 30 putts on the slower Open greens (10,11 on stimpmeter), and her GIR was 51/72 or middle of the pack.
She played the front nine the best, -8 over 4 days, while she was 2 over on the tougher back nine, where the closing 4 holes 15-18 played 2 shots over par for the field.
At -5 on Friday night (70 69) she was T6 just 3 shots off the lead and had 6 birdies in the rain on Saturday, but just made those tough bogey's at 15 and 17 to turn a 68 into a 70 to leave her with a lot to do.
A promising 2 birdies and all pars thru 8 holes on Sunday got wiped out around the turn with bogey's at 9 and 10, and another at the par 5 12th ended her chances of catching the leaders, Anna Norquist who won it with a 65 69 -12 weekend, and Georgia Hall 73 67, Maddy Sagstrom 69 68, Lizette Salas 70 69 who all ended up a shot back at -11.
Brooke's old amateur adversary Minjee Lee went 72 66 to finish next -10.
So a battling T13 finish, on what turned out to be a tough Carnoustie, but without the wind and brutal rough, never the CarNASTIE we've seen in past men's championships, was about as good as her overall game deserved.
World #1 Nelly Korda also 70,72 on the weekend, Lexi Thompson 71 74, Yuka Saso US Open Champion 74 75, Jessica Korda 77, 72 just a few examples of the weekend other great players who finished with the same -6 or much worse scores.
Brooke is ranked 8th in the world, has played 17 events in 2021, with 1 win (Hugel-Air Premia LA Open), 4 top 10's a MC and a WD.
She is currently 15th in the Race to CME Globe Season. She will be off now until September 16 at the Cambia Portland Classic where she has won twice.
The Solheim Cup is next at Inverness Club in Toledo, on September 4th.
Bryan Angus
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