Henderson sitting pretty heading into final CP Open round

Brooke Henderson is staring history in the face.

The last time a Canadian woman won the CP Women’s Open was in 1973 when Jocelyne Bourassa took home the honours in its very first year.

Now, Henderson is sitting right where she wants to be heading into the final day of the CP Women’s Open: first place.

“That’s pretty sweet,” Henderson admitted after her round was over. “Coming into this week if you would have told me that I would have been very excited. I’m definitely in a good position heading into the final round, which is very exciting and I feel like these crowds this week have been really amazing.”

Henderson shot her worst round of the tournament so far – a 2-under-par – but it was enough to keep her in the top spot. She bogeyed the 17^th hole, then came back to par the 18^th.

Angel Yin was nipping on Henderson’s heels but was unable to make the birdie putt to tie things up with Henderson.

“The conditions have changed a lot over the course of the week and today it played really tough. I think you can see that on the leaderboard as well, people were having some trouble with it,” Henderson said.

“Hopefully, I can just go out and get close to that 6-under round, not so close to this 2-under round I had today.”

Fellow Canadian and former Olympic teammate Alena Sharp, who has mentored Henderson on the tour said Henderson is right where she needs to be to win the thing.

“She’s gritty and determined and aggressive and I think that’s a huge thing to have out here especially with the wind for this week,” Sharpe said of her friend. “I know that she relaxes a little bit more when she’s at the top, so I think that that’s good that she’s up there right now and doesn’t have to fight to get up there.”

Henderson agreed.

“It’s a lot more fun, I feel like I can kind of go off the crowd a little bit more. It’s just really exciting and I feel like when I have a lot of confidence in my game, that’s when I tend to make a lot of birdies and I tend to play really well,” she said.

And for anyone worried about Sunday’s rain – Henderson is not. She’s won in those conditions before in New Zealand.

“It’s an amazing accomplishment to be this far, but I’m not done yet, so hopefully I can just have a great night, restful, sleep well and then wake up tomorrow ready to go.”

Sharp thinking of her ’16 angels’ as she competes

Meanwhile, Sharp finished her round at 2-under-par as well and is sitting tied for 29^th with a 5-under overall.

The trying conditions on Friday didn’t seem to get the better of Sharp who was able to come in clutch to seal her place in the final two days.

She stayed patient, leaning on sixteen very special people to keep her centred and give her perspective: the Humboldt Broncos team members who lost their lives in the horrific bus crash on April 6.

“I got a tweet the night before from somebody who follows me a lot and (who) said ‘I have sixteen angels watching over me’ and I just thought about them all day yesterday and I think they got me through. I made a lot of clutch putts and it was meant to be.”

Sharp is playing the tournament with a special Humboldt Broncos golf bag which she is donating to the Saskatchewan’s children’s hospital once the tournament is over.

START TIMES

• All tee times have been shifted to an earlier start time, so fans may want to head over to the Wascana Golf and Country Club earlier than they initially thought.
• The first golfers head out at 7:00 a.m. Sunday.
• Canadian Anne-Catherine Tanguay is off at 7:11 a.m.
• Sharp is off at 7:22 a.m.
• Henderson is in the final group that tees off at 9:01 a.m.