Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Reflections on the 2017 CP Women's Open
If you happened to be
in Smiths Falls last weekend, and you were looking for great service
at a restaurant or a garage, you were likely disappointed. The town's
Number One daughter, a certain Brooke Henderson, was not far away in
Ottawa, playing a few rounds of golf. At least half the town was
there to cheer her on. After her final round, she signed autographs
for at least an hour.
Brooke Henderson
Brooke readily admitted
that she was a bit disappointed with her final round, “Today didn't
go quite as well as I would have liked. But still, having that
support around me was amazing, and I am going to remember this week
forever”.
Henderson started the
CP Women's Open slowly with a round of 74. She shot a 69 on Friday,
then tore up the course on Saturday with a record round of 63. The
Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club is Brooke's home club, and it was her best
ever tournament round at the Club. That round moved her into
contention, just three strokes off the lead. She trailed Nicole Broch
Larsen and Mo Martin.
When the dust finally
settled on late Sunday afternoon, a young South Korean golfer from
Seoul took the championship. Sung Hyung Park is a rookie on the tour,
although she is a little older that most of the kids. She is 23 years
old. Brooke will be 20 on her next birthday. No matter. Park 's win
was her second on the tour this year, coupled with a major victory at
the U.S. Women's Open a few weeks ago. She fired the best round of
the day, a 7 under par 64, to win the title by 2 strokes over Mirim
Lee. Five players tied for third at 274. Henderson tied for 12th
at 277,
On Monday, Brooke took
a flight to Portland, Oregon, to compete in the Cambria Portland
Classic, a tournament she has won the past two years.
There were several
supporters at the first tee on Friday for Hannah Hellyer. The
Stirling native, who is an assistant pro at St. George's in Toronto
earned the right to play in the national championship by shooting a
69 to qualify for the Open. She was thrtilled to be there. After her
first round, she took a moment to summarize her thoughts. “It was
pretty exciting. I don't think I was really thinking straight. My
heart was pounding out of my chest. But I just had to kind of focus
and try to get the ball in the fairway.”
Hannah has given some
thought to leaving the game, but her persistence paid off last week,
with a chance to play with the best players in the world. Another of
her comments after her first round, when discussing her result, made
me smile. “I couldn't find the fairway, so that was fun! And I had
lot of diverse shots, so that was really good. Hopefully tomorrow
will be a little more down the middle and on the green, maybe
one-putt, two putt, a little boring golf. We'll see how it goes.”
Brooke Henderson and
Brittany Marchand were the only Canadians to make the cut for the
final two rounds. Augusta James from Bath was in the hunt after the
first round, but slipped to a 76 to miss the cut.
Playing conditions were
ideal throughout the week, with a few gusty afternoon winds to make
life interesting for the golfers. The course held up well, and, I
dare say, the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club has never entertained that
many people. They wisely decided to use the Uplands Air Base across
the road for parking, employing shuttle buses. All in all, a
wonderful experience.
And yes, the RED/BLACKS
won as well, a bit of a squeaker. More on that nest week.
James Hurst
August 28, 2017.
# posted by James Hurst @ 7:26 AM 
