Henderson leads Canadian contingent
Coming off her best round of the season – a 9-under-par 63 Sunday at the Indy Women in Tech Championship – Brooke Henderson comes into the CP Women’s Open with all the momentum.
Henderson, who won the LOTTE Championship earlier this year, leads a group of 15 Canadians teeing it up in Regina, Sask.
The 20-year-old has had a tough summer away from the golf course – losing both her grandfathers in a span of four weeks – but has said she’s still been able to focus when she’s inside the ropes. She’s eager to put on a show for the Canadian crowds and will try to become the first Canadian to win the CP Women’s Open on home soil since Jocelyne Bourassa in 1973.
LPGA Tour regulars Alena Sharp, Brittany Marchand, Maude-Aimee LeBlanc, and Anne-Catharine Tanguay join Henderson. Four Canadian Epson Tour players are also in the field, led by Augusta James who finished runner-up last week at the Firekeepers Casino Hotel Championship (her best-career Epson Tour result).
Four-time LPGA Tour winner and Canadian Golf Hall of Famer Lorie Kane will make her record-tying 28th appearance at the tournament.
Park riding high
The 2017 CP Women’s Open champion Sung Hyun Park captured last week’s event in Indianapolis, her third win of the year, and will headline the field this week as the No. 1 golfer in the world.
Park won last year’s event by two shots in Ottawa over Mirim Lee. It was her second win of the season en route to capturing Rookie and Co-Player of the Year honors.
Park won in a playoff over Lizette Salas. Seven golfers in the top-10 of the Rolex Rankings, lead by Park, will be in the field this week in Saskatchewan including Ariya Jutanugarn – who got bumped to No. 2 by Park on Sunday – Lexi Thompson, Shanshan Feng, Minjee Lee, Georgia Hall, and Jessica Korda.
Ko looks for a fourth
No one has won four CP Women’s Open titles but Lydia Ko has a great chance this week.
Ko, who captured her first title in over a year earlier this season at the LPGA Mediheal Championship, captured two of her CP Women’s Open titles while still an amateur in 2012 and 2013. She captured her third in 2015, tying with Meg Mallon and Pat Bradley (World Golf Hall of Famers, both).
Each of Ko’s CP Women’s Open victories came while the tournament was played in Western Canada, and the event has returned to that part of the country this year.
She missed the cut last year in Ottawa.
Ko finished tied for 16th last week, her 12th top-25 finish of the year. She sits 10th on the Race to the CME Globe.
Major presence
All four of the major winners in 2018 will be in the field this week at the CP Women’s Open.
Pernilla Lindberg and Georgia Hall are teeing it up this week along with Ariya Jutanugarn, who has won three times already this year. She’s also a past CP Women’s Open winner, capturing the title in 2016, like Sung Hyun Park who is defending this week and looking for her second win in a row.
Lindberg captured the ANA Inspiration, followed by Park at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Jutanugarn won the U.S. Women’s Open, and just three weeks ago Hall became another first-time major winning in emotional fashion, capturing the Ricoh Women’s British Open in front of a robust English crowd cheering on their countrywoman.
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