Canadians narrowly miss victory at world women's amateur golf championship
Canada's tennis program has been basking in the considerable glow created by its rising stars over the last couple of years. It may soon have to share that glow with this country's golf program.
Canada, and specifically 16-year-old Brooke Henderson, once again shone on the world stage in narrowly missing out on the Women's World Amateur Team Championship in Karuizawa, Japan on Saturday. A second-place finish by Henderson and teammate Brittany Marchand capped a spectacular season for Team Canada's women.
While finishing second could be cast in a negative light considering the fact that Henderson and Marchand began Saturday's final round with a seven-stroke lead over Australia, there were plenty of reasons to herald the progress of Canada's women's golf program.
One in particular was the 2014 performance of Henderson, who won the world amateuir tournament's individual championship by shooting 19-under, three strokes better than Australian Minjee Lee.
The victory capped a phenomenal season for the Smiths Falls, Ont., native.
Consider her achievements this year: low amateur and 10th-place tie at the U.S. Women’s Open; victories at the PGA Women's Championship of Canada, the Canadian Women’s Tour event in Niagara Falls, the Porter Cup, the Ontario Women’s Amateur, the South Atlantic Ladies Amateur and the Scott Robertson Memorial Tournament; runner-up at the U.S. Women's Amateur; tie for 26th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship; tie for 45th at the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic; tie for 46th and top amateur at the LPGA Canadian Pacific Women's Open.
In addition, she made the cut on all four LPGA events she competed in and is ranked second in the world among amateurs.
Pretty impressive for a girl who will return to high school classes next week.
As the top golfer on Team Canada, she joins an impressive roster of
up-and-coming talent. Finishing second at the world team event put the cap on a successful season for the Golf Canada crew.
It saw Jennifer Kirby, Rebecca Lee-Bentham, Sue Kim and Jennifer Ha all make strides on the LPGA tour.
While finishing first at the world event was painfully close, the Canadians were more victims of an impressive finish by the Aussies than victims of poor play. Henderson and Marchand, of Orangeville, Ont., combined for a four-under final round of 140 but couldn't keep pace with the Australians' torrid final round of 65 and 66.
“Australia had a great round today, I was really impressed,” Henderson told Golf Canada. “They have very skilled players, including two in the top 10 in the world rankings, which is unbelievable. It’s a little disappointing to finish second but overall we had a really great week and played really well as a team.”
Team captain Liz Hoffman also looked at the positive side of things.
“We did our absolute best out there today and it was just a little bit short,” Hoffman said. “I look at that leaderboard and I think about what we’ve done the last four days and I am so proud of our girls. They’ve been fantastic and so wonderful to work with.”
Canadians will get a look at the male side of Team Canada next week when Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., Taylor Pendrith of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C. compete at the Eisenhower Trophy event in Japan.
