VANCOUVER – At a major championship-type venue like Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, it was no surprise that plenty of the game’s biggest names are near the top of the leaderboard after one round in Vancouver.
Brooke Henderson isn’t one of them. But fellow Canadian Alena Sharp is building off her great run of play in 2023 and is not just low Canadian through 18 holes, but firmly in the mix at her national open.
Sharp is tied for third and trails first-round leader Yuka Saso by just three shots.
“I feel like every Canadian will say the same thing. Whether you're on the LPGA or PGA (Tour) you always want to do well at home. There is always a little bit extra pressure. Obviously we do it to ourselves,” Sharp said. “Definitely I could feel the nerves a little bit yesterday and then this morning […] but shook it off.”
Sharp has five top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour this season including a win in June (at 42, she said with a laugh she’s “the grandma” on the feeder circuit) and is ninth on the tour’s “Race to the Card.” She’s very nearly re-earned her LPGA Tour status for 2024.
This week, she explained, she felt like she was “playing a bit with house money.” Sharp was pleased not only with her result Thursday, but the way she was able to take the round across the finish line. Sharp had a solid bout of self-talk early in her round after bogeying her second hole of the day.
“I'm walking down 10 and 11 and I'm like, what are you doing? You've been in the hunt on the Epson Tour, which those players are solid. Like the top-10 – solid. You have to play good golf. It's not any different. You're making a big deal out of this. Stop. Stop it,” Sharp said.
“I have my plan set to play the last five Epson (Tour events), but just coming in here I just wanted to take all the hard work I've done and just prove to myself that I could do it on a hard golf course.”
Henderson, meanwhile, struggled from the jump.
She snap-hooked her opening tee shot into the left-hand side trees and needed to punch out en route to a first-hole bogey. She was 2-over after nine holes, added a bogey on the par-4 10th, and couldn’t convert on any other scoring chances through the back nine.
“I just wasn't sharp today so hopefully just go out tomorrow morning early, get off to a quick start, make more birdies,” Henderson said. “I think just overall (nothing was sharp). It's definitely not the way you want to start out, especially at this big event, but hopefully just make things a little bit more efficient and sharper tomorrow and hopefully things will be a little better.”
Henderson’s opening round at the CPKC Women’s Open was a microcosm of her season as a whole. She’s struggled with her ball striking in 2023 as compared to her previous few seasons and hit only 50 percent of her greens in regulation and 50 percent of her fairways on Thursday in Vancouver. With a laugh, Henderson said at least her first round with her new glasses allowed her to see her ball in the bush.
“That was good,” Henderson said. "But, yeah, definitely tomorrow will be better.”
Saso, the opening-round leader, has been trending in the right direction over the last few months. She’s notched top-10 finishes in four of her previous six events, including a runner-up at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Saso teed off on the 10th hole but put things into high gear after she made the turn, birding Nos. 1-4.
“I don't know what happened on the back nine,” Saso said with a smile. “I started hitting some good second shots and having short putts for birdies, giving myself a lot of chances.
“I think it was a good day.”
Linn Grant of Sweden, who is looking for her second win of the season, sits second at 5 under, while Sharp is part of a group of six golfers at 3-under including young superstar Rose Zhang, and major champs Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim and Jin Young Ko, who won this tournament in 2019.
Of the 15 Canadians in the field this week, perhaps the biggest smile of Thursday came from amateur Brooke Rivers. The “other Brooke,” in this case, shot a 1-under 71 in her first-ever LPGA Tour event. Rivers, of Brampton, Ont., is part of Wake Forest’s golf team but skipped her first week at school to tee it up in her national open.
“Worth it,” Rivers said. “I knew beforehand that there was a very good chance I was going to get here so I told them before. But I was not going to miss this opportunity, so I'm happy to be here.”
Rivers, Saso, Sharp – all happy with their day. Henderson, however, will need a hot start after a quick turnaround to Friday morning to keep her CPKC Women’s Open going.
