Brooke Henderson had an extra-special reason to be excited about her opening round at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Thursday as her sister, Brittany, gave birth to a daughter Sahalee in the early morning hours.
The name Sahalee means ‘high heavenly grounds’ and also represents the name of the golf course where Henderson won her first major — the first tournament the sisters won together as caddie and player.
Sahalee was born just before 5 a.m. ET as Henderson was preparing to head to the golf course to begin the third major of the year on the LPGA Tour.
“I'm just so happy for my sister and brother-in-law and the whole family. It's such an exciting, wonderful time. And my sister and the baby are doing really well, healthy, and really excited to see her next week,” Henderson said.
Henderson opened with a 3-under 69, putting together a solid comeback after sitting at 1 over for her first six holes, including missing a nine-footer for par on the par-3 4th. She rallied with four birdies in a nine-hole stretch and nearly had it going deeper — missing nine-, 12- and 15-foot birdie attempts on her final three holes of the day, respectively.
Still, Henderson was awfully pleased with her opening round, which had been a pain point on the LPGA Tour for her this year. She sits 103rd in first-round scoring average, but her opener at the Women’s PGA Championship — the lone major at which she’s never missed the cut — sees her squarely in the mix.
Ina Yoon shot a 9-under 63 and tied the lowest opening round in tournament history.
“Felt like my ball striking was in a really good spot today so hit a lot of greens and gave myself a lot of good birdie looks, which is always really fun, especially at major championship and on a tough golf course,” Henderson said. “Really happy with the 3-under. Ina was on fire. I have some work to do to try to catch her, but I'm really happy with my round overall.”
Henderson has notched just one top-10 finish this season, at the first event of the year — the lone event that Brittany caddied for her before stepping away to concentrate on motherhood. But she has always had a run of success at this particular major and was buoyed by such good news Thursday morning that she converted it into good play.
“What a way to start the week,” Henderson said. “Perfect start to get under par, hear my niece was born and doing very well, 10-year anniversary of when I won at Sahalee in 2016. Great day overall and hopefully carry that through the rest of the weekend.”
