Brooke Henderson said Friday after her round at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship she hoped that she “got all the bogeys out of the way.”
On Saturday it was mission accomplished.
Henderson, the 2016 winner of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, fired a 5-under-par 65 to zip up the leaderboard.
She will be in the final group on Sunday as she chases another major title.
“I'm really happy with how today went,” said Henderson. “Was able to make some birdies early, and that was a really nice feeling making the turn at 4-under, and nice to climb up the leaderboard as much as I did, and I'm excited for the opportunity tomorrow.”
The 23-year-old dropped a slippery six-footer for par on the 18th hole to keep her scorecard clean on moving day at Aronimink Golf Club. She called that a “clutch” save. Especially, she said, since she “gave away” her last hole the previous two rounds – with a bogey on Friday and a par on an “easy” par-5 on Thursday.
“It was nice to get the par save and really finish off a round that I feel like -- not deserved to be -5 but it would have felt really terrible to fall back to -4,” said Henderson with a laugh. “So definitely happy with no bogeys, and hopefully that continues tomorrow.”
The Canadian said she has got increasingly more comfortable at Aronimink as the week has gone on, improving each day with a game plan she developed with her sister and caddie, Brittany.
Henderson is known as a golfer who plays aggressively. She admitted Aronimink doesn’t exactly lend itself to that strategy, but she’ll try to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to her on Sunday as she’ll have some ground to make up on the 54-hole leader.
She hit 17 of 18 greens and said her long game – which is usually the best part of her game – was on display Saturday.
“I definitely think you just have to be really smart. Some holes I don't think you can ever really attack. Other ones given the opportunity then I might try to do that. Just also depends on how everybody is playing, what the weather is like and how the course is set up,” said Henderson. “I think our strategy so far has worked really well, and hopefully I can just continue to capitalize when I do give myself good looks and otherwise just play smart.”
Henderson was just 18 when she won her first KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and said her victory was a life-changer. She’s got a great chance to add another major championship title to her resume.
“Just sometimes it's hard to believe that I'm a major champion, but definitely in times like this it gives me a little bit of confidence,” said Henderson, “and I'm excited to try to do it again tomorrow.”
