Henderson in the hunt for second major

It wasn’t the blistering-hot pace she set the first two days, but Brooke Henderson continued to hold top spot after Saturday’s round of the Amundi Evian Championship after a three-under 68. She now heads to Sunday’s final round with a two-shot lead and a great chance to win her second major championship.

“It was wasn't as good as the first two days,” admitted Henderson, “but really hung in there. Made some clutch par saves on back nine, which felt nice. Not as many birdies on the card. Felt like the course is playing a little bit tougher for me today. Hopefully go out tomorrow and continue to ball strike pretty well and hopefully make some putts.”

Part-way through the final round, it looked as though Henderson was going to run away from the field, extending her lead to five shots after a birdie at the 14th. But she failed to take advantage of the par-5s at 15 and 18, making pars on both.

The final hole was especially stinging. After missing her drive right and playing a lay-up with her second, Henderson hit a wedge from 105 yards to three feet. It looked like a sure-fire birdie but the Canadian pulled the stroke ever so slightly and it lipped out on the low side.

For most of the day, Henderson used her putter well as she had the first two rounds, rolling in four birdies. But on occasion it was also for par-saving putts rather than birdies. On the eighth hole, she rolled one in from 14 feet and on the 17th, another tester from eight feet dropped into the cup.

When it wasn’t her putter, her wedge was bailing her out. On the 10th hole, after missing the green to the left, she lobbed a gorgeous soft shot up to gimme range to save another par.

She did miss a few opportunities such as on the ninth hole where a five-foot eagle putt curved left of the hole. There was another good chance on the 16th hole but the ball refused to drop and she had to settle for a par.

For the day, Henderson used 30 putts, the most of any of the three rounds so far.

“Sometimes I tried to be aggressive and it worked out pretty well,” she stated. “Other times I kind of just had to play safer, hit to the wide part of the greens. A little bit of a mixed bag today. Hopefully clean some things up and finish strong tomorrow.”

At 17 under, Henderson is easily within range of the all-time major scoring record of 21 under. She’ll likely need to get to that number and more with the chase pack cutting into her lead. Se Yeon Ryu is just two back after a third-round 65 while Sophia Schubert birdied her last four holes to get to within four.

Henderson’s plan on Sunday is to try and attack the course and not hold back while still being careful to avoid any big numbers.

“This course, like I said, can be really tricky at times,” she stated. “You put yourself in the wrong position, you're struggling to make par or bogeys. So just kind of stick to the game plan. Hopefully get a good strategy together tonight, and when I can be aggressive, I'll definitely try to take advantage of that.”

In seven of her previous 11 wins, Henderson led the field heading into the final round. In her one previous major victory, the 2016 KPMG LPGA Championship, she sat in fourth spot after 54 holes. A win would be the 12th LPGA Tour victory and also make Henderson the first Canadian man or woman to win multiple major championships.