Brooke Henderson storms back to force playoff at Evian Championship. Here's how she almost won

Haeran Ryu hangs on to win over the Canadian who was seven strokes behind before two eagles and an ace forced a 19th hole.

Brooke Henderson may be having a word with her wand following an agonizingly close call at the Amundi Evian Championship on Sunday. The 28-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., fell in a playoff to Haeran Ryu at the LPGA Tour’s major tournament in France after a valiant comeback saw her erase Ryu’s seven-shot advantage to start the day. Not only did Ryu begin the final round with that large lead, but she had bested Henderson in the final threesome at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship a fortnight ago and carded an astonishing 11-under-par 60 in Saturday’s third round at the Evian.

How in the world could the woman be caught? But Henderson plays a fearless game and with Ryu starting her round with a string of pars, too many circles used on the previous day’s scorecard perhaps. Henderson narrowed the gap considerably during a two-hole stretch that saw her eagle the par-5 seventh and ace the par-3 eighth.

A bogey by Ryu on eight meant a five-shot swing on those two frames alone. With Henderson having made birdie on her first, the lead was suddenly one. The second nine, well, that was a roller-coaster ride.

Henderson gave back one of her birdies with a three-putt bogey on 11, the second putt a surprising miss, which placed her two back of Ryu. On the par-3 14th, Henderson short-sided herself badly, but played a smart recovery shot to some 20 feet to guard against potential disaster. She poured in that putt, a save as important as any shot she played on this day, and she followed that with birdies on 15 and 16 to match Ryu and the third in their group, Aki Iwai, at 18 under par.

Excruciatingly, however, Henderson missed another shortie for par on the 17th, a blunder that dropped her a shot back heading to the par-5 18th. Then Henderson did as Henderson often does, ripping a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway and following that with a spectacular approach shot to eight feet below the hole to set up an eagle putt. When Henderson won this tournament in 2022, she did so by making an eagle from a similar spot.

After Ryu finally made her first birdie of the day, Henderson needed the putt to drop to force a playoff. It did, centre cup, sending the two major winners back to the 18th tee for extras. The playoff saw a role reversal off the tee.

Henderson, one of the game’s best drivers, pulled her tee shot into the left rough as Ryu had done in regulation. That forced her to lay up short of the hazard. Ryu, conversely, got home in two with a great tee ball and a solid second.

When Henderson overturned her third shot into the rough, but not far from the front-left hole location, Ryu held the upper hand. The South Korean hit a decent lag putt, but left the door ajar for a possible Henderson chip-in. The Canadian gave it a fighting chance from an awkward spot, but alas it was not to be.

Ryu calmly rolled in her birdie putt for the win. The silver lining for Henderson is her strong play over the last three weeks. Her season — and even the last two, in fact — has resembled the play of a star striker in the World Cup.

She has been largely missing from the conversation and then, bang, she’s squarely in it. She did that last year at the CPKC Women’s Open, winning her national open for a second time after not appearing on the first page of the leaderboard in her previous 17 starts. And after 10 straight finishes outside the top 20 this year, Henderson has now placed in the top three and solo-second in her last two starts, both of them majors.

“Any time you can shoot minus seven in the final round and chase down the leader like that it’s definitely a huge confidence boost and I feel like I hit the ball really well today,” said Henderson, in a post-round interview with Golf Channel analyst Ali Whitaker. “It was a great day all around, to start the day seven shots back and fight back was pretty cool.” Still, the loss to Ryu will make Henderson rue those two short misses for par.

Had either putt dropped, she would have captured her third major championship and second at the Evian. The miss on the 11th was so stunning in fact that Ryu, not watching Henderson’s clean-up attempt, had to be informed about it by Whitaker before marking the score. “The putter was working sometimes, other times I could have depended on it a little bit more,” admitted Henderson with a chuckle to Whitaker.

Henderson now heads into the last major of the season, the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham in two weeks’ time, on a roll. And she has her CPKC Women’s Open title to defend next month, this time at Edmonton’s Royal Mayfair GC. She long ago assumed the mantle from Mike Weir as the golfer Canadian fans focus on the most.

With that attention comes curiosity about “what’s wrong with her game” when the results don’t come. But talent can’t be shackled for long and Henderson has as much raw ability as anybody in the game. Now it’s about her getting over the finish line first again, like she has done 14 times already in her LPGA Tour career.

An outcome likelier than not to occur.