Brooke Henderson celebrates with her trophy after winning the Evian Championship women’s golf tournament in Evian, France on July 24.Laurent Cipriani/The Associated Press
After winning her second major on Sunday, Brooke Henderson turned to her sister, who is her caddy, and rolled her eyes in a combination of amusement and bewilderment.
At the time, even Mrs. Henderson must have been a little surprised at what she had accomplished.
He entered the final round of the Amundi Evian Championship in France with a two-shot lead. He bogeyed the first hole. He put the sixth in four. By mid-lap, he had dropped back into the pack and lost the lead.
But after seeing everyone a few times, Ms. Henderson hit the afterburners on the home stretch. On the 18th, he needed an eight-foot putt to win outright. He gave him some English with his knee on the way to the hole, but he never missed. He won by one stroke, 17 under par.
“The saying is that the majors are won on the back nine on Sunday,” said Ms. Henderson.
People do say that, but most people who say that never win majors.
It was hard not to see at the end of this weekend a kind of shining-through-a-glass version of what happened in last week’s grand final, the British Open in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Like Rory McIlroy, Ms. Henderson has done everything right for years except win the big one. It’s been six years since her breakthrough at the Women’s PGA Championship.
As Mr. McIlroy, entered Sunday in the lead. As Mr. McIlroy did not see his main competition (in this case, the American Sophia Schubert) until she was in danger of being lapped. As Mr. McIlroy, you risked an embarrassing mistake: losing a tournament you had in the bag to someone who had never won anything like it.
Unlike Mr. McIlroy, Mrs. Henderson didn’t fold.
When told by an interviewer afterwards that she hadn’t been so good on Sunday, Ms Henderson happily agreed: “Yeah, definitely not at her best today.”
And yet she is the person holding the trophy. This is the line that separates people who are good at something from people who are great. They find a way to bend the pressure to their own purposes.
Pressure has gotten a bad press lately. It’s no longer considered polite to ask people about it, because being able to handle it might suggest that others can’t. A new focus on mental health in sports has people worried about the effects of high-profile disappointment on boldface names.
But on a professional level, this is the only substantive thing that separates the competitors. All are physically gifted. They are all resilient (or they wouldn’t have made it this far). But only a few have the mental fortitude to get inside their opponents’ heads and start pulling strings.
At the end, you can see the results of Mrs. Henderson’s belated accusation in Mrs. Schubert’s face. The American rookie was just one shot away from victory, but there was no part of her that expected things to turn out this way. She seemed happier for Mrs. Henderson than Henderson was for herself. Maybe part of her was relieved it was over. If so, who could blame her?
Aside from the look she shared with her sister, Brittany, Ms. Henderson didn’t do much beyond a charitable smile. Even the champagne shower (the real stuff, not the glittery rubbish) didn’t get much of a rise out of her. She spent a lot of time trying to get people to hug her because she was wet.
“I am very excited to have my second major championship win,” said Ms. Henderson. On the scale of super-excitement, the tone was somewhere between “mid-day Friday” and “found a great parking spot at Costco.”
This tendency to do cool things may be one of the reasons Ms. Henderson doesn’t get as much attention in Canada as she deserves. When Bianca Andreescu wins a major, it’s pandemonium. But Mrs. Henderson? Yes, of course he won. That’s what it does: win. It’s a case where an athlete can be too good at what they do.
It is now commonplace that Henderson is the most accomplished golfer in Canadian history, with Mike Weir.
Sunday’s win puts her in a class of one. Along with the two majors, he has 12 tour wins in total. These are already Hall of Fame numbers.
Because she has been so good, so consistent, it seems as if Ms. Henderson has been around forever, even though he’s only 24 years old. Despite being widely admired, she has somehow managed the trick of being underappreciated.
But perhaps Ms Henderson is about to get the headlines she deserves.
In the spring, he missed a couple of cuts. Instead of continuing to fight, he went home and took several weeks off to get his head straight. Not two months after his mini comeback, he’s back at the top of the game.
It’s a good time of year to excel in sports. Not much happens. People are generally idle. Many are looking for something to do. How about getting excited about golf?
The LPGA Tour is now moving to Great Britain from France. Until Sunday, Ms Henderson had never won a tournament in Europe. Maybe he’s starting his own Grand Tour.
In a month, Mrs. Henderson will return to Canada.
It has been three years since the CP Women’s Open was held. Henderson made national headlines when he won this tournament in 2018. No Canadian has won it twice.
If Ms. Henderson plans to take advantage of some Chinese momentum, this would be the time to do it. A few good days could turn her from Canada’s favorite golfer to Canada’s greatest athlete, period.
You shouldn’t say these things out loud. It creates too much expectation, too many unfair opportunities to fail an arbitrary test. But on Sunday she proved again that Ms Henderson’s real forte is not golf. It’s doing things that people have no right to expect you to do.