Home favorite Brooke Henderson shares the 54-hole lead with Australian Minjee Lee in the LPGA Canadian Women's Open

Montreal (AFP) - Canadian Brooke Henderson holed out from a bunker for an eagle at the 17th hole on the way to a six-under par 65 and a share of the 54-hole lead alongside Minjee Lee in the LPGA Canadian Women’s Open.

Henderson, who won her home open back in 2018, delivered a dazzling finish at Mississauga Golf and Country Club, her eagle following birdies at 15 and 16.

She and Australia’s Lee – whose five-under 66 featured two eagles – were tied on 11-under 202, three strokes clear of world number one Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand and overnight leader Akie Iwai of Japan.

“Definitely a great way to finish with two birdies back to back and the eagle,” Henderson said. “And even the par on 18 I was really happy with because the hole was playing pretty tough today.”

Henderson, who had a total of six birdies to go with her eagle and two bogeys, claimed the most recent of her 13 LPGA titles in January 2023.

The 27-year-old has just one top-10 finish this year, but said she is energized playing in front of Canadian fans.

“The crowds have been so phenomenal all week, and today starting out on the first tee because I was near the final groups, it was really exciting and a lot of energy,” Henderson said. “I feel like I was playing pretty well today, so the crowd continued to grow and grow.

“It was fun to give them some things to cheer about.”

She wasn’t surprised to see her bunker shot at 17 hit the bottom of the cup for an eagle.

“Before I got into the bunker I was thinking, ‘I can make this. It’s very makeable,’” she said. “I knew I had to hit it soft because it was really fast. It was nice to land it right where I wanted to and see it go in.”

- Tough day for Iwai -

Lee, who won her third major title at the Women’s PGA Championship this year, drained a long eagle putt at the par-five 12th and rolled in another eagle putt at 17.

She then chipped in to save par at 18.

“I would say those two (eagles) are my highlights and obviously the chip-in on the last,” Lee said.

“I felt like I was hitting it really solid,” she added. “With the score that I had I felt like I left a few out there, so just going to work a bit on my putting trying to get the speed and the line right, and hopefully (it will be) exciting Sunday.”

It was a tough day for Iwai, who broke through for her first title in Portland last week, led after the first round and pushed her advantage to three strokes on Friday.

But she opened with three straight bogeys on Saturday and posted a one-over 72 to join Jeeno on 205.

The Thai star, who regained the world number one ranking from American Nelly Korda last month, carded a one-under 69.