Brooke Henderson, in search of some much needed momentum, was phenomenal in the first round of The Standard Portland Classic, shooting a -7 65 to take the co-lead at the end of the morning wave.
Henderson is no stranger to posting great scores at Columbia Edgewater, as she has won twice on this course before with two additional top-10 finishes on her resumé.
“I love coming back to this place. I do have a lot of the great memories. A lot of good things happened to me here,” said Henderson.
The fans in Portland love her as well, there was a palpable buzz around the course at the round Henderson was putting together. To nobody’s surprise, she had easily the biggest crowds of the morning wave.
It didn’t take long for Henderson to get going Thursday, with birdies on the first four holes. On the par 4 11, Henderson’s second hole of the day, she nearly holed out for eagle. Her round slowed a bit after that, with nine pars in a row, but she took advantage of her length with birdies on the two front nine par fives and then the final hole of the day.
There wasn’t a part of Henderson’s game that wasn’t working. She hit 12/14 fairways, 14 greens in regulation and had just 25 putts.
“It’s really important to hit a bunch of fairways this week. You want to be hitting it really straight. I think I only missed two fairways today so that was good,” said Henderson. “Hopefully hit them all tomorrow.”
Henderson is looking for her first win since January, 2023. She is currently ranked outside the top 50 in both the Rolex Rankings and the CME Standings.
