Two years later (the 2020 championship was canceled due to COVID-19), another dogfight ensued, this one between Brooke Henderson, seeking her second major title, and Sophia Schubert, a player almost no one picked early in the week.
Henderson held the 54-hold lead and everyone assumed that Sunday would be a coronation march for the winningest Canadian golfer in history. It had been six long years since Henderson captured her first, and at the time only major, the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. This second one was supposed to be a Sunday-morning celebration in Smiths Falls, Ontario.
But golf doesn’t work that way. Henderson struggled on the first nine holes, shooting 2-over before making a couple of birdies on the back. Meanwhile, Schubert made clutch birdies at 11, 12 and 15, the final one coming when she poured in a slippery 8-footer that could have easily run as far past. That put Henderson behind until the 25-year-old birdied 14 and 15 to regain a share of the lead.
Schubert had a birdie putt at the final hole that would have all but ensured a playoff, but it hung on the high side of the hole. That gave Henderson one last chance. After laying up from the rough to 100 yards, Brooke hit a wedge into the left fringe some 12 feet from the hole. After discussions with her sister and caddie, Brittany, Brooke hit a perfect putt that fell in at just the right speed for birdie and the win.