Canada’s Brooke Henderson fired up after strong round pushes her up Olympic leaderboard

As Brooke Henderson neared the finish of her third round at the Olympic golf competition in France, she roped one of her approach shots on the back nine, and American broadcaster Morgan Pressel said it looked like Henderson was fired up.

But there was, accidentally, another ‘f’ word before ‘fired.’

It was a slip of the tongue, but it perfectly described the Canadian’s third-round effort. Henderson shot a 5-under 67, far and away her best round of the week, and tied for the second-lowest round of the day.

Henderson is five shots back of the bronze medal position through 54 holes at Le Golf National. She knows she’ll have to fire a similar round in the finale to make up ground. But given how tough the course is playing for the women this week, anything could happen.

“It was a great moving day. I’m really happy with how today went. No bogeys on this golf course is a win,” Henderson said. “I feel like my ball striking was in a good spot today. Hopefully, more of the same tomorrow.”

Henderson said the golf course is playing similar to a major with thick rough and firm greens. The wind has been difficult to navigate, she explained.

“You definitely have to play smart and it can be a really tough golf course, especially if you get on the wrong side of things. It can play extremely tough and difficult. Today I was kind of riding a lot of highs and I feel like that confidence really helped me to continue to play well,” Henderson explained.

The Canadian came into the third round of the Olympic competition after a frustrating second day. Her putter was ice cold. She found the water en route to a bogey on her final hole of the day and Henderson admitted Thursday was tough. But she wanted to come out Friday with a good mindset and wanted to have a lighter approach to things as she tried to climb the leaderboard.