SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Esther Henseleit went into the final day of the Olympic women’s golf competition knowing she needed to produce the round of her life.
Seven shots adrift of the leaders, the German was not among the names under consideration in the chase for medals at Le Golf National. There was only one thing she needed to do to enter the conversation – put the pedal down and go low.
So, she did. Henseleit bookended her round with back-to-back birdies to post a seven-birdie 6-under 66, the second-lowest score of the final round, to climb from 20th overnight to the silver medal. A bogey at the 12th was a mere blip in what was otherwise a near-flawless performance.
“I was so far back coming into today,” she reflected afterward. “I had a great start, and after nine holes, I looked at the leaderboard, and I think I was maybe in second, and I was more surprised.
“I had a bit of a struggle at the start into the back nine, but I managed to make some great pars, and then to finish birdie-birdie, is incredible.”
Henseleit, who at the close of the competition led the field in birdies (22), is the first European woman in the modern era to earn an Olympic medal in the golf competition. As far as Olympic debuts go, this was near perfection.
Even though she is a two-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, a victory has eluded Henseleit on the LPGA Tour, but with three top-10 finishes this year, that feels like it will come sooner rather than later. But for now, the 25-year-old was delighted with the biggest accomplishment in her career to date.
Rounding out the podium were gold medalist Lydia Ko and China’s Xiyu Lin, who claimed bronze.
For Lin, she was left to reflect on the much-needed advice of an elder Chinese counterpart in the lead-up to her third Olympic Games.
It had been kind of a ho-hum year for the LPGA Tour veteran, and with the Games coming up and desperately wanting to medal, Lin turned to 2016 bronze medalist Shanshan Feng before she left for Le Golf National.
“Shanshan is Shanshan. She's just happy every day,” said Lin, who played alongside Feng at the 2016 Rio Olympics. “She's like, ‘What's going on?’ I'm like, ‘I'm so anxious,’ because I feel like this year, I haven't been doing lots of good. I've been doing some good, but my game hasn't been like super sharp. I had my own struggles.
“And I said to Shanshan, ‘What should I be thinking going into this Olympics?’ She just asked me. She said, ‘Well, this is your third. So, what finish you think that you will be happy with yourself?’ I'm like, ‘Just get a medal.’ She's like, ‘Let's just do it then.’ I feel like that conversation was very important for me, and it narrowed everything down.”
Lin took Feng’s words to heart, going out at Le Golf National and following in her predecessor’s footsteps, earning the People’s Republic of China’s second bronze medal and first since Feng herself took bronze in Rio.
Lin fired her only sub-70 score of the week during Saturday’s final round just outside of Paris, carding a 3-under 69 that saw her make two bogeys and five birdies, the last of which that came on the par-5 18th hole ultimately lifted her to the final spot on the podium.
“I felt like after I talked to (Shanshan), I was trying to think what she had done in Rio to win the bronze medal,” Lin said. “I felt like she really enjoyed the week. She smiled at everybody, and she waved at all the fans who cheered for her. I just felt like I'm going to adapt that, and I think that's what I've done this week. We had a great week both on and off the course, and also having my fiancée and the families and agents, lots of people here with me, it's amazing.”
The 28-year-old may not have ever collected a title on the LPGA Tour, but even when that first victory does come, Lin’s performance at the Paris Olympics will likely outshine any hardware that she adds to her trophy room in the coming seasons.
And Lin learned one thing this week at Le Golf National that she’ll try to carry forward.
“I feel like I just pulled a Shanshan,” Lin said, “and that won me a bronze medal.”
A celebratory phone call to Feng just might be in order.
