Esther Henseleit clears the field from behind in the final round of the Olympic golf tournament. Her unexpected silver medal is historic.
Esther Henseleit waited patiently with her fiancé Reece Phillips on the red couch in the clubhouse, and when the last ball was putted, she was finally able to celebrate. Thanks to a fantastic final round, the outsider from Hamburg unexpectedly snatched the silver medal at the Olympic golf tournament and caused a sensation shortly before the end of the Summer Games.
Henseleit outwitted the international competition with a splendid fourth and final round. Starting the final 18 holes in 13th place, the 54th in the world rankings cleared the field from behind. Henseleit only needed 66 strokes on Saturday, and her total was 280. Only the new Olympic champion Lydia Ko from New Zealand was better (278).
Surprising performance explosion
The surprising explosion of performance not only helped Henseleit win an Olympic medal on her debut, it was also the first German Olympic medal in golf ever. In four women’s events (1900, 2016, 2021, 2024) and five men’s events (1900, 1904, 2016, 2021, 2024), no German golf professional made it onto the podium before Henseleit.
Henseleit started her unexpected comeback with two birdies, followed by five more. She also kept her nerve on the final holes on the par-72 course at the Club Le Golf National just outside Paris.
Then the big trembling began, as Henseleit had started as one of the first medal candidates. Even the gold medal was still within reach, but Ko made no more mistakes. The runner-up from Rio 2016 and third from Tokyo 2021 completed her set of medals. The Chinese Janet Xiyu Lin came third (281).
It is Henseleit’s greatest career success, as she started playing golf at the age of eight under the guidance of her mother. At the age of nine, Henseleit already had a handicap of 21, and four years later she won the German championship title in her age group.
In 2019, he made the leap to professionalism. This was followed by his first tournament victories on the European Tour, with Henseleit winning three in total so far, the last in February 2022 in Kenya. He has not yet had any success on the LPGA Tour. But the silver medal in Paris should inspire Henseleit.
Source: www.sport.de
