HENDERSON COMES HOME
Teen reflects on life in LPGA
Kiefer wanted to know how Brooke Henderson remained confident amid the pressure of professional golf competition.
Answer: Good results build confidence and it’s better to focus on one shot at a time.
Julian wanted to know if Henderson concentrated on one thought or a handful before commencing her swing.
Answer: “No fear,” the fifthranked player in the women’s world golf rankings responded. “Have fun and believe you can do it ... because you can.”
Maddie wanted details on Henderson’s practice routine.
Answer: It varies according to goals for that particular day. One day it might be targeting flags on the practice area, another day it might feature working distance control and so on.
It was generally pretty easy stuff from the awestruck group of about 50 nine- to 17-year-olds asking the questions, but a couple of queries did stop Henderson in her tracks.
Q: What was the launch angle on tee shots with her 48-inch driver?
Henderson looked hopefully toward a rep for one of her corporate sponsors, PING Golf, and her caddy/older sister, Brittany, but they had nothing.
Q: What was the flex on the shaft in her golf clubs?
A: Henderson smiled the smile of someone who didn’t have a response to that one, either, but her sister bailed her out this time.
Men’s stiff, or more rigid than you’d probably expect for someone standing just 5-foot-4 and barely older than the junior golfers who skipped school to attend a Tuesday morning exhibition before the Kevin Haime Kids to the Course Golf Classic, a fundraising event at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Dunrobin.
The Hendersons’ appearance was arranged through PING and preceded by one day another private event for the sisters from Smiths Falls at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.
This happens to be the only break in the LPGA Tour schedule in a span of 14 weeks starting in mid-April; then another respite is followed by the Ricoh Women’s British Open in England July 28-31, the golf portion of the Rio Summer Olympics Aug. 17-20 and, immediately after that, the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open in Calgary and the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in Cambridge, Ont.
“I think that stretch, honestly, might be the hardest because of all the ... Not that there’s a lot of complications in Rio, but there is a lot of structure there that you have follow and be really careful about,” said Brittany Henderson, a 25-yearold who placed her own pro golf aspirations on hold for at least this year while carrying her younger sister’s golf bag to wherever Brooke’s schedule takes them.
“Coming from (Rio) and then having the huge travel that it is just to get back for the Canadian Open right away, I think that’s going to be the hardest on time and energy. Then, just because you want to do really well in the Canadian Open, you want to see a lot, you want to do a lot of media, you want to see the fans, that’s going to be the hardest to manage with your time and energy.”
Brooke Henderson said she shifted back and forth from thinking of the first Olympic golf competition since 1904 as just another tournament to, “Whoa! I’m going to be an Olympian, I’m going to go and represent my country, I’m going to be there with all those other athletes, I’m going to do something so incredible that (most) people only dream about.”
She admitted to being concerned about some aspects of the 2016 Olympic experience, most notably the Zika virus, but also noted it had spread beyond Brazil’s borders and into the United States and Canada, so the best tactic was simply to take all the required precautions.
Henderson has earned more than US$1 million since becoming a professional golfer in late 2014, including $451,459 to rank ninth on the LPGA Tour so far this season. Her short-term objectives include adding to that total and climbing even further in the world rankings, where already she trails only New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, South Korea’s Inbee Park and the United States’ Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis.
“I’m playing really well,” said Henderson, whose recent ties for 19th and 29th ended a run of nine consecutive top-10 results, “but I have big goals and big dreams ahead of me, and I’m still pushing to be that little bit better.”
That process will resume following down time this week with family and friends in and around Smiths Falls, where on Monday night she slept in her own bed for the first time since Christmas Day.
It can be a grind, but it’s also part of the life Henderson has pursued since her first victory in a pro-level tournament, one of the qualifying events for the Canadian Women’s Open, at age 14. Keep in mind, that was just four years ago.
“That was really when it set in,” she said. “I thought, ‘Man, if I work really hard, continue what I’m doing, maybe I can do this as a career and as a living.’ ”
Sounds like an 18-year-old with a world of possibilities, doesn’t it?