Canadian golf phenom has drive to succeed
Toronto girl, 11, masters the field at Augusta event
Brooke Henderson had just finished up the final round of the first major of the LPGA Tour season when she returned to her hotel room in California to watch the finale of the Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship.
What she saw was perhaps the second coming of herself.
Vanessa Borovilos, an 11- year- old from Toronto, captured the title for girls ages 10 and 11 at the annual junior golf competition’s championship final at Augusta National, the host club of the Masters.
Borovilos, who is t he back- to- back U. S. Kids Golf world champion, gave Henderson cause to get excited about the future of Canadian female golf.
“I was able to see Vanessa win the Drive, Chip, and Putt last night and was so proud of her,” Henderson said Monday.
Borovilos said Henderson is one of her favourite golfers. She loves the way Henderson stays focused on the course and tries to bring some of that to her own preparation.
“I know every shot counts, but f or those shots that really counts, ( Henderson) really focuses and she plays really good,” Borovilos said by phone from Augusta, Ga.
Henderson said it was an honour to hear Borovilos looks up to her.
“She had a great quote after the victory about how important practice is in order to succeed in competition. If she sticks to that advice, she’ll be able to follow her dreams on the golf course,” said Henderson .“Who knows? Maybe I will see her out here on the LPGA one day.”
Borovilos, one of three Canadians to make the finals of the Drive, Chip, and Putt Championship, attends Hollycrest Middle School in Toronto, where she is part of an elite athlete program that allows her to finish school each day before noon.
She spends most afternoons at Peak Performance Golf — an indoor practice facility in Vaughan, Ont. — or at Mississauga’s Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, where she works under coach Doug Lawrie.
Lawrie said hei simpressed by Borovilos’s work ethic and her game continues to get better. She weighs just 77 pounds, for example, and she swings her driver at 80 miles per hour.
“All of a sudden, boom, this young lady is thrust into the limelight of some pretty amazing stuff. It doesn’t hurt that she’s got the game to back it up because it’s not like just she’s a Drive, Chip, and Putt person that’s been able to get through the qualifier and win,” said Lawrie. “She has the ability to take ( golf ) to wherever she wants.”
Borovilos’s father Dino said she is a straight- A student.