ADVICE FOR FANS FROM THE OLD PROS
Former LPGA stars say Brooke needs some space
The Canadian Pacific Women’s Open isn’t like any other LPGA Tour event for Canadian players. It never was under any previous banner, either.
Not every Open is equal for every Canadian player, though. They all matter, but those contested at or near home come with even higher expectations.
Therefore, Canadian Golf Hall of Fame inductees Sandra Post and Jocelyne Bourassa would be pleased if folks from the national capital region could give Brooke Henderson some personal space next week at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club. That includes the few dozen members from Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club, her home course, who will be marshalling spectators on the first hole.
“It’s all the same, but there are different degrees, because there are more people, obviously, who will be pulling for you when you’re closer to home,” said Post, the only Canadian not named Henderson to capture an LPGA major championship and, with eight tour victories overall, the only Canadian with more than the four titles on the resumes of Henderson and Charlottetown’s Lorie Kane.
“Family, friends, people you went to school with. People will just show up, and this is the first time that they’ve really seen her on this stage with credentials behind her to win. They knew her as an amateur champion, or whatever, but this is the first time on the biggest stage, probably, for most of them to see her play, and they have lost the (lower) expectations. They expect a lot. They’ve never seen the LPGA and they don’t understand how hard it is to win a tournament.”
Now 69, Post played the 1980 Peter Jackson Classic at home in Toronto immediately after winning the West Virginia LPGA Classic in a playoff. She was in contention entering the final round at Royal St. George’s, but “just ran out of energy” and finished tied for 10th behind eventual winner Pat Bradley of the United States.
Bourassa, 70, is 44 years past her playoff victory over Sandra Haynie and Judy Rankin at the former Montreal Municipal Golf Club in the inaugural edition of the tournament then called La Canadienne. The Quebecer is still the only Canadian to be an LPGA Tour champion on home soil, and her name will be cited all week long.
Even though she had been named LPGA Tour rookie of the year for 1972, Bourassa said she wasn’t nervous entering La Canadienne because “I didn’t know that I was going to win.”
There were no gallery ropes then, she added, so spectators stood practically right next to the golfers. Bourassa said she leaned on caddy Mario Brisebois because he could take care of the crowd, and “bouncers” created additional room to breathe and to play.
On the 18th hole of the final round, one stroke off the lead, Bourassa asked Brisebois to spot one of her brothers in the crowd. He did, near a tree. Bourassa’s father was there, too, so she wandered over accompanied by bouncers.
“Just to take at look at him and then say, ‘OK, I’m going to be all right,’ ” Bourassa said.
“He didn’t say anything to me … but, just because I went to see him, whew, it gave me a lot of calmness. So I hit on the green and one-putted (for birdie to get into the playoff ).
“But it was the crowd that helped me surpass myself.”
On the other extreme, Bourassa admitted expectations got to her in the 1979 Peter Jackson Classic at Richelieu Valley in suburban Ste-Julie, and, further hampered by an injured knee that would force her to retire, she missed the cut. Post tied for seventh, and the winner was Amy Alcott of the U.S.
According to Post, it was good for Henderson and all other Canadians in this week’s tournament to have a break beforehand: a week off in the schedule after the RICOH Women’s British Open, then another for the Solheim Cup matchplay event featuring only 24 players from the U.S. and Europe.
The Canadians, Post said, should have planned to rest, to work on their games as required, and to take care of all the details associated with playing at home.
“I think the players have gotten better at isolating themselves,” Post said. “Take Brooke. She has her family around her, right? Alena (Sharp) has learned with time, and Lorie had her family around her, too.
“I know it sounds so simple, but, if you can just keep everything in perspective. Yes, you would really love to play well at home, first of all, but I think that’s as far as you go. Play well.
“I don’t think anybody can start out any week saying, ‘I want to win.’ Wow. That’s putting a lot on you. You have the capabilities, but I think you just have to take one day at a time, one shot at a time. Don’t get ahead of yourself.
“Brooke, especially, when she’s playing well, she gets into a real great zone and her own little world. She’s a grinder.”
Post plans to be in Ottawa, so she’ll witness Brooke-a-palooza, but Bourassa is bypassing the tournament even though she professes that she’d love to see the revamped Ottawa Hunt. She served as tournament director when Martha Nause won the 1994 du Maurier Classic, and as a fan she attended the 2008 CN Canadian Women’s Open won by Katherine Kirk, spending much of her walkabout exchanging pleasantries with players, their family members and scores of others.
“I wanted to go there, to just be there for Brooke Henderson, but part of me said, ‘No, no, you shouldn’t go,’ because she’s going to be nervous just to begin with, being in her hometown,” Bourassa said.
“... I don’t want to disturb her in any way. So, having said that, I’m not going. I’ll watch her on TV, as usual.”
Henderson missed the cut after two rounds in her first two Canadian Opens, but she was just 14 and 15 when she played in those 2012 and 2013 events.
Now, weeks shy of 20, she’ll try to further polish results that improved from a tie for 46th to a tie for 23rd to a tie for 14th during the past three years.
“The Canadians,” Post said, “what we want is, the last day, to have someone on the leaderboard, and that always makes it more fun for the gallery.”