Henderson becoming LPGA’s ‘It’ girl
CANADIAN PHENOM: Teenager from small-town Smiths Falls, Ont., has become a big deal on the pro circuit
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — When you clicked onto LPGA.com Wednesday, the first face you saw was that of Smiths Falls, Ont., teenager Brooke Henderson. Not once, but twice. The world’s seventh-ranked player headlined the website’s Top 10 Fantasy Players To Watch for the ANA Inspiration, the LPGA’s first major this season, which gets underway Thursday. She was at the top of the list ahead of players like Ha Na Jang, Lexi Thompson and Inbee Park.
There was also a link to video of her press conference from Tuesday. She was the first player to take the stage for the traditional Tuesday interviews with the game’s top players.
The rest of the world is discovering what the good folks of Smiths Falls have known for a while: Henderson is a bit of a big deal.
Not that she’s changed. She is still the humble kid who grew up swinging the hand-me-down clubs from sister Brittany (who’s caddying for her again this week).
But she can’t walk a few feet at Mission Hills without people stopping to ask her for an autograph or take a picture. She is becoming the LPGA’s ‘It’ girl.
Rather than looking at her exploding popularity as infringing on her personal time, Henderson has been embracing it.
She stopped at the 16th tee Wednesday during the pro-am to accommodate one person after the other for pictures.
Most of the requests started with “I’m from Alberta …” or “We’re from Canada …”
“I love it,” she said. “If you get attention, it’s either you’re doing something really right or you’re doing something really wrong. At this point, I think I’m doing things pretty well. It’s definitely a learning curve and trying to manage time and media requests and things like that. But it’s all good. I’m enjoying it so far.”
The snowbirds down here flock to her.
“The Canadian support is unbelievable. When I go home and even every week out on tour, I see big Canadian flags, I see the support all around me and it’s awesome. But I’m building fans in all different countries and including the U.S.,” she said.
“People come up to me and it’s really, really an incredible experience. I’m still looking up to some girls out here on tour like Juli Inkster and things like that and now people want my autograph and they want my picture with them. It’s really a dream.”
The corporate world hasn’t taken long to see the value in associating themselves with Henderson. She has deals with apparel-maker Sunice, BMW Canada and RBC. Henderson confirmed a deal with BioSteel sports nutrition products will be announced Thursday.
She has played PING golf clubs for years and John Solheim, the chairman and CEO of PING, gushed about how happy he was to have Henderson using his company’s equipment.
Solheim was on hand Wednesday at Mission Hills for the announcement of Annika Sorenstam as the captain for the European side in next year’s Solheim Cup in Iowa.
“She’s just a wonderful young lady,” he said of Henderson. “The type of daughter everybody would like to have. Wow. She’s just really special. It amazes me to see how she handles different things. She steps up and gets it done.”
Henderson is a fresh, bright face for the LPGA.
“You can’t teach smile,” LPGA chief communications officer Kraig Kann said. “Are we as an organization going to lean on her? No, I don’t think that’s fair. I think it would be in our best interests to partner with her, help her, support her and allow her the ability to succeed on stages like that. Not that I or our team coach her, but I think we can give her a little bit of guidance.
“I’m fascinated by Brooke Henderson, to be honest with you. I think she does the right things, she says the right things and she carries herself in a way that would make me as a father or parent proud or as a fan be engaged in wanting to watch her.
“Fans who walk through the gate and grab a pairing sheet have 144 choices to make and will have to decide who they will go follow and she’s already done a wonderful job of making sure she’s near the top of that list.”
Henderson said bring on the attention. She has it figured out.
“If you play well and you get to the big stage, you hope to have things like this come along with it,” she said.