Leblanc excited to be back on tour
Canadian stepped away from golf after disappointing 2019 season
Maude-Aimée Leblanc took one look down the fairway of the seventh hole at Boca Rio Golf Club and effortlessly ripped a drive 40 yards past her playing partners Tuesday morning.
The long, fluid action of the sixfoot-one Leblanc was a familiar sight on the biggest stages in women’s golf for nearly a decade before she decided to retire after a disappointing 2019 on the Symetra Tour.
But the Sherbrooke, Que., native found herself without much to do in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. When golf came back on television, she was inspired to take up the game again. She changed the way she putted — the part of her game she had always struggled with — and started having fun again on the course.
Leblanc turned in a solid, if unspectacular campaign on the Symetra Tour (the Triple-A circuit for women’s golf since renamed the Epson Tour) in late 2020 before she broke through in a big way in 2021. She finished sixth on that tour’s money list with $94,000 (U.S.) and regained LPGA Tour status for 2022.
She makes her return as a fullfledged member this week at the Gainbridge LPGA Classic at Boca Rio.
“There are a lot of familiar faces, but lots of new ones, too. I guess I’ll have to meet some new people this year,” Leblanc said with a laugh. “But I’m just excited to get going.”
The 32-year-old Leblanc, who turned professional in 2012, has never finished higher than 81st on the LPGA money list. Still, Canadian Golf Hall of Famer Lorie Kane has always been high on Leblanc’s ability and says stepping away from the game will be a big help.
“When someone tells you that you have this potential, it’s what you do with the potential. And sometimes it can be crippling when people tell you you’re good and you haven’t done anything,” Kane said. “I think overcoming that, she probably had an a-ha moment.”
Leblanc, who had nine top-10 finishes on the Symetra Tour last year, tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago and couldn’t practise as much as she had hoped for her first event of the season.
She said she can still “play pretty good golf” with what she has right now, though.
“This week I’ve already hit a decent amount of drivers,” Leblanc said, “so I can take advantage of that, definitely.”
While Leblanc is returning to the LPGA this season, Maddie Szeryk, of London, Ont., will be a tour rookie after earning status via a gruelling eight-round qualifying event late last year.
Szeryk spent 10 days over the holidays in Canada before returning to her home base in Dallas to prepare. She’ll play a few events on the Symetra Tour to stay sharp before getting into LPGA events starting in late March.
“Practice is more fun now,” Szeryk said, “because it’s like, ‘OK, I made it.’ It’s something bigger now.”
Brooke Henderson said she is thrilled to have more countrywomen on the LPGA Tour and acknowledged both Leblanc’s return and Szeryk’s qualifying-school effort were impressive. Alena Sharp will have partial LPGA status in 2022 to round out the Canadian contingent.
“It’s cool to be able to have all these maple leaves on the leaderboards,” Henderson said. “The fans back home are going to love it.”