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Few athletes have impressed me more than Brooke Henderson.
In the nearly 35 years since I first sputtered my way through some of my early interviews as a student at Red River College, I’ve spoken with hundreds — maybe thousands — of women and men in sports. From kids in school sports to world-class amateur athletes to highly paid pros.
I’ve long forgotten about the brief moments I spent with most.
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Not Henderson.
Four years ago, the Canadian golfer visited the city with her sister and caddie, Brittany, and spent more than an hour at a clinic for about 100 juniors at St. Charles Country Club. She was mic’d up the whole time on the practice range and was in great spirits, joking about how she gave up a promising career as a hockey goalie to play golf, instead.
Brooke Henderson hosts a golf clinic with the Future Pros Program at the St. Charles Country Club in 2018. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Just 20 at the time and winner of six events on the LPGA, Henderson went into detail about her fitness regimen, practice routine, her sudden rise to stardom and the remarkable bond she had with her older sister. And after each golf tip or short story, the brilliant player from Smiths Falls, Ont., would blast out drives, all travelling dead straight and upwards of 275 yards out.
The Henderson sisters even went out and played 12 holes with some members of the club. Talk about a thrill of a lifetime for those lucky players.
Brooke could have mailed it in. She was between tour stops and probably could have used some down time more than whatever appearance fee she earned from the event sponsor. But there was no hint of uninterest from the sensational shot-maker. No going through the motions.
Just smiles. And autographs. Many, many autographs.
Jason Bell (left) participates in a media scrum with Brooke Henderson at the St. Charles Country Club. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)
If she wasn’t the hero of those beginners prior to the session at venerable St. Charles, she was when the day was done.
Brooke also spent about 15 minutes with a few of us from the media ranks, who stood with her in the shade on that warm day in mid-June 2018.
Patient, articulate and affable. Thoughtful. Engaged.
No trace of ego. All-Canadian.
So, admittedly I was pleased Sunday when the now 24-year-old — the winningest golfer in Canadian history — captured her 11th career tour title (and first this season) in New Jersey.
Brooke, who has struggled this season and was off sick for most of May, drained a 10-footer for eagle on the first playoff hole of the ShopRite LPGA Classic to beat Lindsey Weaver-Wright of the U.S.
She took home a winner’s prize of US$262,500, and now has more than US$9 million in career earnings.
Brooke M. Henderson, of Canada, celebrates after winning the ShopRite LPGA Classic golf tournament, Sunday, June 12, 2022, in Galloway, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A giant in the game of golf. At just 5-foot-4.
Incredibly, Brooke won a major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship event, in 2016 when she was just 18. Expect her to be a force at that tournament just two weeks from now in Bethesda, Md.
I’ll be watching. And quietly pulling for her.
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