MISSISSAUGA, ONT. – Two-time LPGA main champion Brooke Henderson has some recommendation for fellow Canadian Savannah Grewal as she prepares for a hometown begin on the CPKC Girls’s Open: Have enjoyable with it.
The 23-year-old Mississauga native will tee it up at Mississaugua Golf and Nation Membership when the nationwide ladies’s championship involves city subsequent month.
Henderson is aware of the stress of taking part in near residence, having twice competed within the nationwide ladies’s championship at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Membership, about an hour from her hometown of Smiths Falls, Ont.
“She’s a terrific participant and he or she has been taking part in nicely on tour,” Henderson mentioned Monday at a press convention to advertise the 51st version of the CPKC Girls’s Open, Aug. 21-24. “It is going to be enjoyable for her.
“However it’s actually completely different taking part in at this event so near residence. I used to be about an hour away, and Savannah will likely be even nearer. Nevertheless it’s such a tremendous alternative to have your family and friends on the market, to really feel the group and the power because the hometown individual. It’s actually, actually particular.”
The 27-year-old Henderson claimed the 2018 CPKC Girls’s Open, the primary Canadian to perform the feat since Jocelyne Bourassa received in 1973.
Henderson’s outcomes at Ottawa Hunt have been combined, with a tie for twelfth in 2017 and a tie for forty ninth in 2022.
“(Enjoying at residence) undoubtedly comes with you eager to carry out nicely, there’s somewhat bit additional stress and issues like that. But when (Grewal) can actually soak it in, actually benefit from the second, and deal with what she’s actually attempting to perform, I feel that’ll assist.”
Grewal, 23, is in her second season on the LPGA Tour. She’s presently ranked 289th on the earth, whereas Henderson has slipped to No. 44 after years as a perennial top-10 performer.
Henderson has made the reduce in 10 of 14 occasions this season, with only one top-10 end — again in early April — and hasn’t received since January 2023.
She’s additionally nonetheless adjusting to life after eye surgical procedure final fall. Henderson now wears contact lenses as an alternative of glasses on the course.
The 13-time LPGA Tour winner has 83 profession top-10 finishes however has slipped to 57th on the LPGA cash checklist.
She hopes to avoid wasting her season with important outcomes on the closing two majors of the season within the subsequent 5 weeks on the Evian Championship in Switzerland and AIG Girls’s Open in Wales.
Henderson additionally has her previous experiences in Canada to stay up for subsequent month.
“That trophy is particular to carry, and I’d love to do it once more,” the three-time Canadian Olympian mentioned.
Golf Canada additionally introduced that world No. 1 Nelly Korda will likely be a part of the event subject, as will three-time champion Lydia Ko.
Ko and Henderson carried out and received this occasion as youngsters. There will likely be two Canadian youngsters making their LPGA debuts in Clara Ding, 14, of White Rock, B.C., and Shauna Liu, 16, of Maple Ont.
The 2 kids received She Performs Golf Championship sequence occasions to qualify.
Mississaugua will change into the seventeenth course to host each the boys’s and ladies’s Canadian Opens, having staged the boys’s championship six occasions.
Just like the RBC Canadian Open, there will likely be a hockey-themed rink-hole. Will Henderson dare to put on an Ottawa Senators jersey to point out her colors?
“I’d sneak it in,” she mentioned.
