She’s got a perpetual smile, a great golf swing, super distance off the tee, a deft touch around the green and oh, by the way, Brooke Henderson is now the winningest Canadian golf professional in history.
And there’s a pretty good chance she’ll be adding to her total of nine; she's only 21 years old.
Henderson, the darling of Golf Channel and the North American media, won the Meijer Classic on the Ladies Professional Golf Tour in mid-June for her ninth pro title, breaking a tie with Mike Weir, Sandra Post and George Knudson — the other members of a Mount Rushmore of Canadian golf (with apologies to Moe Norman). And since she’s probably got a good 15 years of stellar play ahead of her, that number is bound to reach into the 20s or even 30s by the time she’s finishing knocking in putts and posing for photos with oversized cardboard cheques.
A native of Smiths Falls, Ont., Henderson won the Canadian women’s amateur at the tender age of 15 and tied for 10th at the age of 16 at the U.S. Women’s open, a harbinger of great things to come. By age 17, she was a full-fledged member of the LPGA Tour, winning her first title in 2015 and her first major, the Women’s PGA, in 2016.
Golf Channel loves her because she’s a winner, she’s an attractive blonde and she's North American, offsetting the dominance of Asian players on the LPGA Tour.
Weir was quick with his congratulations for the new queen of Canadian golf: "I just appreciate watching good golf and I appreciate excellence in all sports,” said Weir, the biggest Canadian name in men’s golf after winning the 2003 Masters, to the website CBC.ca. “When you see a player really excelling themselves and improving their own game and seeing them round into form, as Brooke has, it's great to see.”
With $5.7 million in career earnings (48th on the LPGA all-time list) and a long list of corporate endorsements (CP, Rolex, Mastercard, Sketchers, Ping, Titleist, BMW, RBC, Google Android Wear, Golf Town, and BioSteel) Henderson is financially set for life. So, without ever having to worry about her bank account, she can concentrate on winning tournaments, especially majors.
Becoming the all-time Canadian professional leader was “so special and incredible,” Henderson said. “Earlier this year to get my eighth win was a huge deal for myself and I felt like the whole country as well, and to kind of break that record now is really exciting. I just look forward to the rest of the summer and hopefully a lot more wins in the future.”
- TSN (Vancouver) radio host Matthew Sekeres, on the Raptors’ parade: “This parade is so long, Marc Gasol has gone from sober to drunk to hungover.”
- Jancie Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: “Mets will name 82-year-old Phil Regan as their new pitching coach. Makes a certain amount of sense, to be Mets pitching coach this year you need a short memory.”
- Retired newspaper publisher Terry McConnell, on Twitter, regarding reports that ex-Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli may be joining the front office of Vancouver Canucks: “Does this mean we can expect (Elias) Pettersson to get traded for a set of luggage?”
- Humorist Brad Dickson, on Twitter, referencing the announcement that O.J. Simpson had set up a Twitter account: “Good: to be followed by O.J. on Twitter. Bad: to be followed by O.J. home from a restaurant.”
- Brad Rock of the Deseret News: “OK, so the NBA champ is from Canada and the NHL champ from the U.S. What everyone really wants to know is who gets to claim curling?”
- Keith Olbermann of ESPN, on what to call the Tampa Bay Rays if they follow through on suggestions to play half their games in Montreal: “The ExRays.”
- Headline at theonion.com: “Knicks Front Office Scrambling After Zion Williamson Drafted Before 3rd Pick”
- Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “Police had to be called to a 7-year-olds’ baseball game in Lakewood, Colo., when parents and coaches from both sides stormed the field after a controversial call and began pummelling each other. This never would have happened if they’d only had instant replay.”
- Comedian Argus Hamilton, on Judge Judy getting paid $47 million in her show’s 20th season: “Only LeBron James got paid more to sit on the bench.”
- Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins, to reporters, on the team’s disappointing season: “Really, it’s just been our overall ability to prevent runs and score them.”
- Patti Dawn Swansson in the River City Renegade: “I’m surprised P.K. Subban doesn’t have an endorsement deal with French’s mustard. He is, after all, the biggest hot dog in hockey.”
Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca
