Sometimes the stage can seem like a roiling sea, too big, too overwhelming; the kind of setting when you look wide-eyed and lost, forgetting the yaws and rolls that would come second nature in any other time and place. You see it a lot in golf. Greg Norman always appeared doomed in Augusta long before the “Fore please, now driving.” Rory McIlroy let history rip a hole through his hull at Royal Portrush. Sam Snead at the U.S. Open. Arnold Palmer at the PGA. There are places, times, moments and events that crush and crash, leaving you splintered and adrift.
In those moments, the moorings of family make all the difference.
By the summer of 2018, it had been 45 years since a Canadian had won the CP Women’s Open. The last was Jocelyn Bourassa, who won the inaugural La Canadienne in 1973 at Montreal Municipal.
Then, two Augusts ago, Brooke Henderson, the starlet from Smiths Falls, Ontario, arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan like the Beatles at JFK. Henderson attracts large crowds of Canadians everywhere she plays. But in her home country, she can’t catch her breath. From breakfast in the morning until her head hits the pillow at night, Brooke deals with Canadamania every year during CP Women’s Open week.
That’s where having her father, Dave, as her coach, and her mother, Darlene, as her biggest cheerleader and protector, give the 22-year-old an advantage. They add stability, comfort and routine to the chaos.
But the most important member of the Henderson family during tournament week, apart from the one hitting the shots, is 29-year-old Brittany, Brooke’s older sister and caddie.
“It’s always special playing in Canada and we know we’re going to have a lot more fans and a lot more demands on our time when we’re there,” Brittany said when asked to remember that week in 2018 when Brooke made history, winning her country’s national women’s open by four shots over Angel Yin. “It’s like a major for us.”
That Henderson Major can be relived Thursday afternoon when Golf Channel re-airs the final round of the 2018 CP Women’s Open. That Sunday, a cold and soggy one in Saskatchewan, Brooke took a single-shot lead to the first tee. And Brittany, ever mindful of the size and attitude of the stage, was there to keep her sister steady, level, and straight ahead.
“It was really cool that this one was in Regina,” Brittany said. “It isn’t really like a big city, so it made it a little more intimate, I guess. But it still felt like the whole town was there. From the first day on, the first tee was packed, and it just went on and on down both sides of the fairways. And it was like that every day.
“Brooke is always focused, no matter what’s going on,” Brittany said. “You have your caddie there and know that they have your back. I always try to bring a calm demeanor with that. It helps Brooke get back into the mindset of doing what she needs to do.
“Sometimes she gets into the zone and I know that all she needs from me is that calmness and the facts. She doesn’t need me to coach her up or say things like ‘You can do this.’ She knows she can do it; I know she can do it, and she knows that I know she can do it. She wants the facts. Sometimes she wants to talk things out. And she wants to know where she’s standing. I try to provide that information because she doesn’t want to be focused on scoreboards. But she wants to know, so she can make a plan to do what she needs to do.”
That Sunday at Wascana Country Club, Brooke’s plan was to make history, by force.
“We birdied the first hole that day,” Brittany said. “It was really tough conditions and a tough hole. Nobody was birdying the first hole. But she was going out to get it. She wasn’t going to wait around and see what anybody else was doing.”
She bogeyed the second hole and then made three more birdies and another bogey on the front. It was up and down but the lead remained.
Then Brooke found another gear on the back nine. With her sister by her side and her parents glad-handing and posing for pictures in the gallery (accommodations they make to fans every week), Brooke cut through the final holes at full throttle.
“She had four birdies in a row on the back nine to get her that lead,” Brittany said. “She did some really remarkable things. It was really cool to be a part of it.”
A good two-putt par on 17 set the stage.
“There was a scoreboard on the 17th green and I remember looking at it and as we walked off, I told her, ‘You’ve got a three-shot lead,’” Brittany said. “She said, ‘Okay,’ and proceeded to hit an absolutely huge drive (on 18). It was over 300 yards.”
The ball ended up just in the right center, just in front of the green.
“We had about 70 yards,” Brittany said. “We still weren’t thinking that we needed birdie or anything. I said, ‘Hit a good shot,’ and she hit it really close, about four feet. As we were walking up, I said, ‘I think it’s tight.’ So, she was able to walk up and enjoy it.
“Everybody closed in around the green, stadium style, and people started singing the national anthem, which was incredible. I was trying not to cry because it wasn’t technically over yet. Then she rolled in the putt for birdie and everybody went crazy.”
The whole of Canada celebrated. But for the Hendersons, the four people on the 18th green that afternoon – mom, dad, and two sisters – were the ones that mattered most.
“The fact that dad was our coach, we’re both usually thinking the same thing before we even say it, so a lot of that helps,” Brittany said of her relationship on the course with Brooke. “I don’t have to say a lot of things because I know what she’s going to do. So, for example, if she’s got, say, a 130-yard shot into some wind, I know she’s probably going to hit a knock-down instead of hitting one full, even though she could probably get a full club there. It makes it easier when you have a lot less conversation.”
Then Brittany paused for a moment.
“When you’re little, a junior golfer, you think about winning certain events,” she said. “We thought about winning (the CP Women’s Open). The way we finally won it…it was really special. Really special.”
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