Maunlife LPGA Classic
Whistle Bear Golf Club
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
June 2, 2015

The LPGA makes it return to Canada this week for the fourth installment of the Manulife LPGA Classic at Whistle Bear Golf Club.

The field features 10 Canadian players including sponsor invites and sister duo Brooke and Brittany Henderson.

“It’s an amazing opportunity and we’re really excited to both be on sponsor’s invites this week and we’re very grateful for Manulife for giving us this great experience,” Brooke said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun because we have a lot of family and friends hoping to make the trip up in the next few days. And playing with Lorie Kane this morning in the practice round, all three Canadians in the same group and two sisters, so it’s going to be a great week.”

The tournament will hold a special meaning to Brittany as it will mark her LPGA Tour debut. She currently competes on the Epson Tour-Road to the LPGA.

“Yeah, my first LPGA event so I’m excited for that alone, and I’m happy to have Brooke here with me and to be kind of in a home area is really awesome, so I’m really excited. “

The duo were joined in their practice round this morning by the last Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour Lorie Kane.

“Manulife’s involvement in women’s golf, I’m thankful this week they’ve given me an invitation to come and play,” Kane said. “It’s quite overwhelming the amount of support that we’ve gotten, so I’m hoping, like I said, that it transitions over to here. I think this tournament just keeps continuing to grow.”

NEW COURSE, TOUGH TEST
After playing the first three years of the event in nearby Waterloo, the Manulife LPGA Classic will host the LPGA’s best at a new venue a half hour away, Whistle Bear Golf Club in Cambridge. The buzz from players is that they will face much more of a challenge this week. The three winning scores the past three years tell the story of the birdie fest fans were used to seeing: Brittany Lang, -16 (2012), Hee Young Park, -26 (2013) and Inbee Park, -23 (2014).

Canadian Lorie Kane already got two looks at the course by Tuesday afternoon, one in a charity outing on Monday and a practice round with the Henderson sisters on Tuesday morning.

“My first time here at Whistle Bear. You know, it’s funny, I think it has some similarities to Grey Silo but it’s going to be a nice test of golf,” said Kane. “If it blows, which I think the potential could be to get windy here, it’s going to be quite a challenging layout.”

“The greens, there’s a lot of movement on them,” Kane added. “It will be interesting to see where I think there’s some parts of the greens you can’t use because there’s a little bit too much slope. But we are the best women golfers in the world and we’re up to the challenge. I’m looking forward to it. I think we needed a little bit of rain. I was in Toronto over the weekend and Sunday was pretty cold and wet, so I think once this place dries out it will play a lot differently.”

Kane said she hopes the location change doesn’t have an eff ect on the enormous crowds that the Tour has drawn in previous years.

“But it will be fun to watch. I’m hoping that we get the same amount of fans and support that we had when we were at Grey Silo,” Kane added. “I always caution and kind of worry a little bit when we leave a venue that we’ve been to and people know their way around, that they learning something new is not always easy for the spectator. But I think this course may be even more spectator friendly because there’s vantage points where you can see several different holes and you don’t really have to move around a whole lot. I hope they come out in droves.”

HENDERSONS IN IT TOGETHER
Sponsor invites Brooke and Brittany Henderson have grown up together in the game of golf despite a six year age difference.

“As I mentioned, a lot of times before, I grew up watching Brittany and every weekend I would be going to tournaments and following along and wanted to be just like her,” Brooke said. “And I’ve been able to follow in her footsteps to this point and now we’re taking this journey together trying to be the best that we can be. So I’m very fortunate and grateful that I have a sister that I could look up to all these years and now together moving forward.”

Brittany recalled a time when her younger sister didn’t exactly have the chops for the game.

“One of my earliest memories of Brooke, when she fi rst started she thought it was the best score was who could get in the hole first,” Brittany said with a chuckle. “So she’d be taking off running and I would be just walking going, What are you doing? She’s sprinting down the fairway.“

The duo occasionally has throwback rounds to honor young Brooke’s aggressive approach to the game.

“Sometimes we still go back and in the late fall when there’s no one really out there, we kind of have a game where let’s run and see who gets in the hole fi rst, so it’s kind of fun,” Brittany said.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT
Anna Nordqvist didn’t have much time to celebrate her fifth career victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic on Sunday.

Asked whether she toasted the win with a glass of wine or champagne, the Swede said it might have smelled like she did.

“Well, I was drenched in champagne from Karin and Mimi who ran out on the green, so I smelled like an alcoholic after,” said Nordqvist.

Instead, she took the two-hour drive north in New Jersey to North Caldwell with her mom, Maria. Anna had committed to playing in former LPGA player Val Skinner’s charity event on Monday and upheld her commitment. She took the time in the late-night drive to answer calls, texts and social media posts sending congratulations.

“I was very touched by all the messages and everyone watching, everyone supporting, everyone following,” said Nordqvist.

“It’s the middle of the night in Swedish time and didn’t show it on TV, so a lot of people were pissed back home but obviously very happy for me, though.”

With over 100 messages on her phone and more on social media, the 27-year old said her reach to fans and followers surprised her.

“With social media these days, I was amazed with the support you get on there and how many people actually follows you and watched it,” said Nordqvist.

GOING FOR GOLF GOLD AT PAN AM GAMES
Lorie Kane and Brooke Henderson will be going for gold at the Pan Am Games next month in Toronto the Canadian Olympic Committee announced on Sunday.

“Really very excited about the opportunity,” Kane said. “Quite honored that I’m going to be able to wear the red and white and to play in an event that will now put golfers in the same light as all the other great athletes we have. I think it’s going to be as much fun for Brooke and I to be part of the village and just experiencing what other athletes experience.”

This year marks the first time golf will be added to the events schedule of the event. The Pan American Games is a major sporting event in the Americas featuring summer sports. Like the Olympics, the Games has an athlete village where the athletes stay and Kane joked that Henderson will bring down the median age of Team Canada.

“Golf can be a lonely, one show game. But I’m going to have a young 17 year old to...I was joking, I said, well, she balances out the age because I’m likely the oldest person in the village, or one of the oldest athletes,” said Kane. “But I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun and looking forward to it. I know the golf course quite well, so I think the two of us will be there with one goal in mine and that’s to win gold.”

Henderson echoed Kane’s thoughts.

“It’s a great honor, especially being the fi rst Pan Am Games with golf and it’s in Toronto pretty close to home and in Canada, which I think is huge for both the game of golf and for Canadian fans of all sports, especially leading into the Olympics next year,” said Henderson. “It’s a multi sports game, which is very different from a regular golf tournament, so I think it will be great to experience, interacting with other athletes, interacting with the huge facilities and huge complexes that will be there, which I don’t see week to week on the LPGA Tour or any other golf tournaments.”

“And then being with Lorie, she is a player that I think all Canadians, especially women in Canada, have looked up to since she began playing golf and began on the LPGA Tour,” said Henderson. “She really set the pace for the women’s game in Canada. She was the last one to win an event on the LPGA Tour, and as I mentioned before, we’re trying to change that this week. But it will be a lot of fun with her because she’s a great person and a great golfer, too.”

ENDURANCE TESTED, WINS APPROVED
Anna Nordqvist had a whirl-wind of a 24 hours following her victory in New Jersey on Sunday and when asked whether she was running on adrenaline fumes on Tuesday afternoon, Nordqvist said her recent focus on endurance and nutrition has significantly helped her stay energized. She didn’t get much sleep after her win on Sunday and didn’t get into her room in Canada until 12:30am with three fi re alarms in the hotel to top it off .

This past off -season, she started working with a new trainer, Marcus Park, and Ara Suppiah, a personal doctor that works with PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players.

“This off season….we changed my whole fi tness regimen and nutrition just to be able to handle like a couple weeks of travel,” said Nordqvist. “I think that even helped me on Sunday because it was really tough conditions and I felt great coming down the last holes. So just knowing I have endurance and I’ve been working out and I’m doing what I’m supposed to with my nutrition, I feel like I’m very energized. And just knowing that I have two weeks ahead of me is going to be big for me, especially ending with a major. So a little bit tired but ready to keep working hard and we’ve done a lot of the hard work at home.”

Nordqvist said her regime includes exercises that have improved her explosiveness too.

“I’ve always been into sports and I’ve always wanted to be an athlete,” said Nordqvist. “I feel a lot more athletic now. Once I started, once I saw Marcus and Ara in the gym in the off season, I could barely jump, I could barely jump a box. That’s something I’ve never done in my whole life. So I’m just trying to work on a little bit more explosive power and obviously getting more endurance and better cardio. But I feel like I picked up a couple yards of clubhead speed and I think that’s big for me just knowing that what I’m working on is paying off , and having someone to kick your ass when you’re home is pretty sweet, too.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I know there was a time in my career where I felt the pressure and I leaned on Dawn Coe Jones and she said, Lori, when you come home to play, you need to think of it as the extra club. The fans, they want nothing but the best for us here, particularly in this country, and to wear it any other way is too bad.” -Lorie Kane on the Canadian crowd support

TV Times
Golf Channel
June 4 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
June 5 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
June 6 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
June 7 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
All times listed are Eastern

Manulife LPGA Classic Pre-tournament News and Notes

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