Canada’s got talent—and it’ll be on display at Wascana Golf Club in Regina, as the CP Women’s Open makes its first visit to Saskatchewan this week.
Led by Golf Town Athlete Brooke Henderson, 15 of the country’s best female golfers will tee it up this week in the hopes of becoming the first Canadian since Jocelyne Bourassa to win the event. With one of the strongest fields on the LPGA Tour, Canada’s National Women’s Open Championship will also feature 14 in-year LPGA winners and 89 of the top 100 players on the LPGA Tour’s Official Money List.
Brooke Henderson
With a win and seven top-ten finishes already recorded this season, Henderson comes into the CP Women’s Open as an obvious favourite. Currently ranked 6th in the Race to the CME Globe, another win for Henderson this late in the season would go a long way to securing the $1 million season-long points title.
Brittany Marchand
Marchand is making the most of her time on the LPGA Tour this season. She has missed only two cuts in 12 starts this season and picked up her first LPGA Tour top-ten at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic in early July. Her solid play has pushed her into 91st on the money list this season, and a good finish on home soil would certainly put her in position to solidify her LPGA Tour status for next year.
Maude-Aimee Leblanc
Consistently one of the longest players on the LPGA Tour, Leblanc is due for her first LPGA Tour victory. She’s had a mixed bag of results so far this season, and a great finish in Regina would help her retain her card for next season.
Jennifer Ha
Golf Town athlete Jennifer Ha is prepping for a return to the top. After struggling in her rookie season on the LPGA Tour in 2017, Jennifer is hoping that a year on the Symetra Tour—the LPGA’s development tour—will put her in a position to battle the best in women’s golf. She’s had her struggles this year, but the former Canadian National Golf Team member is young, with a bright future ahead.
Augusta James
Golf Town athlete Augusta James has her eye on a spot on the LPGA Tour, and she arrives in Saskatchewan having played some of her best golf of the year, including a tie for third on the Symetra Tour in mid-July. James, who played with Marchand at NC State, was named to the All-ACC team in 2012, 2013, and 2014, and was an All-American honourable mention in 2014. A past Canadian Women’s Amateur winner in 2014, James is gunning to get back on the LPGA Tour, where she played in 2017.
Alena Sharp
Once the top Canadian on the LPGA Tour, Alena Sharp has been searching for her form this season. But the tour veteran rarely fails to play well on home soil, and Sharp will be looking to improve on her fourth-place finish at the CP Women’s Open from two seasons ago.
Anne-Catherine Tanguay
Playing in just her second season on tour, A.C. Tanguay has had an up-and-down year so far. Her best finish of the season came as a t-36 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June. Tanguay will be looking to make a late-season push up the money list in the hopes of keeping her card for next season. A great week in Saskatchewan would surely turn her season around.
Additional Canadians in the field are Symetra Tour players Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont. and Megan Osland of Kelowna, B.C. Four-time Saskatchewan Women’s Amateur champion Anna Young of Saskatoon will have a home crowd advantage in her CP Women’s Open debut, while Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Lorie Kane of Charlottetown will make her record tying 28th start at the CP Women’s Open. Among the Amateur contingent, three members of Team Canada will compete including National Amateur Squad members Grace St. Germain of Ottawa, Ont. and Naomi Ko of Victoria, B.C., as well as 17-year old National Development Squad athlete Celeste Dao of Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que. 17-year-old Tiffany Kong of Vancouver will be playing on an exemption.