About the only thing ‘normal’ about 2020 is how consistent Brooke Henderson’s play on the LPGA Tour has been.

After minimizing her schedule on the LPGA Tour through the year, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be top-of-mind, Brooke has played fabulous golf through the summer and early fall – and has eyes on the two biggest events on the LPGA Tour’s schedule in December.

First up is the U.S. Women’s Open, taking place from Dec. 10-13 in Houston, Texas, followed by the CME Group Tour Championship the following week in Naples, Florida – where Brooke has a home.

As the 2020 LPGA Tour season kicked off, and Brooke came into the year on a high, having become the winningest Canadian of all time (on the PGA or LPGA Tour) the summer before. She finished T4 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions to start the year and followed that up with a T15 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, we didn’t see Brooke tee it up again until the AIG Women’s Open in August – the longest break between tournament’s since she was in Grade 7, she says – where she missed the cut.

She was still trying to get her footing with the ‘new normal’ on the LPGA Tour then.

“At first we were a little bit unsure with the protocols and everything going on in the world – it was just a little bit more difficult to navigate, even on the course,” says Brooke of the way she and Brittany – her sister and caddie – got adjusted to professional golf again.

At the ANA Inspiration that’s where the Henderson duo found their footing. She finished T2 there, coming up just short in a three-way playoff.

“We found our grove at ANA,” says Brooke. “We put ourselves into contention the next three weeks which is always fun. Playing in the final group on Sundays is hard to beat.

“I feel like my game has really come into form these last couple of months, which was exciting. I look forward to competing in three events left for me but two big ones with the U.S. Open and CME.”

Indeed, she has slid into the kind of golf that we’ve come to expect from such a shining star in Canadian sports. After her runner-up at the ANA Inspiration, she finished T6-6-T6 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (another major), and the Pelican Women’s Championship, respectively.

Brooke returned home to Canada after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship where she continued to work on her game in a similar fashion to the summertime break. In that time Brittany got married to Zach Sepanik, her longtime boyfriend and communications staffer at the LPGA Tour.

Brooke was unable to attend the wedding in the United States, but she and her parents watched on FaceTime.

“We love Zach and are really happy to have him as part of the family,” says Brooke. “We hope to have a bigger celebration way down the road when COVID is over. It was great and we’re just really happy for the both of them.”

Brooke and Brittany now pivot to the U.S. Women’s Open – one could argue the biggest event in women’s golf. Although the CME Group Tour Championship offers up the biggest payday (more than $1-million to the winner), the U.S. Women’s Open has nearly a century of prestige.

This year at Champions Golf Club in Houston will mark the 75th anniversary of the storied championship.

Brooke has had quite the ride in her career in U.S. Women’s Open – from finishing T10 as an amateur (in 2014, the year after making the cut as a young teenager in 2013 – her first weekend-found on the LPGA Tour) to a T5 in her first U.S. Women’s Open as a professional to then withdrawing in 2018 after the death of her grandfather. Still, Brooke knows the big-time history wrapped in this event, and the uniqueness of this particular year in Houston.

In order to make sure that all players get through their rounds – with daylight fading in mid-December – the USGA and the LPGA Tour have decided to use two different golf courses for the first two rounds. There will be a two-tee start on both courses and each is different in its own right – the Jackrabbit course has small greens and tight fairways, while the Cypress course (which has hosted the Ryder Cup, the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, and multiple events on the PGA Tour in the past) has massive greens and is longer.

Brooke says the weather will also be unpredictable. However, she’s excited at the opportunity for another major championship and to hopefully keep riding the momentum she’s garnered during this last part of 2020.

“We have to be prepared for everything… which is just another thing that makes a major championship,” she says. “You have to be prepared for all sorts of situations, and hopefully the best player will come out on top!”