Golf Town Athlete Brooke Henderson has just one event left for this year on the LPGA Tour, but she’s hoping it’ll be a big one.
Brooke, who has had a wonderful season that includes a victory and seven top-10 finishes, has admitted to having a few more “downs” than in a normal year – something, she said, comes with the territory of playing professional golf – but with an opportunity to capture the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in front of her, she’s looking forward to ending the year on a strong note.
“It’s awesome to know that even when I haven’t been at my best, I’ve been able to grind it out,” Brooke said in a recent interview on TSN. “With golf there is going to be ups and downs.”
Brooke made her return to action on the LPGA Tour after about a month off at the Pelican Women’s Championship – the penultimate event on the LPGA Tour schedule. She finished T5, her seventh top 10 of the year.
TOP 60 MAKE UP THE FIELD
The CME Group Tour Championship features only the top-60 golfers on the Race to CME Globe standings. While Jin Young Ko – the defending champion – and Nelly Korda are battling for top spot (and they’ve been going back-and-forth at No.1 in the world over the last few weeks), Brooke is comfortably inside the top 10 on the Race to CME Globe list.
And, speaking of ‘comfort’ she’ll be able to sleep in her own bed during the tournament – since it takes place in Naples, Florida, and Brooke has a home in that Southwestern-Florida city.
She finished tied for seventh at the event in 2020, fifth in 2019 and tied for 10th in 2018. There’s a familiarity to the golf course – and the conditions – and with Brooke’s desire to end the year strong, don’t be surprised if she notches another great result in 2021.
A HELPFUL RETURN HOME
Despite Brooke not being able to see her father, Dave, who is also her coach, as frequently as she would have liked over the last two years, the pair put in a lot of hard work during Brooke’s recent month-long break as she returned home to Canada for the duration.
Brooke is fourth on Tour in Greens in Regulation and has a chance to win the Vare Trophy for low Scoring Average as well.
SOLID RESULTS HEADING INTO THE HOME STRETCH
In her second-to-last event before her break, Brooke finished runner-up at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer (and followed that up with another top-15 result at the Cognizant Founders Cup the next week). At the ShopRite she said how great it was to be back in contention.
To that point, Brooke hadn’t had a top-10 finish since June.
“I just said to Brit,” Brooke said Sunday after the tournament was completed, “we finally played like us. And that feels really good.”
The winner of the CME Group Tour Championship takes home the biggest prize in women’s golf (US$1.5 million), and with how Brooke is playing – and feeling – going into the last event of the year, don’t be surprised if she’s right there come Sunday.
This past weekend Brooke finished T5 at the Pelican Women’s Championship.
The CME Group Tour Championship begins Nov. 18 at Tiburon Golf Club.
GO BROOKE!!!
We would like to see more LPGA
tournaments on the golf channell.
GOOD LUCK BROOKE, PLAY AS YOU DID IN THE 3RD AND 4TH ROUNDS LAST WEEK AND YOU WILL BE THERE. ALL CANUCKS ARE WITH YOU, SO “GO BROOKE GO”
Brooke is class act in all respects, and is a credit to the game of golf and Canada. Her length off the tee was a deserved edge over her opposition, but now it strongly seems the LPGA has dumbed down the length of the courses to better match the scores of the PGA, as has the Champions tour. Net result is the same driver/ wedge dance of the other two tours. Once Brooke adapts, look out.
Brooke has had a great start to her career having already recorded 10 wins. If she could get her putting to match the rest of her game (ranked 108th on tour), she really would be among the top 3 or 4 players in the world