Brooke Henderson will make her return to the LPGA Tour when the first major of the season tees off at the AIG Women’s Open Aug. 20-23 at Royal Troon.

While Alena Sharp has played in each of the events on the LPGA Tour’s schedule since it got back to action in early August, Brooke has been taking the cautious approach to things – instead choosing to stay at home in Smiths Falls.

The break, Brooke said, was the longest she’s ever been on (from tournament golf, at least!) since she was in elementary school.

“It’s been a big change for me, but I’m very excited to get back out there,” Brooke told The Canadian Press in late July. “I’m sure I’ll have a lot of adrenalin on that first tee.”

Prior to the LPGA Tour going on its COVID-19 break, Brooke had played only twice. She finished T4 at the season-opening Diamonds Resorts LPGA Tournament of Champions and T15 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.

Brooke has never missed a cut at a major championship and she’s continually got better at the Women’s Open – despite it being usually contested on links golf courses, a style of golf Brooke is still getting used to playing.

She made her Women’s Open debut in 2015 and has constantly gotten better in four of her five Women’s Open appearances. Her results went from T61-T50-T49-T11, and Brooke said she played in a pro-am last year with a few members from Royal Troon, whose brains she’ll pick for info about the storied golf course.

Royal Troon is a 10-time host of The Open Championship, most recently in 2016 where Henrik Stenson won the Claret Jug with a score of 20-under. This will be the first time it hosts the Women’s Open.

Other male winners at Royal Troon include Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, and the course is set to host the 2024 Open Championship.

Not including Stenson’s 20-under total, the average winning score of The Open at Royal Troon is 9-under.

Of note, the course is home to both the longest (the par-5 6th is 601 yards) and the shortest (the par-3 8th, dubbed Postage Stamp, is 123 yards) holes in Open Championship golf.

Still, it’s likely the Brooke Brigade will have fewer tournaments than usual to cheer on Brooke for the rest of 2020. It’s likely we’ll see Brooke focus on the major championships this season and hopefully earn a spot in the CME Group LPGA Tour Championship at the end of the year via some good play at the big events.

Although playing fewer than 10 events may seem jarring to read at first, there’s not much room for flexibility given the ongoing changes to the schedule.

The second major of the season, the ANA Inspiration, is just one week after the Women’s Open. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is less than a month after that. And then the U.S. Women’s Open and the season finale take place in back-to-back weeks in December.

“I’m going to build my year around those tournaments and then look at adding in some others,” Brooke told TSN.ca. “I think it’s going to be a year where you’ll need a lot of patience. I’m uncertain about how I’ll feel when I get out there.”

Regardless of what the future schedule looks like, one thing is for sure: at the Women’s Open, Brooke is back!