After the longest break between golf tournaments since she was in middle school, Brooke Henderson is back.
The winningest professional golfer in Canadian history makes her return to the action this week at the AIG Women’s Open in Troon, Scotland – the first major on the LPGA Tour’s schedule for 2020.
The LPGA Tour has already played three tournaments since its restart, but Henderson decided to take a cautious approach to returning to competition.
"There will always be risks this year, that’s inevitable," Henderson said. "I’m not sure how much I will be playing overall."
Despite the uncertainty with COVID-19 and its impact on travel, the 22-year-old has confirmed she will tee it up each of the next three weeks.
For this week in Scotland, the R&A and the LPGA Tour have arranged with the government that golfers coming to compete at the Women’s Open are exempt from the mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival across the pond.
The Women’s Open will be followed by a regular LPGA Tour stop in Arkansas (there will be a chartered plane from the U.K. back to the U.S.) and then another major, the ANA Inspiration.
After that, things remain to be determined for Henderson for the balance of the season.
Unlike the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour has continued with pro-am events during tournament week (although there won’t be one at the Women’s Open) as the tour needs the influx of cash that comes with hosting pro-am events.
The LPGA is also a global tour.
There are four more events in the U.S. after the ANA – including the Cambia Portland Classic and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, both events Henderson has won in the past – but then the Tour is supposed to play two events in Asia. That two-tournament trip has been chopped in half from its usual four, and the early-season Asian Swing was already cancelled. There are also rumblings about some U.S.-based tournaments not going ahead.
Still, Henderson feels confident in what the LPGA Tour has been doing for its players.
"It’s been valuable for us to see what the PGA Tour has been doing and take some of the things that have worked and add them to our plan. That’s been good," she said. "There are a lot of variables between the LPGA and PGA Tour, especially financially and some of the things we have to do versus the PGA, but I definitely believe the LPGA is putting players’ safety first, which I really respect."
While Henderson watched and waited at home to hear what the LPGA Tour was going to do with the balance of the 2020 schedule, she wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing – she was focused on her fitness like in a "normal" off-season.
She also practised and played almost every day at courses in eastern Ontario near her home in Smiths Falls, Ont., after they opened in mid-May.
"I’ve been fortunate the golf courses were open as long as they had been. I’ve been trying to take advantage of that," Henderson said. "It’s always going to be a question about whether this kind of training for this long will show up when I need it in competition and playing against the best in the world, but we’re doing everything we can at this point and hopefully I’ll be right back where I was when I tee it up."
Henderson admits starting her season back up again at Royal Troon – a classic links course that has hosted the men’s Open 10 times – during a week of unpredictable Scottish weather will be difficult. Her best result at the Women’s Open came in 2018 when she finished T11, and she said that could have "easily" been a top-10 result.
However, she hasn’t finished inside the top-40 in any other Women’s Open she’s played.
She said her LPGA Tour win in New Zealand in 2017 was a breakthrough moment for her – she finally got the hang of links-style golf during a week with horrible weather. That style of golf is the complete opposite to what she grew up playing, and what she’s been playing these last six months.
Still, Henderson said the players know when it’s a major championship week, and she’s never been one to shy away from a big stage. She knows there will be nerves, but also excitement, when she makes her return to compete with the best in the world.
"It is a tough week to start with, to get back into it, after not competing for several months," said Henderson. "But I am looking forward to it and excited for the challenge."
Henderson’s Women’s Open begins Thursday at 7:49 a.m. ET alongside South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai and the defending Women’s Open champion, Japan’s Hinako Shibuno.
Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ont., is the other Canadian in the field at Royal Troon.
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