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The Henderson sister act on the LPGA Tour has been broken up – but just temporarily.
Brittany Henderson has been caddying for her world No. 5-ranked sister Brooke Henderson since February 2016, without interruption, but the duo had to take a pause last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic while Brittany sorts out U.S. work permit issues.
Veteran caddie and friend Evertte Nini took over Brooke’s bag as she defended her title at the Meijer event in suburban Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nini, from Texas, has worked for the LPGA Tour’s Mariah Stackhouse, Tiffany Joh and Wei-Ling Hsu in the past.
Brittany married an American citizen last fall and applied for new immigration status. But COVID-19 slowed the application approval process and the caddie’s previous work visa expired last week. Brittany was working with Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s office to expedite the process, lpgatour.com reported. It was not clear how long she’ll have to wait but she can remain in the United States in the meantime.
“I am disappointed to not have Brit with me this week as we make a great team,” the 10-time LPGA Tour winner told the tour’s website ahead of the Meijer, which she also won in 2017. “Brit will be in the sister role this week. She is my best friend and always supporting and being there for me.”
Henderson also was without her parents, Dave and Darlene, despite the event’s close proximity to Ontario, their home province. They remain in Canada because of the COVID-related travel restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border.
The golfer was coming off an illness, too, which prompted her withdrawal the previous week from the LPGA Mediheal Championship in California after the first round. The illness reportedly was not COVID-19.
Henderson had a short week with Nini on the bag, missing the cut by a shot despite a second-round rally of 5-under-par 67. It was her first missed cut of 2021 in a stroke-play event.
Canada’s two male representatives for the golf competition at the Tokyo Olympics will be revealed June 21 – but no surprises are expected. PGA Tour regulars Corey Conners of Listowel, Ontario, and Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ontario, are shoo-ins to wear the Maple Leaf in Japan based on their world rankings – No. 36 and No. 67, respectively, as of last week.
Each qualifying country can send its two highest-ranked players to the Games, or up to four if all the players are within the world’s top 15. The Olympics begin July 23, with the men’s golf competition set to tee off July 29.
No. 100 Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, British Columbia, would be next in line for Canada if Conners or Hughes could not play or decided against it.
Women have until June 28 to qualify for the Olympic golf competition. Canada’s representatives will be Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ontario, and Alena Sharp of Hamilton, Ontario, barring injuries or withdrawals, reprising their tandem from 2016 when golf returned to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The PGA of Canada wants to identify the hardest golf hole in Canada – the hole that “gives you the shivers just thinking about it,” as the organization puts it in announcing a new contest to find the worst scorecard wrecker.
The body representing club professionals invites golfers to enter their choices this month through its website. Entrants can win merchandise from the PGA of Canada and contest co-sponsor NoSweat, a Canadian startup that makes sweat-absorbing liners for hats.
Anyone who nominates the winning hole also is entered into a draw to play a course with one of Canada’s hardest holes.
“Maybe it’s the length,” the PGA of Canada says. “Maybe it’s a few well-placed ponds. Maybe it’s a set of white stakes that seem more like a golf-ball magnet than an out-of-bounds indicator.”
The Symetra Tour season is nearing its halfway point and Maude-Aimée Leblanc already has done the heavy lifting toward earning a return to the LPGA Tour next year.
The Sherbrooke, Quebec, native, who stepped away from the game for a year after admitting it no longer gave her joy, has been sharp in her comeback. She has had three runner-up finishes this season, the latest coming in the tour’s most recent event, the Island Resort Championship in Michigan.
She has earned more than $56,000 (U.S.) this season – her most lucrative on the second-tier circuit since making her first start there in 2014 – and sits at No. 4 on the money list. The top 10 at the end of the season will graduate to the LPGA Tour, where 32-year-old Leblanc played regularly for five seasons but not since 2018.
The next top three Canadian performers on the tour are Brittany Marchand (No. 50), Maddie Szeryk (No. 81) and Selena Costabile (No. 92).
Mike Weir’s victory at the 2003 Masters has been deemed the top moment in Canadian golf history.
The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum asked golf leaders, media and historians to help it assemble a list of 50 historical highlights. Weir’s win, the first major championship title by a Canadian man, topped the list ahead of two accomplishments by Brooke Henderson – her victory at the 2019 Meijer LPGA Classic to become the winningest Canadian on either the PGA Tour or LPGA Tour, and her victory at the 2018 CP Women’s Open in front of a frenzied home crowd.
The hall put the list together as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. It revealed the top 10 at a virtual gala this month.
One of Ontario’s most noteworthy golf executives over the past generation – and the father of a former PGA Tour player – has died. Dave Mills was 74.
Mills joined provincial governing body Golf Ontario in 1986 and served as executive director from 1997 to early 2014. “During his term, he turned around an association that was experiencing significant financial and administrative challenges,” Golf Ontario said.
Mills, the father of former tour player Jon, club pro Jeff and collegiate volleyball coach Jennifer, also helped launch in 2000 the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2016.
The ceremony to put Graham DeLaet on the Weyburn Walk of Fame in his hometown has been postponed until Sept. 11 because of COVID-19 safety measures.
DeLaet, a PGA Tour veteran, and swimmer Kathryn Groshong were to be enshrined this month but travel restrictions and size limits on social gatherings prompted Walk of Fame organizers in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, to postpone the event. “To ensure they experience a notable ceremony, the committee decided it was important to reschedule the celebrations,” said Dick Michel, chair of the Walk’s committee.
DeLaet and Groshong will get plaques on the Walk of Fame alongside other local luminaries such as medicare founder Tommy Douglas, writer W.O. Mitchell and hockey tough guy Dave (Tiger) Williams.
DeLaet grew up in the town, played as a junior out of Weyburn Golf Club and won the Saskatchewan Amateur twice before turning pro in 2007. He and his family make their home in the United States now, but he returns to his hometown often for, among other things, charitable activities through their foundation.
He has missed most of this PGA Tour season as he recovers from a back ailment and his latest surgery but has said he hopes to resume his golf career in the fall.
Top: Brittany Henderson has been caddying for her sister, Brooke, for five years without interruption until this temporary visa issue.
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