‘By no means take it with no consideration’: Henderson grows legacy in an in any other case quiet 2025

NAPLES, Fla. — The solar bursts via the Floridian palms and Brooke Henderson places on sun shades earlier than launching a piercing drive that cuts via the noon cloudless sky. The shades, Henderson says, have been a welcome accent once more in 2025 after eye surgical procedure the 12 months prior.

Henderson, not a wunderkind and this nation’s best-ever golfer, had reached the limited-field season finale of the LPGA Tour for the eleventh time. Eleven seasons already. She’s getting older, whether or not followers like to listen to it or not. Life adjustments, after all. Often for the higher. She gained once more on dwelling soil in August on the CPKC Women’s Open held at Mississauga Golf and Country Club, and don’t be stunned if the membership, which has plaques on its first tee honouring every of the boys who gained the RBC Canadian Open on its structure previously, bestows a deserving honour on Henderson, too.  

More than a decade has passed by for Henderson on the LPGA Tour, and so much remains to be the identical — her workforce, her smile, her swing. This season, nevertheless, was each thrilling and thwarting. Her win on the CPKC Women’s Open in August was her first top-10 results of the season in a stroke-play event (the opposite got here on the T-Mobile Match Play, the place she made the quarterfinals and technically completed tied for ninth). Her solely different such consequence got here on the season finale on the CME Group Tour Championship. She was blissful, after all, with a high 10 (she completed tied for seventh, whereas 22-year-old Jeeno Thitikul, the sport’s top-ranked participant, gained for the third time this season and repeated at Tiburon Golf Club, claiming the US$4-million first-place prize as soon as once more) to shut out her 12 months.  

Like Thitikul now, Henderson was as soon as a younger star with limitless potential. Henderson definitely isn’t outdated by any means, however with greater than 10 years as an expert below her belt, she will be able to’t assist however return to the place she got here from as she thinks about the place she’s going

“I look back to who I was in 2015, and I loved the person that I was, and I loved the golfer and how I approached the different weeks and travel and life on the LPGA Tour. I’m always trying to learn from that. I’m not trying to go backwards,” Henderson instructed Sportsnet, “but I’m trying to learn from what was really successful and what I enjoyed and tried to carry it forward.” 

Henderson’s win in Mississauga was considered one of three by non-Americans on the LPGA Tour profitable of their dwelling nations this 12 months, and he or she was appropriately feted on the LPGA’s season-ending Rolex Awards. Henderson wore a cream two-piece swimsuit along with her sister, Brittany, in tow in a matching-coloured outfit. The carpet is inexperienced, the flashes are brilliant, the time items are glowing, and the surf-and-turf was elegant. Henderson all the time impresses on this evening (partially as a result of she has to, as a Rolex ambassador) since she’s been to this social gathering greater than a half-dozen occasions.

Like all the things else in her profession, she’s finished most of it already and plenty of occasions earlier than.  

Don’t suppose, although, it ever will get outdated.  

And she stays simply as energized to play nicely, win and do higher than ever.  

“You have to pinch yourself because (this is) a dream come true and it continues to be,” Henderson stated. “I feel like you can never take it for granted. You just have to wake up and realize what a dream it is and how grateful I am for all these opportunities I’ve been given and try to make the most of it.”

But how does one make sense of a 12 months the place there was an unprecedented spectacular excessive but additionally a group of in any other case modest efforts?  

For 2026, she’s hoping for a bit extra Miss Consistency versus Miss Congeniality.  

Henderson stated the very first thing she’s gunning for is a fifteenth win. It’s a pleasant spherical quantity, she stated with a smile. But the largest factor she’s specializing in is scoring common. It’s not like she had a poor season in that class — she was fifteenth — however a full two photographs again of Thitikul, who topped the Tour (albeit with the bottom such season-long scoring common in historical past). And nearly all of her strokes-gained numbers have been basically equivalent year-over-year.

A microcosm of her 12 months as an entire? She was 81st in strokes gained: method, a stat she was forty second in final 12 months, however was a powerful 14th in greens in regulation. She was hitting a ton of greens however simply not very shut, which led to fewer scoring possibilities. 

“For most of my career, my ball striking has been the best part of my game, and I’ve always counted on it a lot — so when it hasn’t been as good, like this past year, you notice it. It puts stress on different parts of the game that need to step up,” Henderson stated.  

Henderson isn’t fairly finished but for 2025, nevertheless, as she and fellow Canadian Corey Conners will play collectively as soon as once more on the LPGA/PGA Tour workforce occasion, the Grant Thornton Invitational, simply earlier than the vacation season. The Canadian duo completed second of their debuts in 2023 and tied for fourth final 12 months.  

She’ll additionally get pleasure from a wintertime of cheering on her hometown Ottawa Senators, with whom she signed an ambassadorship deal in 2024.  

Senators proprietor Michael Andlauer instructed Sportsnet in September that when he purchased the workforce, it was essential to have a look at the identification of the squad, and, being a passionate golfer himself, he wished to get in contact with Henderson to see what they may do.  

“Knowing that Brooke was from Smiths Falls, you watch her composure, the way she presents herself, she’s everything that is Canadian. And when I look at this city and how authentic it is and the people of Ottawa, she definitely represents our brand,” Andlauer stated. “I wanted her to represent it. She typifies it. And she’s a champion.” 

Henderson was crafted a champion by her father (who truly grew up enjoying hockey in opposition to now-Senators president Cyril Leeder), who stays her coach, and sister, who stays her caddie. The workforce is tight and has all the time been there for her. In 2025, nevertheless, she added a brand new member to the circle — as Henderson started relationship minor-league pitcher Ricky Castro. Castro, who cheered Henderson on from afar when she gained in August however has since been to some tournaments in individual, pitches for the Wichita Wind Surge, the Minnesota Twins’ double-A affiliate, they usually started relationship in March after a happenstance assembly at Henderson’s dwelling membership in Florida.

Henderson stated she’s “really grateful” for Castro’s assist, who, after all, understands the lifetime of an expert athlete.  

“I travel for a living, and all the demands that come (with it) mentally and physically. And so it’s been really cool to learn about his sport too. Being a pitcher and a golfer, there are a lot of similarities, and I feel like we’ve been able to learn from each other and support each other, which has been really nice,” Henderson stated.  

In Canada or afar, Henderson has a lot assist from so many. She’s given all of them a lot to cheer about, even in an odd 12 months like 2025, the place there was an unimaginable triumph firmly in the course of a couple of confounding weeks.

Henderson isn’t essentially grappling with an unsure future, however quite with how every passing accomplishment adjustments her legacy just a bit extra, which is nice for her, and simply as enjoyable now as in 2015 for followers and mates.

“I’m a completely different person, basically,” Henderson stated of herself at 28 versus 18. “Hopefully the core is still the same, but a lot of things have changed inside and outside and within my family and my golf game — and that’s life. You’re always adjusting to different changes.”