Teenager Brooke Henderson, who was denied LPGA Tour membership when she petitioned for it early in 2015 before proving she belongs, was selected Canadian Press Female Athlete of the Year.
The 18-year-old from Smith Falls, Ontario, claimed the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award by collecting 37 per cent of the vote in the annual survey of editors and broadcasters from across Canada.
She is the first golfer to win the award since Laurie Kane in 2000.
“I’m hoping this is just the start of a pretty long career, and one where I can chase after some bigger dreams and goals that I’ve set for myself,” said Henderson, who has won six professional events, three while she was an amateur.
“Really I think that there are no limits and I think anything is possible. My 2015 year proves that it’s true–that anything is possible.”
Henderson, whose application to enter 2015 LPGA Tour Qualifying School was turned down because she did not meet the age requirement of 18 (which she reached in September), won her first tournament as a pro in June by three strokes at the Four Winds Invitational on the Symetra Tour–the LPGA Tour’s developmental tour.
In August, she got into the Portland Cambria Classic through Monday qualifying and went on to win the tournament by eight strokes, at 17 becoming the third-youngest winner in LPGA Tour history and joining Laurel Kean (2000) as the only Monday qualifiers to win on the circuit.
“A couple days I was playing there and I was thinking back to when I would just kind of daydream when I was little,” said Henderson, who was granted her LPGA Tour card by Commissioner Mike Whan after the victory.
“I was looking at my putt on the green and I could see the hole and the ball, and I could see the fans around the green. They were kind of blurred and it was just exactly how I pictured it when I was little. I was like, ‘Wow, you know what, this is my dream.'”
Henderson showed she was ready for the big time when she set a course-record 7-under-par 65 at Lake Merced Country Club near San Francisco to take the lead midway through the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in April, before finishing third.
She wound up one stroke out of the playoff in which top-ranked Lydia Ko beat Morgan Pressel.
Having already shown she has the stuff for major championships by tying for 10th in the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, she tied for fifth last year in the U.S. Women’s Open and the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship.
“It was a miracle year, really,” said Henderson, who is No. 18 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
