A decade ago, Brooke Henderson’s life changed in a way many predicted it would — but perhaps a little earlier than expected. The Canadian wunderkind, then just 18, captured her first major at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Ten years on, Henderson has added one more major to her resume along with two CPKC Women’s Open titles to boot. Fourteen wins total. She will, very likely, go down in history as this country’s greatest professional golfer.
The timeline of a female pro is getting shorter. It doesn’t feel like we’re on the ‘other’ side of the Brooke Henderson success mountain, certainly, but this season there have been a few more cracks in the armour than Canadian golf fans and Henderson herself are used to seeing.
So as she returns to the major stage on which she’s had the most success in her career — and on a special anniversary, at that — perhaps a look back will be exactly what she needs to push ahead.
“It’s been an incredible journey. Sometimes I think about that young girl growing up. If somebody would’ve told her then that I’d be here with 14 wins and two majors and been to three Olympic Games and with all these friendships and all the amazing things I’ve been able to do through the game of golf, I would definitely take it,” Henderson said last week.
Henderson’s major triumph in 2016 came at Sahalee Country Club just outside Seattle. At that point she had played just nine majors and had finished inside the top-10 in four of them. It didn’t take her long to get used to what it took to play well on the biggest stages in women’s golf.
That week she said the course reminded her a lot of where she grew up. Henderson got off to a fabulous start, leading by two after Thursday and holding a share of the lead heading into the weekend. She struggled on Saturday and was two back of Lydia Ko for the finale.
But Henderson would go on to shoot the round of the day Sunday, a 6-under 65 that featured a game-changing eagle on the par-5 11th. She was tied with Ko — who was also a teenager then — after regulation. The duo played just one extra hole as Henderson knocked her approach on No. 18 to just three feet and Ko missed her birdie try from about 20 feet away.
Henderson became the first Canadian pro since Mike Weir in 2003 to win a major, and the first Canadian woman since Sandra Post all the way back in 1968 to tilt a major trophy. With the win she moved to No. 2 in the world — still her highest ranking.
“It will be a big story in Canada,” Henderson said at the time. “Walking down the fairway (on Sunday) they were yelling my name, but (before) they were just yelling ‘Go Canada.’ And that was kind of a surreal feeling. I can’t really put words to it.”
Henderson, who is grouped with Ko and young star Lottie Woad for the first two rounds of this year’s Women’s PGA, has had ebbs and flows to her career — like any golfer — and has at points been a victim of her own success in terms of expectations. Certainly, any Canadian on the PGA Tour would trade his career for hers in a heartbeat (and most of her single-season results, too). Last year was tough for Henderson before she returned to home soil and won the CPKC Women’s Open.
All it takes is one good week.
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Just play, we’ll handle the rest
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The native of Smiths Falls, Ont., is looking, again, for one good week through the mid-point of 2026 as she sits 43rd in the Race to CME Globe. Her lone top-10 of the season came at the first event, when she finished solo third at the weather-shortened Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Since then, Henderson is on her second caddie, with regular looper and sister Brittany Henderson due to deliver her first child any day now. She is working now with her cousin, Ryan, who grew up playing golf in Smiths Falls and has caddied for both sisters in the past.
“We used to grow up playing a lot golf together so we know each other really well off the course and then also on the course he knows my game really well and when to say things and when not to, which is really key,” Henderson said. “I feel like we just kind of started to find our rhythm and groove, and I’m excited for the rest of the summer.”
The experiment hasn’t quite worked in their favour yet, however.
Henderson missed the cut at their first tournament together and has since gone T40-T22-T48. The top-25 result, however, came at the U.S. Women’s Open where she ended the week with one of her best ball-striking efforts of the season on Sunday. She also made the cut for the first time in three years at that major.
There hasn’t really been any consistency to her season, though, and she’ll be the first to say she’s hopeful for an improvement across the board. Although she’s 13th in driving accuracy, she is just not giving herself chances to score. She’s 61st in greens in regulation, and 104th in putts per round.
On a special anniversary of her maiden major triumph, though, she said the Women’s PGA Championship always puts a spring in her step. She’ll see her photo of a younger version of herself with a big smile and a big trophy. She’s never missed the cut at the Women’s PGA and has five top-10s in her career — the most of any major.
It’s the middle of the season and Henderson could stand to lean on the past to help her push ahead to the future.
“I feel like my game has been coming and trending in the right direction for a while now,” Henderson said. “It’s been an incredible journey and I’m just really grateful that I’ve been able to do this.”
The 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship begins Thursday at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, which last hosted the major in 2019, won by Hannah Green. Minjee Lee is the defending champion.
There will be three Canadians in the field, as Maude-Aimee Leblanc and Anna Huang are also teeing it up.
Nelly Korda has won the first two majors of 2026 — the first golfer on the LPGA Tour since 2013 to pull off the feat — and one more major triumph this season will lock up a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame for the 27-year-old.