For the first time since the calendar turned to 2026, Brooke Henderson has found herself at the intersection of playing good golf and feeling content — which, as she heads to a major she’s won before, is a positive spot to be for the Canadian.
The LPGA Tour returns this week to the shores of Lake Geneva for the Amundi Evian Championship — the fourth of five majors on the calendar and one Henderson won in 2022 — with Henderson teeing it up after her best major result in more than two years. And after enjoying an off week at home, meeting her new niece.
Brittany Henderson and her husband, Zach Sepanik, gave birth to a daughter, Sahalee June, the morning of the first round of last month’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where Henderson would go on to finish in a tie for third.
“We were so thrilled to welcome Sahalee to the family, and I am so happy and proud of Brittany and Zach. This has been a great moment for my family and really puts life in perspective. I am definitely swinging with an added feeling of joy,” Henderson told Sportsnet.ca.
“I love playing in Evian. The whole experience is world-class, and it is such a beautiful venue for the week. I can’t wait to get the week going.”
Henderson was in the final group Sunday at the Women’s PGA Championship and had the lead at one point on the front nine, but didn’t give herself any solid chances to climb through the back nine — she didn’t hit any approach shots inside of 21 feet on her final 10 holes. Henderson ended up three shots behind winner Haeran Ryu after shooting an even-par 72.
Still, Henderson had one of her best overall weeks of the season, gaining more than three strokes to the field tee-to-green and sitting tied for 22nd in putts per round. Her T3 matched her best result of the season, to go along with her solo third at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions — the final event Brittany Henderson caddied for her before pivoting her focus to motherhood.
It had been a curious season for Henderson prior to the Women’s PGA with a mixed bag of results. She would often put herself behind the 8-ball, with her first-round scoring average one of the worst on tour. Statistically, too, it has been a year unlike what we’ve come to expect. Quite simply: Henderson wasn’t giving herself scoring opportunities, and then when she was, she wasn’t converting.
But after her tremendous major result in Minnesota, Henderson now sits 22nd in the season-long Race to CME Globe. She returns to the Evian Resort Golf Club, where she’s had four career top-10 finishes, including a back-to-back stretch of 1-2 in 2022 and 2023.
“I’m always trying to focus on the process rather than the results, but it helps to see a good result. At Hazeltine, my ball striking and short game felt solid, and I was able to get myself into a good position for the weekend. To see some of that hard work pay off in a bigger week was really satisfying,” Henderson said.
“Hopefully I can carry that momentum into a busy and important time of the year.”
Henderson is not the lone Canadian in the field, as a pair of amateur standouts also received special invitations into the Evian Championship, and another teen pro is looking to rekindle some French magic.
Aphrodite Deng, 16, will tee it up at her second major of the season. Deng, who just verbally committed to golf powerhouse Stanford University, received a spot after winning the AJGA Player of the Year in 2025.
Lauren Kim, who also played in the U.S. Women’s Open, was the last golfer in the field this week after receiving a special invite on Sunday. Kim was part of the International team that defeated Team USA at the Arnold Palmer Cup, and as part of the competition, a woman and a man are voted on by their peers to receive exemptions into the Evian Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational (2027). Kim was the female winner.
Anna Huang rounds out the Canadian contingent. Huang has won three times on the Ladies European Tour, including earlier this year, and is Canada’s second-ranked female professional golfer. One of her LET victories came at the Ladies’ French Open last year.
The LPGA Tour is, in a tough scheduling decision, playing three of its major championships in a four-tournament stretch. The tour had the Women’s PGA, then a week off and then this week’s Evian Championship. There is another week off before the Women’s Scottish, then the AIG Women’s Open to round out the major season.
Nelly Korda won the first two majors of the season and has far-and-away positioned herself as the top player in women’s golf. A win this week — or at the Women’s Open — and Korda will secure the number of points she needs to lock up a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame. At this point of the season, Korda has double the number of points as the No. 2-ranked golfer in the Race to CME Globe and has all but locked up all the major awards already.
Grace Kim will look to defend her title after winning her maiden major title in the wildest of fashions. Kim was trailing by two on the tee of the final hole a year ago, but hit her approach on the par-5 finisher to just two feet and made eagle, forcing a playoff. In the playoff, she hit it in the water on the first extra hole, but then chipped in for birdie. She won on the second playoff hole. Since this event became a major in 2013, no one has successfully defended her title, with Henderson the closest to achieving the feat.