Little sis rushes to stardom

ROGERS -- Before she was the No. 2-ranked women's golfer in the world, Brooke Henderson was No. 2 in her own home.

Brooke, 18, grew up playing golf with her sister, Brittany, who always had a slight edge when they competed because of a six-year age gap in their ages.

That changed, however, when Brittany left their small hometown of Smiths Falls, Ontario, to play at Coastal Carolina and Brooke began ascending the world amateur rankings.

"Up until then, she was my little sister and she was playing well, but I was a decent player and I always seemed like I was playing [better]," Brittany said. "All of a sudden, she's winning everything and I come back and she can beat me. It was sort of weird."

Even as Brittany won back-to-back Big South Conference individual titles for the Chanticleers, Brooke gained global notoriety. She was named to Canada's national team at at 14, won her first LPGA Tour event at 17 and comes into today's first round of the Wal-Mart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club as an 18-year-old, just two weeks removed from capturing her first major.

The elder sister picked up the game when she was 9 and the younger one followed suit, despite being just 3-years-old. While Brittany said she didn't want to let Brooke beat her as they got older, she said she enjoyed the competition.

"We'd always have fun matches and play for stuff, like who has to do the dishes and who buys the chocolate milks after the round," Brittany said. "It was really fun."

Now Brittany has put her career on hold, opting to follow and caddie for Brooke on the LPGA Tour instead of playing on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA's developmental tour.

Henderson's victory at the Women's PGA Championship at Sammamish, Wash., on June 12 -- which she won in a playoff against top-ranked Lydia Ko and with Brittany on her bag -- moved her up two spots to No. 2 in the Rolex World Rankings.

Henderson is the highest-ranked Canadian female golfer ever and the only one currently in the top 100. She ia also just the second Canadian to win a major, joining Sandra Post in 1968.

The daughter of a former University of Toronto hockey goalie, Henderson also played her country's national sport when she was younger, but hung up her skates after she was named to Team Canada's golf team in 2012.

"I was ready to make the switch to golf," Henderson said. "It was just too busy. I think every Canadian plays hockey at some point, but golf was the better sport. ... There was more of a career there."

The decision has paid dividends already. That year, she became the youngest winner of a professional event when, as a 14-year-old, she won a tournament on the Canadian Women's Tour.

She moved up to No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings in 2014 and turned down a scholarship to Florida to become a professional a few months later.

The LPGA initially declined her request to waive its minimum age requirement (18) to earn a tour card, but Henderson forced commissioner Mike Whan's hand when she went through Monday qualifying and won the Cambia Portland Classic by eight shots last August.

She joined Ko and Lexi Thompson, currently ranked No. 4 in the world, as the only golfers to win on the LPGA Tour before turning 18.

Playing for much more than chocolate milk now -- she has earned more than $1.1 million in 10 months on tour -- Henderson has 10 top-10 finishes in 16 LPGA events this year and her 69.92 scoring average ranks fourth on the tour.

"I've gotten a lot better," Henderson said. "Seeing the same girls week in and week out, knowing I can compete against them, I've gained a lot of confidence that way."

To stay in contention with this weekend's field, which includes seven of the top-10 players in the world, Henderson said she would focus on fine-tuning her ball striking.

"I was looking at some of the scores from the past years and people definitely go low here," Henderson said. "The golf course is awesome and the whole area has a pretty good feel to it."

Sports on 06/24/2016