World No. 3 Brooke Henderson opens her attempt to defend Canada’s Olympic gold medal in golf on Wednesday, with Round 1 of the women’s competition getting underway in Rio.
The 18-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour, tees off at 9:14 a.m. ET in a group with big-hitting American Lexi Thompson and Norwegian veteran Suzann Pettersen.
It’s Henderson who represents Canada’s best shot to follow up George Lyon’s win in 1904, the last time golf was an Olympic sport.
A few weeks before she left for Rio, Henderson spoke with Sportsnet about the course, monkeys, wind and defending that title.
Sportsnet: What do you know about the course?
Henderson: It’s more of a links style course, it’s gonna be windy there, and it’s gonna be hot as well. The national team coaches went down and were able to scout it out pretty well, get some good notes.
Is it tough to prepare for a course you’re not too familiar with?
Britt [older sister, caddie, fellow pro golfer] is really good at sketching out greens and getting numbers and knowing a lot of the specific details. In practice rounds I’ll be trying to feel the course. I’ll know where all the slopes are and she’ll write them in, but I’ll get a feel for what the green looks like, where the pins might be, what side of the tee box I should be on.
Henderson makes notes during a practice round on Monday. (Chris Carlson/AP)
This is an individual event, but does it feel like you and fellow Canadian Alena Sharp are in this together?
Yes, we’re really good friends and I’m really happy that we’re representing Canada together. I think we’re in a good position, she’s playing really well and I’m having a pretty good season so far, so I think we have a good chance.
You won two titles this season so far, including a major. You call that “pretty good?”
[Laughs]. Yes.
Being a long-hitter, will that help with the wind you’re expecting?
For sure. I like to think that’s definitely an advantage that I have over the majority of the field, and hopefully I’ll be up there with the long-hitters like Lexi Thompson. With the wind I think it’s really important to get the ball out there a long way and then the wind maybe won’t affect it as much.
I hear there are owls and monkeys on the course.
Oh really? That’s so exciting. Britt and I have always wanted to see a monkey in real life, so this is good news. I’ve seen them probably in the zoo, but not in the wild. Sweet. This is great to hear.
What are you most looking forward to?
I’m really excited to go and wear that maple leaf very proudly. I think it’s also cool because Canada is defending champions from over 100 years ago. So I’m hoping that either Alena or I, we win gold and we’re able to defend. And four years from now as well. It’s something that’s really important to me, and I think she would agree with me on that one. It’s the Olympics, it’s one of the world’s largest sports stages.
