Henderson gives Canadian golf fans hope..

Canadian Pacific Women's Open leaderboard http://www.lpga.com/leaderboard

Until Brooke Henderson won the $1.3-million Cambia Portland Classic last week, the last Canadian to win an LPGA Tour event on home soil was Jocelyne Bourassa in 1973 in La Canadienne, and the last Canadian to win an LPGA event was Lorie Kane in 2001.

We have been watching Brooke rise through the ranks since she started winning as a 14 year old amateur, all the way to the world #1 as a 15 year old. Now as she gets set to tee off today at the Canadian Women's Open sponsored by CP for the first time in a long time she gives Canadian golf fans hope for a winner, and much more than that.

Lorie Kane much like Mike Weir has been the face of Canadian golf for the last 20 years, but also like Mike hasn't had a win or been a contender for a long time. The buzz that goes through the golf course when Mike or Lori get on a roll at our national championship is simply electric.

Brooke Henderson will bring that electricity for the next 20 years. She is just 17 now a full fledged member of the LPGA and has travelled and competed and won all over the world already. She is so well balanced, well brought up, quietly confident, modest, gracious, you could say typically Canadian.

I am not alone in predicting she will be the  LPGA's #1 player by the time she is 20 or before and has a glittering career ahead competing week in and week out with the likes off Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Michelle Wie and all the rest of the tour stars.

Brooke heads the field of 14 Canadians at the Vancouver GC, Lori is playing her 25th Canadian Women's Open and the competition is tough as always and it includes #1,Inbee Park of South Korea, who won the recent Women's British Open, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, a two-time winner of the CP Women's Open, who is currently ranked second in the world, Stacy Lewis, who has won 11 Tour titles during her career and is No. 3 in the world and Suzann Pettersen who stands tied for seventh in the world rankings just to name a few.

Our national women's championship is always regarded as one of the strongest on the LPGA schedule, for years it was considered the 5th major, but with the exception of Lori and with all due respect Alena Sharp and Rebecca-Lee Bentham and all our other women their hasn't been much hope for a Canadian winner...

Now and for the future Brooke Henderson in her own quiet way has changed all that, she has given us all hope, and has given the game in Canada the biggest shot in the arm since Mike Weir won the Masters in 2003.

Bryan