	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

CAMBIA PORTLAND CLASSIC

August 29, 2018

Brooke Henderson

Portland, Oregon

THE MODERATOR: All right. Good morning, and thank you everyone for joining us here in the media center at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club here for the 2018 Cambia Portland Classic.

I'm so excited to have with me Brooke Henderson, two-time champion of this event, last week's CP Women's Open champion, seven time total LPGA winner here on tour.

Brooke, congratulations, first of all. It's been a couple days since the win. Has it sunk in yet? How are you feeling this week?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, it's pretty amazing. It was sort of -- well, it was a dream come true last week. Everything seemed to go perfectly for me of. I just felt like it was meant to be, so to hoist that trophy was amazing.

Sunday night when I was trying to fall asleep I had like a nightmare that it wasn't over and I didn't actually win, so I kind of woke up like panicked.

You know, it's starting to sink in a little bit more now. It's just incredible, and to have the amount of support that I did, not only from the fans, but also from a lot of my friends out on tour. When I finished on 18, to get showered in champagne and just have them there waiting for me was really special.

I'm really excited to be back here in Portland where really my career got started in 2015. You know, I have a lot of amazing memories here as well, so looking forward to teeing it up tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: It was so fun to watch your dad douse you and your sister in champagne after that last putt. You talk about the win being a culmination of the hard work of you and your sister, the family and the team. What exactly did it take to win last week's national championship?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, playing the CP Women's Open there is always that little bit extra pressure being Canadian. The fans are incredible, and I never really felt like I played well enough for them until really this year.

I think playing in Ottawa, which my hometown last year, it was really a huge learning curve for me kind of just experiencing all the different things that go into it.

I feel like this year we did a great job of having the proper rest and proper practice going into it, and I was able to put on a great show.

My family has sacrificed a lot so that my sister and I can live our dream out here on the LPGA Tour. And to get that win for my family who also had a tough year losing both of my grandfathers within a couple months of each other, and you know, everything just kind of came together.

To win it and have the fans scream, Oh, Canada afterwards was pretty cool.

THE MODERATOR: So at the ripe age of 20 - you have a birthday coming up - seven wins on the LPGA Tour, one less than some of Canada's greatest golfers. Did last week's win change your career outlook or any of your goals?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, that was a big check mark to get that one off. I feel like a lot of pressure is off me now and I can kind of just go out and have fun and enjoy being out here and strive to be the best I can be.

I'm just really excited for the rest of the year. Looking forward to this week and Evian in a couple weeks, our last major of the year, and then going over to Asia. I feel like it was a big move for my CME and also my world ranking winning last week, which is really exciting to see those numbers go closer to the top.

Hopefully I can just finish strong and put myself in a good position going into CME.

THE MODERATOR: Here in Portland you didn't just win once, you won twice. What about this event suits your game?

BROOKE HENDERSON: I just really like the tall trees, kind of narrow fairways. For a while I only seemed to win on courses like this.

But just the atmosphere here is a little bit different. The fans are always great. Very supportive. I think just getting the win in 2015 by I think it was eight shots, which was pretty cool for my first win out on tour, just since then I feel like coming back here every hole I have a good memory - and some bad ones - but I feel like the good ones overtake those.

On every tee box I can kind of know where to hit the ball, where good results can happen. Just I feel very comfortable here, which I think is cool.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to any questions.

Q. Brooke, this course compared to last week, the course you played on, are they at all similar?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, last week definitely had some narrow tee box es and narrow fairways similar to this course.

I feel like lasts week the conditions were a lot different though. It was pretty warm at the beginning of the week, but then the wind really started swirling in the later part of the week. Conditions were very firm and fast.

I haven't been out here yet this year to really compare course conditions like that, but with it being so windy on Saturday and Sunday I don't think we'll experience the same type of things here.

I'm excited to just wear short sleeves. Feels good for a change.

Q. After the win last week and really having the weight of the whole country behind and you such an emotional win for you and your family, how rested are you coming into this week? How are you feeling as a two-time champion here?
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, it was definitely very emotional and I definitely needed a lot of rest. Monday I did an RBC Women's Day, which was really cool. Alena Sharp and I both did it, among many Canadian Olympic athletes. It was really amazing to hear their stories and talk to them a little bit.

So very glad we could go and support that event, but it was like sic degrees celsius so it was freezing. I was not prepared for that. Then we flew here Monday night, and yesterday I just took the day off yesterday, tried to rest up as best I could, and mentally prepare for this week.

Q. What's it about Portland? Was it love at first sight? The course? What has clicked for you here?
BROOKE HENDERSON: You know, coming into 2015 I was playing with Alena Sharp a lot and she told me that I was probably really going to like this course and told me a couple hints around it.

From the first day I tee'd it up I think I shot minus-6 that first day, and things seemed to be going really well. You know, from there on, like I said, I have a lot of the great memories that I can reach back onto.

I think just growing up on courses that were very similar to this - tree lined and thick rough, narrow fairways - just kind of suits my eye.

THE MODERATOR: Brooke, this week you have a chance for it to be your third win of the event. One other player has done that, Nancy Lopez. Do you have that in the back of your mind for a win, or are you looking more forward at the LPGA's fifth and final major?

BROOKE HENDERSON: You know, I definitely would love to have a great finish this week. Coming off the win I feel very confident and a lot of momentum. I also feel like it's easy to have kind of a setback week this week. I would love to just get off to a fast start tomorrow and try to put myself in good position for the weekend. You know, top 10 I would be very happy with.

Playing with Nancy Lopez last year in the pro-am was really a highlight of my career as well. I had a hole-in-one on 16, I think, so that was amazing being with a Hall of Famer like that and legend of the tour.

So I feel like just being around here in this atmosphere I've just made so many great connections and so many amazing memories.

Q. When I saw the picture of you and your sister coming together, your sister had the biggest smile I have ever, ever seen on any photograph of the two of you. Just talk for a minute about your relationship.
BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, I'm extremely fortunate and very grateful to have my sister by my side all the time. She is my best friend, my caddie. She books a lot of my travel, looks after me, and we just have a lot of fun together. I think we're together like 24 hours a day pretty much every day.

So it's a lot of time, but we get along extremely well. Out on the course it's really cool to have somebody that you can trust so much and depend on, especially when the situations get a little bit tighter or I'm feeling not as good as sometimes. She knows exactly what to say to kind of help me out.

I feel like that win last week was just as meaningful to her as it was for me. I think that's why we make such a great team. We believe in each other and we try to push each other to be the best we can.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Brooke. Good luck this week.

BROOKE HENDERSON: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297