SISTER SHOW: Brittany Henderson still loving her gig as Brooke's caddie (2024)

Even a caddie gets autograph and selfie requests sometimes.

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That’s how it is most weeks for Brittany Henderson, but this week’s CP Women’s Open in Ottawa takes things to an other level for the 31-year-old from Smiths Falls.

A decent golfer in her own right — Quebec junior champion, a four-year U.S. college player inducted into the Coastal Carolina University athletics hall of fame and a pro on what was then the second-tier Symetra Tour — she has become mostly celebrated as older sister and caddie for LPGA Tour superstar Brooke Henderson.

Brittany has carried the bag for 11 of Brooke’s 12 LPGA Tour titles, including a pair of major championships.

“This is definitely a special one,” Brittany Henderson said Tuesday in between the conclusion of her sibling’s nine-hole practice round and more pre-tournament on-course reconnaissance for the LPGA Tour event at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

“I knew so many people in the crowd today. You don’t normally have crowds (for practice rounds) on Tuesdays, so that was different. I feel like I know everybody, or maybe they’re even members here and you have seen them around a little bit.”

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The Henderson sisters have been famously tight both on and off the course, and it surely sounds as if that relationship played a role in Brittany’s decision to relinquish her own playing career and go to work for Brooke, who had turned pro late in 2014, at age 17, not long after she ascended to No. 1 in the women’s world amateur golf rankings.

They caddied for each other roughly a half-dozen times in 2015, with Brittany playing on the Symetra Tour and Brooke’s tournaments split between Symetra and the LPGA Tour. However, Brittany also skipped a couple of events she expected to enter to caddie for Brooke in major championships in Britain and France.

That fall, with family friend Bunk Lee as caddie, Brooke won a tournament at Portland, Ore., which led to a successful application for an exemption to the LPGA Tour’s 18-and-over age requirement. It also precipitated a life-changing decision for Brittany.

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Sure, she had membership status on the Symetra Tour, and she might also get into some LPGA Tour events, but that would also have meant what she saw as a more lonely lifestyle.

“The weeks that I was out there by myself, it was OK, but it wasn’t that fun,” Brittany said as she stood behind the 18th hole grandstand at Ottawa Hunt. “It was a lot more fun when we were together and travelling, whether she was on my bag or I was on hers.

“It was always a lot better, more of a team atmosphere. You just always had someone with you that you could rely on.”

Some things have changed, though, starting with separate bases for the sisters in Naples, Fla., but featuring Brittany’s September 2020 marriage to Zach Sepanik, an LPGA staffer who’s now media director of the affiliated Epson Tour.

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It was a small affair, pushed forward so his father, Frank — in the late stages of a battle with Stage 4 brain cancer — could be there. As well, travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic made it a virtual celebration for her Canadian-based family members.

“(Zach) just really wanted his dad to be there. I thought that was really great,” Brittany said, “and it was COVID, anyway, so you couldn’t have a big crowd during that time.”

Continuing pandemic restrictions dashed a 2021 dual-family celebration, and this year didn’t work because of assorted goings-on, such as the hectic “home” CP Open, so close to Smiths Falls.

“So now we’re planning like a five-year anniversary celebration in Canada, which would be really nice,” Brittany said, “just to get both of our families together and celebrate everything.

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“We need time to plan and hopefully there will be no COVID restrictions or anything of that nature.”

One question that can’t be answered, yet, is how much longer Team Henderson will continue. Clearly there’s a willingness.

“But I’m six and a half years older than Brooke, so I’m not sure,” Brittany said. “I hope to do it as long as I can, as long as life allows, I guess.

“Hopefully we’ll just keep going and play it by ear.”

Brooke Henderson echoed Brittany’s thoughts about having someone so close to her share the experiences of life in professional golf and the value of her older sister’s contributions.

“I depend on her a ton,” Brooke said. “Especially down the stretch, when things get a little bit tense, she’s always there for me and giving me whatever I need, whether it’s a kick in the butt or just not saying anything at all and letting me handle it.

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“She has been integral to my success out there, and I hope she stays on my bag for a long time because I really like having her there.”

TAP-INS

There are 18 Canadians in the 156-player field, including five under the age of majority. The last one in was Vancouver’s Lucy Lin, a 12-year-old who captured a four-way playoff for the final spot in the rain-interrupted Monday qualifier at The Marshes Golf Club. … U.S. pro Vicky Hurst was also in that qualifier, but withdrew after nine holes and still got into the Open off the LPGA Tour’s alternate list because of the withdrawal of English pro Mel Reid.

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