It would have made all the sense in the world for Brooke Henderson to take a week off.

After all, Henderson won the CPKC Women's Open on Sunday, fending off Australia's Minjee Lee for a one-stroke victory at the Canadian national women's golf championship. 

Henderson, from Smiths Falls, Ont., is the winningest professional golfer in Canadian history and very much the face of the Women's Open, doing media appearances, meeting with sponsors, and signing hundreds of autographs all week while also holding her own against the best female players in the world.

But after celebrating her 14th victory on the LPGA Tour, Henderson decided to put her nose back to the grindstone and fulfil her commitment to play in this week's FM Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass.

"Right after I won on Sunday I wasn't sure what I was going to do. It was such a huge week for me. I was very busy and just emotionally took a lot out of me," Henderson said at a news conference on Wednesday. "I knew this event was a great event and I was excited to have the opportunity to come play here, so just decided just to try to keep things going. 

"Felt like it would be good for me to get back into, not reality, but get back to work and focus in on the things that I need to focus on."

The victory — Henderson's second Canadian championship — also salvaged what was shaping up to be her worst season since turning professional in 2015.

Winning at Mississaugua Golf and Country Club elevated Henderson from 53rd to 26th on the Race to CME Globe rankings, the LPGA Tour's points list. It also meant she will join the World Team at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown in late October and play in the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in late November.

"I think the big thing for me was my mindset and just mentally being in a good frame of mind. I feel like I've been working diligently on that, so to see it all work out last week was great in the heat of the moment and under pressure in contention. That was huge for me. 

"All parts of my game I was just trying to improve and be a little bit more consistent and get back to where it needed to be to be at the top of the leaderboard."

Henderson is in the marquee group in the first and second round at TPC Boston, playing with Lee and Nelly Korda of the United States in Thursday's morning wave. Henderson is the lowest-ranked of the trio, with Korda sitting seventh and Lee second.

"I'm definitely tired, but I'm looking forward to getting some good rest later this afternoon and tonight," said Henderson. "It's an early tee time tomorrow, so I'll go to bed pretty early and try to recover as much as I can.

"I feel like last week was a huge week it just took so much out of my whole team mentally, physically, emotionally, so I think it's really important just to try to recover that going into tomorrow."

Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont., is the only other Canadian in the field at the FM Championship. She's grouped with Alex Pano of the U.S., and South Africa's Ashleigh Buhai in a group that tees off in the early afternoon.

PGA TOUR AMERICAS — A.J. Ewart of Coquitlam, B.C., is the highest ranked Canadian on the Fortinet Cup standings heading into this week's CRMC Championship. He's 23rd heading into the play at Craguns Legacy Course at Brainerd, Minn. There are a total of 11 Canadians in the field.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 27, 2025.