{"id":792951,"date":"2026-07-10T14:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792951\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:37:08","slug":"the-summer-job-that-helped-brooke-henderson-polish-her-golf-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/792951\/","title":{"rendered":"The summer job that helped Brooke Henderson polish her golf game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Brooke Henderson, the teen-turned two-time Canadian Women\u2019s Open winner, shares why a summer polishing clubs prepped her for a long game in golf.Photo Illustration by The Globe and Mail. Sources: Taylormade, Getty Images<\/p>\n

As an aspiring golfer, Brooke Henderson spent so much time at Smiths Falls Golf & Country Club that she thought she might as well work there and collect an hourly wage. The Ontario teen-turned two-time Canadian Women\u2019s Open winner shared why a summer polishing clubs prepped her for a long game in golf. <\/p>\n

I started working very early, maybe Grade 7 and definitely during middle school, because I wanted to work and enjoyed it. I mean, getting a pay cheque was also really fun, but I was already a golfer then \u2014 just amateur and junior \u2014 and hanging out at the golf course all the time anyways. I figured I might as well get paid. <\/p>\n

This was at the Smiths Falls Golf & Country Club, where I spent time with the workers and got to know everybody really well. I don\u2019t even remember how I transitioned from hanging out to official employment; I probably asked if they had any availability and went wherever they told me. I started like all newbies out on the range but quickly moved up to the bag shop. <\/p>\n

How astrophysicist Arthur McDonald\u2019s summer job at a power plant came full circle<\/a><\/p>\n

I would usually practise during the day and then start my shift around 4 or 5 p.m. It was always dependent on what was going on that day, but I\u2019d work until at least 8 o\u2019clock, maybe later. After golfing all day too, that\u2019s a lot, but it wasn\u2019t at all strenuous. I wore my own clothes \u2013 golf clothes and a collared shirt and basically I\u2019d be hanging out in the bag shop listening to music on the radio until members came in when they finished their rounds. They\u2019d drop their clubs off at my shop to clean, shine and store them away for the next day. <\/p>\n

I\u2019d see the other people I worked with just wipe the clubs really quick. Sure, at first glance, they looked clean enough but really, they were still a little dirty. Because I actually played golf, I know how important it is to have a clean club and make sure all the grooves were all the way clean. I\u2019d fill the sink with soap and water, scrub them with a brush and then use a golf tee afterwards to really get in the grooves. Then I\u2019d rinse and wipe them with a towel and polish, too. I\u2019d spend at least a few minutes on each and the clubs I cleaned were sparkling afterwards.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember what I got paid but it couldn\u2019t have been much more than minimum wage. Occasionally, members would notice my efforts and give me 20 bucks. Even better, they\u2019d say \u201cGo have lunch. It\u2019s on me.\u201d That was really sweet and I still remember those members. Now that I\u2019m on that side, I try to be that member for other people. <\/p>\n

Growing up, I was always pretty shy, so the job was also a great way for me to work on people skills and build confidence and then relationships. Once I wasn\u2019t so nervous to talk, I got to be good friends with a lot of the Smiths Falls members. Some of them still come to watch me play in tournaments now. Others hired me to teach golf lessons to their kids, specifically these two little girls who I got to teach. They were really young, but so was I, so we were all really learning together. Now, I teach a lot of clinics and lessons, so it was good for me to start teaching that young.<\/p>\n

Before celebrity gossip, Lainey Lui scoped the scene at her family\u2019s small-town restaurant<\/a><\/p>\n

I guess I was pretty good at it, because soon I started caddying for my sister, Brittany. She\u2019s my caddie now when I\u2019m on tour, so we have lots of practice working together in pressure-filled situations. We\u2019ve long figured out how the other works in tough situations and being on both sides gave me a great perspective that really helped my own game. We\u2019ve both been in both roles, so I feel like we have a bit of an advantage and definitely a great perspective. When I\u2019ve missed the green and I\u2019m thinking, \u201cI\u2019m for sure gonna make a bogey,\u201d I try to talk to myself like I\u2019d talk to her. Since I would believe in her to do it, I should probably believe that same amount in myself.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really grateful for where I am now and glad I worked in various parts of a golf course. I learned little things along the way from each role and got to learn the golf world from different angles. <\/p>\n

As told to Rosemary Counter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Brooke Henderson, the teen-turned two-time Canadian Women\u2019s Open winner, shares why a summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,2741,82],"class_list":["post-792951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-pf-ca","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}