Alena Sharp remembers quite well the first time she played golf with Brooke Henderson. It would be tough to forget considering the teen phenom made a hole-in-one. “I said, ‘Hey, when you become of age, you owe me a drink,'” Sharp recalled as the two Canadian golfers met with media ahead of this week’s Olympic women’s golf competition just outside of Paris.
That fateful ace began a friendship and mentorship that has spanned more than a decade and spawned a Canadian golfing duo that is entering its third Olympic Games together. “Ever since then,” Sharp said of their friendship. “She was trying to make it on the tour, like playing Monday qualifying and I gave her some tips on some of the courses because she didn’t get to play a practice round.
“From there, we just have developed a great friendship. I don’t know how many years it’s been, but I feel like it’s been more than I know.” Time can certainly fly in the life of a professional athlete, but Henderson and Sharp have been the constants in Canadian women’s golf for what seems like a sporting eternity.
“Alena has always been a great mentor to me so it’s really special to compete in three Olympic Games together and represent Team Canada because we are both very proud to be from Canada,” Henderson said. In Henderson’s case, the former teen prodigy was one of the game’s great early bloomers, winning five LPGA tournaments and a major championship by the age of 20. Now 26 years old, Henderson .