Brooke Henderson will arrive at Royal Mayfair Golf Club carrying the expectations that follow her whenever the LPGA Tour returns to Canada. This time, she brings something else with her: the trophy.
Henderson won the 2025 CPKC Women’s Open by one stroke over Minjee Lee, capturing Canada’s national championship for a second time and earning her 14th LPGA Tour victory. She will begin her title defense Thursday in Edmonton as the centerpiece of a 15-player Canadian contingent.
The homecoming is only one layer of a week crowded with consequential golf.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda can move closer to the LPGA Hall of Fame and break Annika Sorenstam’s official career money record. Lydia Ko returns to the course where she won this championship as a 15-year-old amateur. The tournament also serves as the final qualifying event for the U.S. Solheim Cup team.
For an event with more than half a century of history, the 52nd CPKC Women’s Open arrives with an unusual amount still to be decided.
2026 CPKC Women’s Open
Canada’s national women’s championship returns to Edmonton with history and Solheim Cup implications attached.
Henderson Carries Canada’s Hopes Again
The relationship between Henderson and this championship has long carried more emotional weight than a typical annual Tour stop.
She first played the event as a 14-year-old amateur in 2012. Six years later, she won at Wascana Country Club in Saskatchewan, becoming the first Canadian to capture the country’s national women’s open since Jocelyne Bourassa in 1973.
Last year’s victory at Mississaugua Golf and Country Club made Henderson the first two-time Canadian champion in tournament history.
Now she attempts to defend an LPGA Tour title for the first time since winning the 2019 LOTTE Championship, one year after her first victory there.
Henderson has not won since last year’s CPKC Women’s Open, but her 2026 major championship record suggests another title may not be far away. She finished third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and second at The Amundi Evian Championship. She has made 12 cuts in 14 starts and enters the week ranked No. 11 in the world.
The stage will be unmistakably hers, but Henderson will not carry Canada alone.
Fifteen Canadians are in the field, including LPGA Tour members Savannah Grewal, Leah John, Lauren Kim, Maude-Aimee Leblanc and Alena Sharp. The group also includes one of the game’s most compelling young prospects, 17-year-old Anna Huang.
Huang recently won the PIF London Championship for her fourth Ladies European Tour title, becoming the youngest player to reach that mark at 17 years and 283 days. Fellow Canadian amateur Aphrodite Deng returns after tying for 20th and earning low-amateur honors at this championship last year.
Henderson remains the country’s standard-bearer. This week, however, Canadian golf will have several generations on display around her.
Korda Has Two Historic Milestones Within Sight
Korda’s position atop the sport is already secure. What she can accomplish at Royal Mayfair would add another significant entry to her career.
The world No. 1 is $296,011 behind Sorenstam’s LPGA Tour record for official career earnings. With $412,500 going to the CPKC Women’s Open champion, Korda must win to move past Sorenstam, who has held the record since May 6, 2001.
Korda also stands two points short of the LPGA Hall of Fame threshold. A victory this week would earn one point, leaving her one away from eligibility.
Neither pursuit needs to be inflated to make the week important. Korda is 28 years old, has 19 LPGA Tour victories and has already assembled another dominant season.
Her four wins in 2026 include The Chevron Championship and U.S. Women’s Open. She also won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba, has recorded 10 top-10 finishes in 13 starts and leads the Tour in official money, scoring average and strokes gained overall.
She has made the cut in all six of her previous CPKC Women’s Open appearances, including a runner-up finish in 2022 and a tie for 10th last year.
Korda does not need a record to validate her season. Still, the possibility of passing Sorenstam gives every move she makes in Edmonton a larger historical frame.
Royal Mayfair Reconnects Lydia Ko With Her Past
Royal Mayfair is hosting the championship for the third time and the first since 2013. Its return immediately brings Lydia Ko back to one of the defining places of her career.
Ko was 15 years, 4 months and 2 days old when she won the 2012 edition, becoming the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history. She successfully defended the title at Royal Mayfair in 2013, again as an amateur, and added a third Canadian Open victory in 2015.
More than a decade later, she returns as a 23-time LPGA Tour winner, three-time major champion, Olympic gold medalist and LPGA Hall of Fame member.
That evolution gives the week one of its best storylines. Royal Mayfair is not simply another familiar course for Ko. It is a place where golf received an early look at what she might become.
A fourth victory would give Ko the outright tournament record. Meg Mallon, Pat Bradley and Ko currently share the mark with three titles.
The field includes five other former champions: Henderson, Megan Khang, Paula Reto, Jin Young Ko and Ariya Jutanugarn. Fourteen of the top 25 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are entered, including Hyo Joo Kim, Miyu Yamashita, Ruoning Yin, Hannah Green, Sei Young Kim and Lee.
Four Storylines That Could Define the Week
A Course Built Around Decisions, Not Just Distance
Royal Mayfair will play to a preliminary 6,452 yards and a par of 70. The number is modest by modern championship standards, but the layout requires more thought than its length suggests.
The course features only two par 5s. Both present different strategic problems.
The 532-yard fifth is the designated Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole, with out of bounds running along the left side and bunkers protecting the green. Players capable of reaching it in two will have to decide how much danger they are willing to accept for a possible eagle or easy birdie.
The 551-yard 12th is more likely to be played as a three-shot hole, placing a premium on the position of the layup and control of the third shot.
Opportunities appear at the 319-yard 11th and 371-yard 15th, but the final three holes ask for precision. The 16th is a demanding 414-yard par 4, the 17th requires exact distance control into a versatile par-3 green and the 412-yard finishing hole calls for a left-to-right tee shot before an approach into one of the largest greens on the property.
That sequence could matter late Sunday, especially with more than a championship at stake.
Royal Mayfair’s Final Four
The CPKC Women’s Open is the final event in the U.S. Solheim Cup qualifying period. The finalized American team will be announced Monday, less than three weeks before the Sept. 11-13 matches at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands.
By then, Royal Mayfair will have crowned a champion and answered several questions.
Can Henderson win her national open in consecutive years? Can Korda collect another title and surpass one of the most durable financial records in LPGA Tour history? Can Ko revisit the course where her remarkable career first became impossible to ignore?
Canada’s championship has never needed additional meaning. This year, it has found plenty anyway.
PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on R.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
