FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. – Hyundai has reached a deal to become the title sponsor of the PGA Tour event at Riviera Country Club, following Northern Trust’s decision to shift from the Los Angeles tournament to the FedEx Cup playoff opener in the New York/New Jersey area.

Fountain Valley-headquartered Hyundai Motor America and the PGA Tour announced the deal Wednesday, a day after Northern Trust said it was leaving following the Feb. 18-21 event. Chicago-based Northern Trust took over in 2008 as the Los Angeles title sponsor.

Hyundai is moving its sponsorship from the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. South Korea television giant SBS has a 10-year deal through 2019 at Kapalua, and it farmed out the title to Hyundai in 2011.

Hyundai’s deal at Riviera and Northern Trust’s with the FedEx Cup opener will begin next year. The New York/New Jersey event opened up after Barclays decided not to renew its title sponsorship.

LIMA, Peru – Four members of Team Canada’s Development Squad are set to play in the 11th edition of the South American Amateur this week from Jan. 21–24 at the Lima Golf Club—a three-time host of the event.

The men’s side will be represented by the duo of Charles-Éric Bélanger (Québec) and Jack Simpson (Aurora, Ont.), while Grace St-Germain (Ottawa) and Hannah Lee (Surrey, B.C.) will tee-it-up on the women’s side. All four Canucks are set to compete in the 72-hole stroke-play event for their first time when competition kicks off Thursday.

In 2015, American Scott Harvey took home the trophy for the men, with Team Canada member Blair Hamilton taking home top-Canadian honours in a tie for twelfth. Sofia Garcia of Paraguay won the women’s title.

Click here for live scoring.

Official p.r @southamericasgolf @ce_belanger @gracestgermain @lee_hannahh @JackSimpson_4 @TheGolfCanada pic.twitter.com/AH9DelEScV

— ann carroll (@AnnAnncarroll) January 20, 2016

Many of us head south in the off-season to continue to play golf while many other’s hunker down to survive Old Man Winter. At the elite player level, winter offers a chance to get more physically fit so that next season is an improvement on the past. Our emerging pros and amateur players work on becoming stronger, fitter and more flexible so they can more easily make the technical adjustments to hit the ball longer, straighter and more consistently. No matter who your swing coach is or what amazing magazine article on swing plane dynamics you have read, your physical limitation will determine which of those technical changes you can make.

The off -season can also provide the opportunity to try new activities that will complement your golf game. We recommend you try the following activities between now and the spring; each of these activities will improve your strength, flexibility, balance and cardiovascular fitness.

INSIDE

Gym

Purchasing a winter membership or punch pass is all that is required at many commercial gyms. Membership brings access to a multitude of exercise equipment and group classes to keep you motivated over the cold months. Finding a gym with a strength and conditioning expert who has expertise in golf is always a bonus. Focus on exercises that improve strength in the glutes, quads, lower abdominals, and stabilizers of the lateral pelvis and shoulder blades.

Home gym

All you need to create an effective home gym is a few resistance bands, mini bands, stability ball and a foam roller. Hiring a strength and conditioning expert to write you a winter program using this equipment would be best and would be advised to make sure your program is focused on where you need to improve. It will also keep you motivated as the thinking has already been done for you.

Yoga

Sign up for a novice or easy/gentle class at your local yoga studio. Although a golf- specific yoga class is ideal, you will improve your game with any class. To see the most improvement, jump into two yoga classes a week and perhaps by the time the snow melts you will be trying the occasional advanced class.

OUTSIDE

Skiing

Yes, believe it or not, a day on the slopes will help you gain more distance on your drives come spring. Focus on engaging your glutes and quads and working on your balance as you carve your way down the hill.

Cross-country skiing

This is an incredible way of improving balance, combined strength in your legs and arms as well as cardio fitness as you transfer your weight from ski to ski. Cross-country skiing is probably the best winter activity that trains weight transfer in a golfer.

Snowshoeing

This is a sport that you can make as challenging as you feel you want to on any particular day. A longer slower day out in the Canadian wilderness allows you to enjoy the scenery and the company of your fellow snowshoers while improving the endurance strength of your legs and arms (if you are using poles). Or, you can really push the pace for a shorter more intense day out, which improves the strength and power of your legs.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Golfers on the European Tour have a new item of clothing to pack in their suitcases.

The tour said Wednesday it will allow players to wear shorts during practice rounds and pro-ams after the policy was passed unanimously by a tournament committee in Abu Dhabi.

Ian Poulter backed the move, tweeting on Wednesday: “Its 2016 not 1990. Get rid of the stuffy old rules that hold golf back. Make it more fun (for) everyone.”

Players must still wear long pants in tournament play, although Rory McIlroy is open for that to change, too.

“Maybe. Why not?” McIlroy said. “It really depends if guys are comfortable or not. I don’t think it takes anything away from the tradition of the game or etiquette or how guys look on the course.

“We’re not going to go out in shorts at the British Open if it’s 10 degrees (50 degrees F) and raining. But at the same time, if we’re playing in a hot country and it’s more comfortable for guys to wear shorts, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to.”

Lee Westwood and European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke played practice rounds in shorts at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Tuesday. Westwood was among the European players to wear shorts in humid conditions at the EurAsia Cup in Malaysia last week.

Caddies can wear shorts on the PGA Tour, but not players.

“It’s awesome. It will be something that I would love to see on the PGA Tour, as well,” said top-ranked Jordan Spieth, who is competing in Abu Dhabi. “Guys seem to all love it over here. I’ve not heard one person, one tour player complain about it.”

Spieth was just annoyed he didn’t get the memo ahead of his practice round Wednesday.

“I just wish that my hotel was closer,” said Spieth, who was wearing long pants. “I would have gone back.”

The European Tour also announced a new Pace of Play policy on Wednesday, which CEO Keith Pelley hopes will cut rounds by at least 15 minutes.

Instead of being warned initially for slow play, players will be monitored by a referee. If they still exceed the time permitted of 40 seconds (plus 10 seconds if playing first in a group), they’ll receive a monitoring penalty and be timed from the next tee. Two monitoring penalties or bad times will earn a player a fine of 2,600 euros ($2,840).

“Is this the emphatic answer? No,” said Pelley, who has made slow play a key issue since joining the tour last year. “Are we going to continue to monitor it and look for other ways? Absolutely.”

John Paramor, the tour’s chief referee, said the reaction to the revised policy has been “extremely positive.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – The latest stop for Jordan Spieth on his tour of the golfing world is the Middle East and an eagerly anticipated head to head with Rory McIlroy at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week.

It seems that two of the sport’s biggest names have clashed before the first tee shot has even been struck.

For some pre-tournament publicity, Spieth and McIlroy were among those taking part in a “Rider Cup” challenge that included riding motorized golf scooters – so-called GolfBoards – along a fairway on a local course in the gulf emirate.

“It was quite competitive,” McIlroy said with a smile. “Actually, Jordan nearly took me out. We collided halfway down the fairway – thankfully I didn’t fall off.”

On Thursday, it will be McIlroy trying to knock the top-ranked Spieth out of his stride.

Fresh off an eight-stroke win in Hawaii on his 2016 debut that backed up his sensational 2015, Spieth will make his first appearance in a regular European Tour event when he joins McIlroy and Rickie Fowler in a stellar three-ball for the first two rounds at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

For No. 3-ranked McIlroy, it will be a first start of the year and a chance to see his biggest rival up close.

“I don’t play the game on (laying down) markers at all,” McIlroy said. “I want to play my best, and I don’t have to just beat Jordan Spieth this week. I have to beat another 142 guys.”

Since McIlroy last played competitively, in winning the World Tour Championship to clinch the European Tour’s Race to Dubai, Spieth has competed in Australia, the Bahamas and Hawaii. What has become a virtual global tour for golf’s new big thing started in October with the President’s Cup in South Korea and continues with his Middle East debut in Abu Dhabi and an appearance at the Singapore Open next week.

“It’s a bit tiring,” said the 22-year-old Spieth. In fact, he looked as bouncy and excitable as ever Wednesday.

“Last year, I kind of wanted more of a break. This year I kind of wanted to go out and take advantage of the year and see places that I had never seen before, on and off the course.”

While Spieth has been travelling, McIlroy underwent – and has been recovering from – laser eye surgery which he hopes will improve his short game and putting. He emerged from a two-month winter break with week of practice in Dubai last week, and says he is refreshed and refocused.

After four runners-up finishes in Abu Dhabi, including the last two years, McIlroy wants to take the extra step this week to give him momentum at the start of a seven-tournament stretch before the Masters at Augusta National, where he will bid once again to complete the career grand slam of majors.

As well as No. 6 Fowler, the other member of the world’s top six in action is No. 5 Henrik Stenson, who makes his first start since keyhole surgery in right knee on Dec. 9

“It feels fine hitting balls. That’s not an issue really,” the Swedish player said. “Just getting back to walking normal and putting it to the test of walking 18 holes five days in a row is going to be the challenge.”

Martin Kaymer is the other star attraction, with the German seeking his fourth title in Abu Dhabi after victories in 2008, ’10 and ’11. Kaymer held a 10-shot lead with 12 holes to play in the final round round, but his dramatic implosion saw Gary Stal of France snatch the win.

Stal is defending his title.

It is the first leg of the Desert Swing, which also includes the Qatar Masters and the Dubai Desert Classic.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Rory McIlroy expects his short game and putting to be better this year after undergoing laser eye surgery during his two-month break from competitive golf.

“It’s definitely made things just that little bit sharper, maybe within 50 meters or so,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of his first tournament of 2016 at the Abu Dhabi Championship. “I feel like I’ve always been a decent green reader, but maybe not quite as good as I could be. So that was one of the reasons why I took this step.”

McIlroy said the surgery hasn’t made a huge difference to his long-range sight.

The Northern Irishman hasn’t played competitively since winning the World Tour Championship in November in Dubai, clinching the Race to Dubai on the European Tour. He was back in Dubai last week, spending time on the range, and made his now-customary list of goals for the year on the back of his boarding pass as he flew out to the gulf emirate.

“There’s always obvious ones and result-based goals. But I never really write those down because they are always there,” McIlroy said. “They are always obvious, they are always in the forefront of your mind. You want to win tournaments and you want to achieve things, but it’s about how to go about that on your off-weeks.”

So winning the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam of the majors wasn’t on the list?

“Yeah, that’s obvious,” he said, laughing. “I don’t need to write that down.”

The build-up to the Masters was the No. 1 topic of conversation this time last year. Now, the focus is elsewhere – particularly on Jordan Spieth, McIlroy’s big rival who dominated the sport in 2015 by winning two majors, the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour and two other tournaments to clinch FedEx Cup, and winning more than $22 million.

McIlroy believes that could give him a better chance going to Augusta National in April.

“I feel I’m better equipped now, I’ve got a little bit of experience in how to deal with it and approach it,” McIlroy said. “I know it’s going to be there, but there’s still, there’s a whole bunch of other story lines that are going on with golf right now.

“Jordan is obviously defending and that’s so many other guys that have a chance going in there. I think it will be a little different this year, for sure.”

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Forget the majors, forget an Olympic gold medal: Jordan Spieth’s big goal in 2016 is winning the Ryder Cup with the United States.

“We’re tired of hearing about changes that need to be made. We’re tired of hearing about the past,” the top-ranked Spieth said Wednesday, adopting a fierce tone. “And we’re ready to believe in a younger, more hungry team going forward.”

The European team has won eight of the past 10 editions of the Ryder Cup, and will defend the cup at Hazeltine in September for a third straight time after winning 16½-11½ at Gleneagles in 2014.

Since then, the Americans have appointed Davis Love III for a second stint as captain and created a so-called “task force” to take a closer look at where the team has been going wrong.

“When we get there this year, it starts over,” said Spieth, who is playing the Abu Dhabi Championship this week. “If we go in believing that the Ryder Cup, this is the inaugural event, this is a clean slate, we are ready to go and start a new trend, then we’ll be fine.”

The 2014 edition of the Ryder Cup ended in acrimony for the U.S. team, with Phil Mickelson – sitting beside captain Tom Watson at a closing news conference – praising the success of Paul Azinger in 2008 in the most recent USA victory and suggesting that Watson didn’t embrace that winning formula.

There was a general feeling that Watson was out of touch with his decisions, tactics and leadership – especially compared to the dynamic captaincy of Paul McGinley for Europe.

Referencing up-and-coming players like Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed, Spieth predicted there will be a younger U.S. team with “less scar tissue” and a “fiery” side through its success in team events in junior and amateur tournaments.

“We are all going to listen to our captain. We are going to listen to our assistant captains, and they are going to listen to us,” said Spieth, saying the Ryder Cup was a “huge goal” that was “possibly at the very top of the list” for 2016.

“We are going to have to – all as team members – put a lot of thought into this ahead of time on how we want to prepare, so that when we get there, we know the teams, we can then play matches against each other.”

“We don’t have to figure stuff out last minute,” he added in what appeared to be a nod to Watson’s leadership in 2014. “That’s going to be important for us, to just kind of ease the transition.”

HONOLULU – With golf joining the Olympics for the first time since 1904, the PGA Tour is trying to put together a test event for the new course in Rio de Janeiro.

The tour is having a tough time finding anyone to go because of the crowded 2016 schedule.

“We’ve got a good list of players who are, quote, interested in coming,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. “But we don’t have a long list of players who are committed to coming. That’s the case with the guys who are currently playing on the PGA Tour, just because of the schedule, looking ahead to the summer, seeing the compaction. So I don’t know.”

The test event is planned for March 8, and the tour has lined up a charter flight for its members.

Every sport must have an event at the Olympic venue ahead of the Rio Games. Finchem said if golf can pull together this outing, it will count as the test event.

“We can do that with any combination of players that are being talked to,” he said. “Also, I think it’s probably most important to get international players. We don’t know how it’s going to wind up. We’ve got transportation issues and a sponsor the next week that’s watching and saying, ‘Am I going to lose anybody?'”

The World Golf Championship at Doral ends on March 6 and is followed by the Valspar Championship, where Jordan Spieth is the defending champion. His agent, Jay Danzi, said the tour approached Spieth about a trip to Rio, but he didn’t want it to interfere with his title defense at Innisbrook.

The European Tour and Asian Tour have a co-sanctioned event in Thailand that week. The LPGA Tour is off, though its best players will be in Singapore on March 6 for the HSBC Women’s Champions.

British Open champion Zach Johnson said he was asked. His foundation has a retreat that week. Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler also were approached and decided against a flight to Brazil. It’s a month before the Masters, with tournaments like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Dell Match Play and Shell Houston Open leading up to Augusta.

Finchem is eager to have the test event, and not just to tick off that box.

“We want to get some good players on there so if there are things we’re not seeing … you know as well I do, we build these golf courses and ‘Oh, it’s great.’ And then you get the best players in the world on there and we’ve got 10 problems,” he said. “They see things you didn’t notice. So we want to get that done.”

He also described the Gil Hanse design as having a “hangover” from environmental protests and legal challenges that delayed the project.

“We want to get the word out that it’s a good golf course,” Finchem said.

HOMECOMING: The Golf Channel on NBC crew will have some fond memories during the CareerBuilder Challenge this week.

Tommy Roy is the lead golf producer and has no small amount of history in the California desert. Roy first worked for NBC Sports at the Bob Hope Classic in 1979 as a volunteer runner. Fourteen years later, Roy made his debut as a golf producer at the 1993 Bob Hope Classic.

Johnny Miller will start his year at the tournament, which also is appropriate. Not only did Miller win the Bob Hope Classic in consecutive years (1973-74), this is where he made his on-air debut as a golf analyst for NBC in 1990.

NBC last had the tournament in 1998. The Bob Hope Classic went to ABC for eight years before becoming a fixture on the Golf Channel.

In some respects, it will be a reunion. Five members of that NBC crew that televised the Hope in 1998 will be back this year – Roy, Miller, Dan Hicks, Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch. Hicks was a tower reporter in 1998. Now he does play-by-play with Miller.

SCOTT’S DECISION: Adam Scott has made it clear over the last several months that the Olympics aren’t a priority. What he hasn’t said is whether he will represent Australia if eligible, which is likely.

“I said it’s not my priority at all, and that means I’ll make a decision at the very last moment whether it fits or not,” Scott said. “It’s not the main focus of the year. It’s not what I built my schedule around. If it fits in good at the time, I’ll play. And if it doesn’t, then I won’t.

The first decision he has to make is on May 6.

Players have been getting emails from the PGA Tour over the last few weeks about the “Registered Testing Pool” regarding the anti-doping program for the Olympics, which is far more stringent that the tour’s program. All players who would qualify for the Olympics on May 6 must be entered in the pool.

If players become eligible after May 6, then they are added to the pool and stay there until the final Olympic Ranking on July 11. But if players choose not to compete in the Olympics, they will be removed from the pool and not allowed to be added at a later date.

ELECTION TIME: Jimmy Walker, Kevin Streelman and Charley Hoffman have been selected to run as co-chairmen for the Player Advisory Council. The two players with the most votes will start a three-year term on the board starting in 2017.

The voting ends Feb. 15.

Others serving on the PAC this year are Blayne Barber, Ricky Barnes, Roberto Castro, Stewart Cink, Graham DeLaet, Harris English, Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Dicky Pride, John Senden, Brendon Todd, Johnson Wagner and Tim Wilkinson.

One streak remains. An international player has never been voted chairman of the PAC.

BELL HONORED: Judy Bell is in the World Golf Hall of Fame and in the history books as the first president of the U.S. Golf Association. She receives another honor this year the U.S. Open as the winner of the Bob Jones Award.

The award is the highest honor from the USGA and honors a person who demonstrates the spirit, character and respect for the game shown by the amateur great.

She was president of the USGA in 1996-97.

Bell played in 38 USGA championships. She played on two winning Curtis Cup teams and was captain twice. The Women’s State Team Championship Trophy was named after a year after her two-year tenure as president.

She was among the first women to become honorary members of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

DIVOTS: Padraig Harrington reported no issues with his knee in his first two tournaments since surgery to repair his meniscus. He was 24-under par at Kapalua and Waialae and was par or better for all eight rounds. … The first of three playoff events for the Charles Schwab Cup on the PGA Tour Champions will be held at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Sherwood previously held the World Challenge that Tiger Woods hosts until 2013. … The third Latin America Amateur will be held in 2017 at Panama Golf Club. … George Peper, the former editor-in-chief at Golf magazine, has been selected to receive the 2016 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.

STAT OF THE WEEK: Greg Owen has three top 10s in the last year. Two of them were at PGA Tour events won by Fabian Gomez.

FINAL WORD: “Am I not supposed to be grounded? You are who you are. Why change based on anything you’ve done?” – Jordan Spieth.

HONOLULU – Northern Trust is moving its title sponsorship on the PGA Tour from Los Angeles to New York and will become the opening FedEx Cup playoff event next year, which could create a small domino effect of sponsors.

Barclays has decided not to renew its title sponsorship after 12 years in the New York area, according to two people with knowledge of plans for London-based Barclays. They spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not been announced.

Starting in 2017, the FedEx Cup playoff’s first event will be called The Northern Trust. It will keep the previous golf courses, starting with Glen Oaks in 2017 and rotating among Ridgewood, Plainfield, Liberty National and Bethpage Black.

Chicago-based Northern Trust took over in 2008 as the title sponsor in Los Angeles, and immediately helped upgrade the tournament at Riviera, which is regarded among the best golf courses on the tour.

The switch to New York leaves Los Angeles without a title sponsor after this year, but perhaps not for long.

Hyundai Motor America, which had a one-year deal at Kapalua for the Tournament of Champions, has been talking with the PGA Tour about becoming title sponsor in Los Angeles. The company’s U.S. headquarters are a few hours away in Orange County.

If Hyundai were to move its sponsorship to Los Angeles, the winners-only event that traditionally starts the year on Maui still would not be without a title sponsor. Korea television giant SBS signed a 10-year deal through 2019, and it had farmed out the title to Hyundai in 2011.

The tour would look for another title sponsor for Kapalua, and the tournament could be more attractive the way the PGA Tour is trending toward youth. With so many young winners, such as Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler, the Hyundai Tournament of Champions had its strongest field in 10 years.

Phil Mickelson stopped playing in 2002, and Tiger Woods last played at Kapalua in 2005. Neither has won a tournament since 2013.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said officials have considered moving the Hawaii swing to the fall for the start of its wraparound season, though all indications are it will stay in January. “I think we’d like to try to keep it where it is and make it work,” he said.

However that plays out, the tour still has a few big corporate holes to fill after this year.

The biggest question is the World Golf Championship at Trump National Doral. Cadillac is not expected to renew its sponsorship after this year, which has raised questions whether the tour will leave the Miami area for the first time since 1962.

The tour has a longterm deal to play at Trump National Doral, though that deal is subject to approval by a new title sponsor. Some of Trump’s inflammatory remarks during his presidential campaign has caused golf to keep its distance. The PGA of America last year canceled its Grand Slam of Golf, which was planned for Trump National Los Angeles. The PGA of America and USGA, however, have not abandoned plans to stage majors at Trump’s courses starting in 2017.

The tour said in a statement last month that it would “explore all options” after this year’s Cadillac Championship ends on March 6.

Deutsche Bank is in the final year of its contract for the second FedEx Cup playoff event outside Boston and is not likely to renew. There have been discussions about reducing the playoffs to three events instead of four.

“I’d say if there’s a way we can do other things in the schedule that relate to that general period of time, it might be a good thing to do,” Finchem said. “The attitude of the players has always been it’s tough for four in a row. And then you also a lot of times are getting close to the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Both, in our view, are big events. You want space between big stuff.

“So I think it would depend on what else could go in the schedule, which is something we’re looking at.”

Conversely, Finchem said the FedEx Cup playoff events have worked well in each market and are growing.

“It’s not like it’s broken, but we’re always trying to do something better,” he said.

Colonial also is without a title sponsor this year after Crowne Plaza did not renew after 2015.

Perhaps the most famous quote about sisters is attributed to Pulitzer Prize winning poet Louise Glück. She writes, “of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer.”

The bonds of sisterhood are incredibly strong for Brittany and Brooke Henderson, but who is the watcher, and who is the dancer?

With Brooke being granted LPGA Tour status after her victory in August, it might be easy to conclude that she is the dancer. Brittany, the elder Henderson by six years, is the watcher.

But without Brittany’s love for golf, there would be no Brooke. “Watching my older sister play, I wanted to be just like her,” explains Brooke. “It drove me to be a better person and a better golfer.”

Brittany – a bubbly blonde whose name precedes Brooke’s on the sign posted in their hometown of Smiths Falls – was the first of the Henderson sisters to pick up a club and play at the 9-hole Rideau Lakes Golf Club, inspiring Brooke to play too.

She was the dancer. Brooke was the watcher.

“My dad was always out there playing, and I would be hanging out with my mom and would be jealous of my dad. I wanted to go hang out with him,” Brittany explains.

Brittany says her father, Dave, had a rule for his daughter, who was nine at the time. He would hit from the back tee and Brittany would tee off from the forward tee, and only when Brittany’s first two shots could reach his drive could she play with him regularly. It didn’t take long for Brittany to achieve that goal, and more. She says she grew up playing a lot of Canadian Junior Golf Association and American Junior Golf Association tournaments, and Brooke was coming along for the ride with their parents.

“We started playing while we were pretty young, just for fun. She would be tagging right along and hit the odd shot with my Dad and I,” says Brittany. “As soon as she could play, well, she wanted to get out there and play.” Through high school, Brittany took golf quite seriously. She eventually went to Costal Carolina – a mid-sized U.S. school near Myrtle Beach (and Dustin Johnson’s alma matter) – on a golf scholarship. “Everything Brittany did, she took it very seriously,” says her coach at Costal Carolina, Katie Quinney. “She put everything she had into golf and school.”

Individually, she was named the conference’s Golfer of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2013, when she helped lead her school to the Big South Conference Championship. “She was a bit of a golf geek,” Quinney explains, laughing. “On a Sunday when everyone else would be on the beach or shopping, she’d just want to go hit balls. It’s what she loved.”

Upon graduation, she turned professional. The following year she captured her first – and to date, her only – professional victory. It was a win on the Sun Coast Ladies Tour in Florida, worth $5,000 US. She had Brooke on her bag as her caddie that week. But after Brooke turned professional in December 2014, it was Brittany who would be her caddie on weeks when she was off from her schedule on the Symetra Tour – where she earned over $15,000 through 12 events.

Although the Women’s British Open conflicted with a Symetra Tour event, Brittany explains it was her own choice to go there and caddie for Brooke, who ended up finishing T61. “It was totally my decision. I just thought it would be really neat to go,” she says. “It was a tough decision, especially on the Symetra Tour because you’re always trying to make money and get through that top ten at the end of the year.”

Even though Brittany has sacrificed a few opportunities to earn money on the Symetra Tour by caddying or playing in LPGA events – she played in Portland, when Brooke won, and played in the CP Canadian Women’s Open – she was still committed to finishing the Symetra Tour season. Quinney, who still keeps in touch with Brittany, is doing her best to encourage her along the way. “I keep reminding her to stay patient and remember being a professional golfer is a process,” she states. “It’s hard to watch Brooke’s process – it’s so accelerated – but (Brittany) is still ahead of the curve of so many people who have graduated with her.”

When Brittany does caddie for Brooke, she says their on-course relationship is a fun one. She admits they share inside jokes where, “a lot of people wouldn’t know what we’re talking about.” And, she’s always happy to be by the side of her best friend. “It’s definitely pretty fun out there. It’s business first, but we try to lighten up in certain circumstances as well,” she explains.

So while Brooke’s future is secured after her victory in August, the question remains for Brittany – will she be watching, or dancing?

“I love playing and I really love caddying as well,” she states. “I guess either way it goes, I’ll be happy.”