Leblanc, Pendrith aim to make Canadian golf history on Super Sunday

Against all odds, Canadians Maude-Aimee Leblanc and Taylor Pendrith will battle for titles on golf’s biggest stages on Sunday.

And though they’re separated by an ocean this weekend, they have a lot in common – most notably a fiercely competitive nature that has allowed them to experience life-changing moments within reach.

“They are,” said longtime Golf Canada coach Derek Ingram, “the paragons of resilience and endurance in the game of golf.”

Leblanc, 33, and Pendrith, 31, were two of the best juniors and amateurs in the country, but things weren’t easy for them in their early years as professionals.

Now both are battling it out for titles in the sport’s biggest tours. Pendrith tops the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit with red-hot American Tony Finau, while Leblanc is behind New Zealand star Lydia Ko and France’s Celine Boutier to take first place at the LPGA Tour’s Women’s Scottish Open reach.

Ingram, the current coach of Pendrith and former coach of Leblanc in the women’s amateur national team, has every reason to be proud this weekend.

“It hasn’t been an easy road for Maude-Aumee Leblanc,” said Ingram. “She fell in love with the game and had many challenges. Just so happy to see her again and really enjoying it. Much like Taylor, Maude-Aimee Leblanc is a top 10 or top 20 player in the game when playing her game. She’s so long, it’s like cheating. She’s a great putter. She’s a great iron player. She has all the tools and skills to be in the top 25 players in the world.

“I hate saying that to build pressure. But we knew that as a 13- or 14-year-old girl in our junior program, she had superstar qualities on the LPGA Tour. It just took a long time to bear fruit.”

In fact, Leblanc retired from the player ranks in 2019 after a tough season. A Sherbrooke, Que. native, focused on earning her golf instructor certification, she considered returning to school for a physical therapist assistant program.

However, the cost of the latter option was prohibitive due to her visa status in the US, where she lives, prompting Leblanc to reconsider her plan when the pandemic hit. Instead, she returned to the LPGA Tour’s feeder circuit in late 2020, cementing her status on the top tour with a sixth-place finish at what was then the Symetra Tour in 2021.

Pendrith has had just about every injury you can name in the last ten years.

Things seemed to change last year when he secured PGA Tour status through the Korn Ferry Tour – Essentially Triple-A or the AHL of men’s golf. But after a promising start to his PGA season, the Richmond Hill, Ontario native broke a rib at the Players’ Championship in March — Ingram believes it happened after a long game stoppage and a change in the weather in the third round.

“You work so hard, you play great and then boom, you have to take four months off,” Ingram said. “Excited he’s back, excited he’s playing well. If he’s healthy, there’s no doubt that Taylor Pendrith is one of the best players in the world. Only he and I know right now.”

Missing the RBC Canadian Open near Toronto in June was particularly tough. Pendrith wanted to try but he hadn’t hit a driver before the week.

“He said, ‘I think I can do this, DI.’ I was like, ‘No, that’s impossible,'” Ingram said.

“You haven’t been able to meet your first driver in a competition in … months. It made no sense. It killed him, it absolutely killed him. He had friends and family and loved the place and wanted to play. It was really tough.”

But here he is now, ending the tie for 13^th and 11^th back in his first few tournaments and just didn’t back down against Finau – who won the PGA Tour stop last week. Every time Finau threatened to take charge on Saturday, Pendrith had an answer.

With Canadian caddy and former OHL player Mitch Theoret on the shotgun, Pendrith has a real shot.

“He and his caddy work really well together. They’re having a lot of fun out there,” Ingram said. He enjoys the challenges and shows a lot of resilience. Those are the things you need to play great. Nobody is playing better than Tony Finau at the moment and he has a lot of confidence too. But it’s a great course for Taylor. When he plays his game, he’s as good as anyone.”

Brooke Henderson won an LPGA Major at the Evian Championship in France last week – and she’s the all-time top Canadian golfer.

The two meter tall Pendrith in 237th place^th in the world in the men’s ranks and the two-meter-tall Leblanc at number 137 in women’s golf will probably never reach Henderson’s level, but their stories are just as compelling.

Never in history have Canadians won the LPGA and PGA tours on the same day. Unlikely, it could happen for two big hitters ranked outside the top 100 on Sunday – Leblanc tees off at 7:18am ET / 4:18pm PT while Pendrith tees off at 2pm ET / 11am PT.

If you admire hard work and underdogs, you’ll cheer for Leblanc and Pendrith.

“I’ll be watching both of them non-stop,” Ingram said. “I’m really excited about both of them.”