Canadians Leah John, Maude-Aimee Leblanc join Brooke Henderson on LPGA Tour in 2026

Leah John couldn’t stop calling friends and family members, screaming.

The Vancouver native was working her phone non-stop after qualifying for the LPGA Tour on Tuesday through the final qualifying tournament of the top-flight women’s golf circuit’s Q-Series. Veteran player Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., also earned a card through the qualifying process, joining Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., on the LPGA Tour for 2026.

“One of the best days of my life,” said John on Wednesday as she travelled back home. “But at the same time, it will take a couple of days to settle into the fact of it and really accept it and feel like I can hold that for myself.”

The 25-year-old John played on the second-tier Epson Tour in 2024 and 2025, winning this year’s Four Winds Invitational. She has made two previous starts on the LPGA Tour at the 2024 CPKC Women’s Open in Calgary and this past year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

John has four top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour over her career and made 19 cuts in 32 starts over her two seasons on that circuit.

“First people I called were my parents,” said John. “They were funny. They’re like, ‘we haven’t been able to work all day.’

“I called them because it is about you, but it’s also everybody else who’s been on the journey with you. That achievement is also theirs.”

The 36-year-old Leblanc first joined the LPGA Tour in 2012 but lost her card this past season after only making the cut three times in 10 starts. That forced her to go back through qualifying.

Henderson, 28, finished 27th on the LPGA Tour’s rankings, easily maintaining her card.

The winningest professional golfer in Canadian history, Henderson had a slow start to 2025 but turned her year around when she won the Women’s Open, Canada’s national championship, at Mississaugua Golf and Country Club in Mississauga, Ont.

John said she was excited to join the more experienced Leblanc and Henderson on tour.

“Oh, it is epic,” said John. “I really believe in the coaches at Golf Canada, especially, but even just the quality of talent in Canada.

“It’s always really nice to keep growing that. I’ve said this before, but I really want to bring some energy and character to the LPGA, and I think it’s nice to do that as a Canadian.”

GRANT THORNTON INVITATIONAL — Henderson and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., will team up once again for this week’s Grant Thornton Invitational. They’re the only Canadians in the field when the event, co-sanctioned by the LPGA and PGA Tours, tees off on Friday. Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., will host the 16 pairings in the three-day tournament.

DP WORLD TOUR — Aaron Cockerill of Stony Mountain, Man., is the lone Canadian in the field at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Royal Johannesburg Club in South Africa. It’s the fourth event in the opening swing of the European-based tour’s schedule.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025.