There are days when Brooke Henderson acknowledges almost wistfully that she “kind of misses” her former sports love, hockey, “a little bit.”

But Thursday was definitely not one of them.

Not when her name was atop the electronic leaderboard at the Lotte Championship and there were blue skies and 80-degree temperatures to be savored at Ko Olina instead of braving the ice storm bearing down on her hometown, Smiths Falls, Ontario.

The decision to forsake life in the crease as a goaltender six years ago, trading in her stick for a set of clubs and concentrating on golf, looked absolutely providential on a bogey-free run that tied a tournament record for the lowest 36-hole score (68-66—134).

Undeterred by the strong winds and early-morning raindrops, and wearing a green and yellow ribbon in memorial of the Humboldt hockey team killed in a bus accident last week, she shot a 4-under 66 Thursday.

The 20-year-old takes a two-stroke lead into today’s third round, chasing her sixth LPGA tournament victory with sister Brittany at her side as caddie.

Nine victories would make her the most successful Canadian ever in the LPGA, where Sandra Post won eight times.

It was the opportunity to excel at golf that ultimately pulled Henderson away from hockey, a sport she had played since age 8. Making Canada’s national golf team and playing in her first LPGA event at age 14 underlined where her talents — and future — were unmistakably pointed.

“I loved playing hockey growing up,” Henderson said. “The teammates and the friends that I made there I’ll have for life.”

Hockey had been part of the fabric of growing up in hockey-enthused Smiths Falls, a town of about 9,000 with three hockey rinks, she noted, proudly. And it had been in her heritage even if the man who put it there, her father, Dave, wasn’t recommending it to his daughter. Dave had played goaltender in college, but has said he discouraged Brooke because he thought his daughters “looked better with teeth.”

Initially Brooke had focused on figure skating, but when “they needed a goalie for the hockey team, I switched over the next year,” she said.

One year turned into another and before she knew it, Brooke was playing on the provincial championship team, “which was pretty cool,” she said.

Hockey did more than furnish her growing trophy case and fuel her competitive drive, however. It taught lessons and built strengths and stamina that would come in handy in golf. “Mentally I got a lot of strength from that growing up,” she said. “I was a goalie and everybody kind of depends on you. So you’re either the hero or you’re far from it. You know, mentally, I really developed really fast, I think, that way and physically as well, carrying around all that heavy equipment and skating with my teammates. “

The constant squatting with pads built strength. “You know, like off-ice training, practice on ice and, then, playing three times a week. So, that’s a lot.”

Looking back, Henderson, voted Canada’s female athlete of the year in a media poll, said, “I’m living my dream out here on the LPGA (Tour).”

And, as an added bonus, she gets to keep her teeth.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.