Canada's Brooke Henderson looking to capitalize on momentum at AIG Women's Open

With the final major championship of the LPGA Tour season on tap, Brooke Henderson is looking to capitalize on some serious momentum.

The Canadian, who finished runner-up at the Amundi Evian Championship two weeks ago in her title defence, said she’s trying to be as tuned up as possible for this time on the calendar – a stretch of events that includes two majors plus the CPKC Women’s Open in Vancouver.

This week marks the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath, just outside of London, and she’s hoping to see her major-championship schedule end with a bang.

“It’s always satisfying to see hard work pay off with a good finish. While you want to see strong results every week, I try to focus on process and working toward bigger goals,” Henderson told Sportsnet. “It is an important part of the schedule, and I am hoping to build off the momentum to get off to a good start this week.” 

Henderson, by her own admission, has had an up-and-down 2023 campaign. She sits ninth in the world and continues to re-write the Canadian golf record books but has notched just two top-10 finishes this season. That said, the first top-10 of the year came in the first tournament of 2023 – which she won.

The native of Smiths Falls, Ont.’s major-championship resume this season has been solid. She hasn’t finished outside the top 25 at any major since the Women’s Open in 2020 – her first event back after a multi-month break due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In nine of the last 10 majors, she’s finished inside the top 20.

The Women’s Open is the lone major where Henderson hasn’t performed up to her usual standard in her career with just one top-10 result. However, her best-career finish at this major, a tie for seventh, came last season.

“Every year I'm over here, I'm trying to soak it in and learn different styles and just to be patient in the conditions,” Henderson said a year ago. “I think just did a great job with calculating numbers and when things didn't go so well, just staying patient and waiting for the birdies to come.”

After Henderson finished runner-up at the Evian Championship two weeks ago she stayed in London for an extra week of UK-golf preparation. Walton Heath, the iconic venue for this year’s Women’s Open, hosted the 1981 Ryder Cup along with a DP World Tour event for more than a decade.

The LPGA Tour’s best will play a composite course made up of 16 holes from Walton Heath’s Old Course and Nos. 12 and 13 from the New Course. While the men exclusively play The Open Championship on links courses, Walton Heath is considered a heathlands layout.

Henderson said the keys for her this week will be to adapt to the conditions and getting her distances dialled in. While Henderson is 26th in greens in regulation this season (she was fifth last year) she hit just over 72 percent of her greens at the Evian Championship, the previous major on the calendar, which is back up to her usual solid ball-striking. That’ll be important again this week.

She also has a chance to win the Rolex Annika Major Award if she wins and Allisen Corpuz – the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open – finishes sixth or worse.

“Like any major championship, it is important to manage your game and emotions to put yourself in a good position over the weekend, but Walton Heath should be a great major test,” Henderson said.

To win her third major, however, Henderson is going to need to top a field chock-full of the best in the world including the hottest golfer on the planet right now – Celine Boutier.

The Frenchwoman who topped Henderson by six to win the Evian Championship then backed up her major triumph with another win on the LPGA Tour at the Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open the next week. She’s now up to fourth in the world after becoming the first to win back-to-back this season. Could she imagine winning a third in a row?  

“To be fair, (the odds to win) two in a row is already pretty low, so I know three […] it would be unbelievable if it happens, but I'm just not going to put a lot of pressure on myself about that,” Boutier said. “I'm honestly trying to put some good rounds together and see at the end.”

Ashleigh Buhai will look to successfully defend her AIG Women’s Open title from a year ago. The South African, who works with Canadian short-game coach Gareth Raflewski, won in a dramatic, multi-hole playoff that ended at dark against In Gee Chun for her first major title.

“I feel any time I step into a tournament, if my game is there, what happened last year has given me the confidence to believe that I can win if I'm playing well, and that's proven over the last year what I've been able to do,” Buhai said.

Henderson, the lone Canadian in the field, and Buhai will be grouped together for the first two rounds along with newly-minted superstar Rose Zhang. Zhang won her first start as a pro in June, becoming the first person since 1951 to do that on the LPGA Tour. The trio tees off at 7:49 a.m. ET. Announced Wednesday, the AIG Women’s Open purse has been increased 23 percent to $US9 million – the highest total prize fund in tournament history.