December of this year marks the 10th anniversary of Brooke Henderson turning pro. Since then, she’s amassed 13 LPGA Tour titles – the most wins by a Canadian on either the LPGA or PGA Tour – including two majors. And inspired a legion of fans.
But as Henderson is on the cusp of starting her 2024 campaign she’s showing no signs of being any less motivated for success.
“It’s been a lot of fun for me,” Henderson said, “and hopefully the best is yet to come.”
Henderson is the defending champion at this week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Fla. She led wire-to-wire last year and won by four over Maja Stark and Charley Hull. Her win in the first event of the season came after she switched equipment manufacturers from Ping to TaylorMade. She had used the former since she was a young teenager.
This year she’ll come into the first event of the year with, essentially, a whole new bag again. She switched out her irons to a different TaylorMade model in November and starts 2024 with a new driver, new fairway woods, and a new putter.
“It’s been a really big change the last two months,” Henderson said. “I feel like my game is in a pretty good spot right now – new equipment and new season – so there is a lot of positives.”
Henderson hoped that her win in the first event of the year would be a harbinger of things to come for the balance of 2023 – another major title, perhaps? Getting to No. 1 in the world? – alas, it was not to be. The win for the native of Smiths Falls, Ont. was her lone title. She didn’t notch another top-10 result until the end of July and ended the year with just three top-10s total.
She also sported some medical tape around her thumb and wrist for the final few events of 2023 and again on the first day of 2024 citing a thumb injury that had bothered her since 2017. The injury “bugged her a little bit more” last summer and Henderson said she’d continue to work with the LPGA’s physiotherapists to lessen the pain through the year.
Bothersome thumb and less-than-her-standard results aside, there were a few marked improvements for Henderson in 2023.
She had more under-par rounds than the year prior and moved from 71st on Tour to 46th in putting average – a nice jump in the part of her game she most often works on.
The big difference for Henderson through 2023 came with her ball striking. She was 28th in greens in regulation last year – a stat she’s long been a stalwart in the top five in – and her scoring average was three-quarters of a shot higher in 2023 than in 2022.
Henderson’s new irons from the end of last year spurred on some ball-striking successes, she said, and she knows dropping her scoring average will be key through 2024.
“I’ve always wanted to win (the Tournament of Champions) so that was really big. Then the rest of the year I maybe didn’t play quite as well as I would’ve liked,” Henderson said. “So, coming into 2024 I’m excited to get started again. Hopefully lower my scoring average a little bit which will hopefully put me in contention more times throughout the year on the weekend.
“That’s all you really want – an opportunity to win or an opportunity to be great.”
This week’s Tournament of Champions is a light way to start the year, with just 43 LPGA Tour pros (winners from tournaments the last two seasons) playing alongside celebrities from the screen, music, and sports. Henderson said she was starstruck a few years ago when she had the chance to tee it up with Vince Carter, the long-time Toronto Raptor.
While she’ll ease into the season, the biggest events of the year are right around the corner. The LPGA Tour has five major championships on its schedule (Henderson counts the CPKC Women’s Open, this year being played in Calgary, as her sixth major) and Henderson is also a lock to represent Canada at the Olympics for the third time.
“A lot of the weeks I feel I’m excited for. It’s going to take a little bit of planning and scheduling to make sure that I can try my best to peak for some of the top events in the middle of the summer,” Henderson said.
Henderson last played in competition in mid-December alongside Corey Conners at the Grant Thornton Invitational (the first co-sanctioned event between the LPGA and PGA Tours since 1999) where the Canadian duo finished second after a final-round charge. Her off-season was short – Henderson said she just viewed it as “a few weeks off” – and included a trip home to Canada plus a commercial shoot for TaylorMade where she sat beside Tiger Woods at breakfast.
But it’s time to get back to work in a very special – and important – year.
“I think perspective is a great thing and being able to step back every once in a while and just be grateful for how far my team and I have come then also get back into the moment and see what we can do in the future,” Henderson said. “I’m just hoping I can keep the momentum I had near the end of the season and bring it right into 2024.”