Henderson stays hot, leads by four in Orlando
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After 36 holes, Brooke Henderson is showing little signs of rust from the off-season or lack of comfort in her new clubs. As a result, the Canadian is 36 holes from notching the 13th victory of her career at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
That, she stated, would be a great way to kick off the new season.
“I think that's the goal of probably everybody here, to get off to a hot start,” said Henderson, who eased her way through the Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida. “I'm just grateful to be putting up good scores, lots of birdies, and it hasn't been too many issues the last two days.
“So hopefully just going into the weekend I can just make a bunch of birdies, try to go low, and see what happens.”
Henderson opened up a four-shot lead on Nelly Korda and five over Wei-Ling Hsu and Charley Hull.
The Smiths Falls, Ont., product propelled herself up the leaderboard quickly on Friday. She birdied the second through fifth holes, hitting it close and rolling in putts. That stretch included a par 5, two par 4s and a par 3, showing that her game doesn’t seem to have any weak spots at the moment.
She added two more birdies on the back nine, the first on the 12th hole after a brilliant approach shot and another on the par-5 15th where she played a crafty chip from an awkward lie for her third, setting up an easy putt.
“It was a lot of fun to get four consecutive birdies on the front nine,” said Henderson. “Really kept the momentum going. To finish the back nine with two birdies too felt, well, nice.”
While pretty much every club in the bag is working, Henderson’s putter has been red hot. She used it 27 times on Thursday and just once more on Friday. When she’s not holing long putts, which she’s done often, she’s leaving herself stress-free short tap-ins. She’s had just a single three-putt in two days. Putting has been a key in her past victories and she’s averaged under 30 putts per round in all 12 titles.
“I love the feel of it,” Henderson stated. “Right way I was really fond of my new putter, and it's been working well so far this week. I think in the off-season I did a lot of putting and chipping originally when I couldn't do full swings, so I think that has been paying off a little bit as well. The putter feels good right now.”
Off the tee, one of Henderson’s strengths, she’s averaging 263 yards. That’s just a few yards below last year’s average indicating no significant loss of distance. She’s also finding the fairways, missing just six so far.
The 25-year-old heads into the weekend attempting to do something she’s only accomplished in one of her previous 12 victories and that’s lead wire-to-wire. She’ll not only be up against a tough field of challengers but Mother Nature who is bringing cooler temperatures and rain into the Orlando area for the weekend.