Henderson looking for big things in 2025

Brooke Henderson is hoping to see a few more putts go in the hole in 2025.

Literally.

As the Smiths Falls, Ont., product gets set to start her 11th season on the LPGA Tour, she will do so wearing contact lenses for the first time. She had been wearing glasses since the 2023 CPKC Women’s Open in Vancouver.

“I’m not wearing glasses anymore and that has really seemed to help,” said Henderson. “The glasses always seemed to be in the way a little bit. Like looking down the line and even on long shots, I could always see the frame a little bit, which was a little bit annoying. And I think it might have even changed my swing a little bit unfortunately.”

Henderson will wear the lenses when she plays the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Fla., starting Thursday. It’s a tournament where she’s had tremendous success, with a win, a second and third-place finish in her last three starts. That victory was the last time she raised a trophy after going winless last year.

The 2024 season saw her fall to 24th in the world rankings from 12th. She did post nine top-10 finishes, but five of those came in the first eight events of the year. The latter part of the year saw her post inconsistent results along with missing the cut at both the U.S. Open and the AIG Women’s Open, both majors.

After partnering with Corey Conners in the Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed-team event, she settled into some time where she and her team tried to get her back on track.

Henderson worked with her father, who serves as her coach, and sister, Brittany, who serves as her caddie, but is an accomplished golfer on her own, to try and tune up the small parts of her game that she wants to improve.

She will do that with some new gear. She has put a new TaylorMade Qi35 driver and hybrid in the bag. They will go with a new putter and irons she switched to late last season.

The putter showed some promise late in the year. It’s a heel-shafted model which is different than the centre-shafted ones she’s been using for much of the last few years.

“For me, when the putter is rolling well, I'm usually in the mix, so that's definitely been a focus point throughout any entire career and just trying to fine tune, get better,” she stated.

Another focus for Henderson will be to get off to faster starts.

“I think the main thing for me is trying to get off to a little bit quicker starts on Thursday, Friday,” she said. “To allow myself a better opportunity to be in the final groups on the weekend.”

Last season, Henderson only broke 70, 10 times on Thursday and six times on Friday in her 24 starts. It meant that most weekends she was playing catch up, which is not an easy task on the LPGA Tour.

“I would love to be in contention a little bit more,” she added. “I would love to have the opportunity on the weekends, especially Sunday afternoons, to be right in the mix and hopefully post another trophy here soon. Been a little while since this event in 2023. Definitely feeling it a little bit.”