LPGA: Brooke Henderson debuting new driver
Brooke Henderson has misplaced rely of all of the tweaks and changes which were made to her driver heading into The Chevron Championship.
Henderson, from Smiths Falls, Ont., estimates that she’s tried over a dozen completely different shafts forward of Thursday’s first spherical at The Chevron, the primary main of the LPGA Tour season. The swap was vital as the ladies’s skilled golf circuit modified its guidelines so {that a} 46-inch shaft was the utmost size allowed, whereas the 24-year-old Henderson has used a 48-inch shaft since she was 15.
A whole lot of different adjustments have been made to Henderson’s driver, the signature weapon in her arsenal of golf equipment. However what have been these different changes?
“Um, good query,” stated Henderson with amusing on Wednesday after ending a pro-arm spherical at Mission Hills Golf Membership in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “Apart from it has a Ping head and the identical shaft however shorter than my 48, that is just about all I do know.”
Henderson stated she has been practising with the brand new, shorter membership main as much as The Chevron Championship, the place the rule will come into impact. She stated she has been holding the driving force nearer to the tip of the grip, which has additionally had a weight added to it.
“For additional questions on that you need to ask Ping or my consultant Scott,” stated Henderson, once more laughing. “However I do know that there is weight within the grip to assist with that feeling, as if I used to be choking up on the 48.”
Henderson has been on a tear to begin 2022, beginning with a second-place end on the Hilton Grand Holidays Event of Champions on Jan. 20. She adopted that up with a tie for sixth on the Gainsbridge LPGA at Boca Rio on Jan. 27, a tie for eleventh on the LPGA Drive on Championship at Crown Colony on Feb. 3, a tie for sixth on the HSBC Girls’s World Championship on March 3, and eventually a tie for fourth on the Honda LPGA Thailand on March 10 earlier than taking per week off.
Beginning 2022 with sturdy, constant play was a precedence for Henderson after final yr which she stated wasn’t her greatest. She stated that she labored along with her workforce within the low season on adjusting a number of elements of her play, past testing new drivers.
“Quick sport I feel is the place I felt like I may actually make the most important distinction in my sport,” stated Henderson. “So spending a whole lot of time across the greens and simply mentally, my mindset, was an enormous change as nicely.”
The Chevron Championship is also called the Dinah Shore, the singer and actress, who based the match in 1972. It has additionally passed by a number of sponsored titles together with the Nabisco Championship, Kraft Nabisco Championship, and ANA Inspiration.
No matter its title, this yr’s version of The Chevron Championship will probably be its final at Mission Hills. It should transfer to a brand new location for 2023, doubtless close to Houston.
Henderson stated she hopes she will soar into Poppie’s Pond on Sunday, a convention courting again to 1988 the place the match’s winner splashes into the water surrounding the 18th inexperienced.
“I feel that everybody that will get invited right here has that thought,” stated Henderson. “How would they soar? Or what that feeling can be like and the way the followers would react.”
EPSON TOUR
Hamilton’s Alena Sharp and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee are in the identical group on Thursday within the first spherical of the On line casino Del Sol Golf Traditional on the Sewailo Golf Membership in Tucson, Ariz. Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., is the opposite Canadian within the subject.
AUGUSTA NATIONAL WOMEN’S AMATEUR
Savannah Grewal of Mississauga, Ont., was tied for 59th at 7-over 79 on Wednesday after the primary spherical of the Augusta Nationwide Girls’s Beginner. The highest 30 gamers will make the lower after Thursday’s spherical to play in Saturday’s closing spherical on the storied golf course.
PGA TOUR
Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., returns to the Valero Texas Open on Thursday, which he received in 2019. The match was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. American Jordan Spieth received it in 2021. Conners is joined by Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor, each from Abbotsford, B.C., Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., and Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ont., at TPC San Antonio.
KORN FERRY TOUR
Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald is ranked sixty fourth on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour, transferring up from 117th after tying for ninth finally week’s Lake Charles Championship. He is taking part in once more this week on the Membership Automobile Championship at The Landings Membership in Savannah, Ga. David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., may even be within the subject.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed March 30, 2022.
