What’s the secret behind Brooke Henderson’s return to the winner’s circle?

Brooke Henderson was compelled to make a membership change earlier this 12 months, switching to a shorter driver when the LPGA Tour modified their laws. She made the adjustment by way of gritted enamel.

However a current tweak she made from her personal volition has began to repay in a giant manner. Henderson, who received the ShopRite LPGA Basic two weeks in the past and tied for tenth final week on the Meijer LPGA Basic, stated a pivot in her placing grip has made all of the distinction.

“We simply felt it might be a good suggestion to assist clear up a few of the placing points that I used to be having,” stated Henderson, who’s on the Ladies’s PGA Championship this week. “It’s been understanding rather well. Getting the win a few weeks in the past is a big confidence enhance and large momentum with the putter.”

The Smiths Falls, Ont., native putted for a very long time with a extra conventional grip: Her arms have been within the regular place for a right-handed golfer, and her ring and pinky fingers of her proper hand have been wrapped round her pointer and center fingers of her left hand. Now, she’s switched her arms on the grip and the left one is decrease.

She’s additionally moved to a Ping prototype putter the place the shaft is straight up from the centre of the face. Her earlier putter had a gooseneck shaft on the backside of the top.

“Positively extra assured left-hand low, and it is undoubtedly quite a bit completely different than what I used to be doing earlier than,” Henderson stated.

The 24-year-old’s profession on the LPGA Tour up to now has been nothing wanting spectacular. She has a serious and the CP Ladies’s Open amongst her 11 match titles, greater than another Canadian golfer on both the PGA or LPGA excursions. However she is the primary to confess her brief recreation has wanted further work.

It has paid off this 12 months, Henderson is 79th on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained by way of placing, a leap of 28 spots from 2021, and she or he had jumped to fifty fifth in placing common from 111th.

“I feel a number of it was simply psychological, to be trustworthy,” Henderson stated, “however altering one thing small bodily can actually provide you with a number of confidence in several methods generally, and generally that’s all that you must get rolling once more.”

Henderson began her 2022 marketing campaign with aplomb, ending runner-up on the opening occasion of the 12 months after which rattling off six finishes no worse than thirteenth. She was sidelined with an sickness for a month after lacking two straight cuts, however she returned on the U.S. Ladies’s Open, the place she tied for fifteenth. That was the primary week she used the brand new putter. Her win on the ShopRite LPGA Basic got here the week after.

“I feel it’s nice to have some momentum going into a serious championship and having the win simply two weeks in the past after which being again in rivalry at Meijer was a number of enjoyable for me,” Henderson stated. “I really feel like I’ve rested (Monday) and (Tuesday morning) so I really feel like I’m getting again to the place I wanted to be to be at my greatest this weekend.”

Henderson’s lone main triumph got here on the 2016 Ladies’s PGA Championship, and regardless of the very fact this championship modifications venue yearly, there’s simply one thing about it that jives with the Canadian. She has by no means missed the lower and solely completed outdoors the highest six as soon as between 2015 and 2020.

“I’m at all times very excited to return again to this occasion,” Henderson stated. “Pulling into the previous champion parking area that they’ve for me … it is simply actually cool. Within the locker room, ‘Previous Champion’ is on my locker, too. Simply a number of little perks and nice reminders of what a particular week it was again in 2016. I feel I’ve simply fed off a number of nice recollections and hopefully I can do the identical this week.”

The Ladies’s PGA Championship is being hosted at Congressional Nation Membership, simply outdoors Washington, D.C., for the primary time. Male professionals have performed a handful of their greatest occasions on the membership, together with the 2011 U.S. Open received by Rory McIlroy. The PGA of America introduced Tuesday that the purse has been doubled to $9 million (U.S.).

Henderson stated the chance to play big-time programs for a big-time purse is one thing she’s grateful for.

“It’s so grand, and the whole lot is immaculate, and this appears like a major-championship golf course.”

SHARE: