A re-energized Brooke Henderson raring to go at the U.S. Women’s Open after month off

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This article was published 29/05/2022 (941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a month away from the LPGA Tour, Brooke Henderson is hoping the extended break will have her in good form as she begins a busy summer stretch of tournaments.

Henderson — who hasn’t teed it up since the end of April — is back in action this week at the U.S. Women’s Open, the second major championship of the year on the LPGA Tour.

The 10-time Tour winner withdrew from the Lotte Championship in mid-April due to illness. She then missed the cut at both the DIO Implant LA Open — where she was the defending champion — along with the Palos Verdes Championship.

Her team confirmed she withdrew from the Cognizant Founders Cup due to illness. Henderson did not play the LPGA’s match play event last week in Las Vegas, but that was never going to be part of her 2022 schedule.

Now Henderson, who finished tied for seventh at least year’s U.S. Women’s Open, is raring to go again.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back out there,” Henderson told the Star. “When you’re not feeling well, trying to compete against the best in the world can be really difficult. Listening to your body and knowing when to take a step back is key for any athlete.”

This year’s U.S. Women’s Open begins Thursday at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. Henderson has never played the course before but finished tied for 10th at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2 — another Carolinian layout just 15 minutes away. That finish came when Henderson was still an amateur.

“We’ll try to take a similar approach as we do each week to a new course. We’ll try to get a feel for the course early on, make sure we get our numbers right, and we’ll map out a game plan,” said Henderson. “There is always a little bit more time and focus on the preparation work for a major given the difficult set up.”

New for 2022 is the U.S. Women’s Open partnership with ProMedica, a non-profit healthcare system that came on as the sponsor of the LPGA Tour’s biggest event in January and immediately increased the purse to $10 million (U.S.). The first-place prize, $1.8 million, is the most lucrative in women’s golf.

Henderson will not be the only big name returning at the U.S. Women’s Open. Nelly Korda, ranked second in the world, will tee it up at her first event since February. Korda was diagnosed with a blood clot in mid-March and forced to miss the first major of the year, The Chevron Championship, after having surgery.

Jennifer Kupcho won the Chevron by two shots and will be one of the favourites along with world No. 1 Jin Young Ko, Minjee Lee and defending champion Yuka Saso.

LPGA Tour legend Annika Sorenstam is playing her first U.S. Women’s Open since she retired 14 years ago. Sorenstam, who won 72 times on the LPGA Tour, earned a spot in the field thanks to her win at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open last year.

Henderson, meanwhile, will be looking for her second-career major championship. The product of Smiths Falls, Ont. had a sizzling start to her 2022 LPGA Tour campaign, finishing runner-up at the first tournament of the year and then notching five top-15 results in a row after that.

She finished tied for 13th at the first major of the year.

Henderson said she plans to play each of the three tournaments following the U.S. Women’s Open including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship — which she won in 2016 — in late June.

The LPGA Tour then has a two-week break before it resumes in mid-July. It will return to Canada for the first time since 2019 for the CP Women’s Open in Ottawa at the end of August.

Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que. and amateur Lauren Kim of Surrey, B.C. will complete the Canadian contingent at the U.S. Women’s Open. Leblanc and Kim earned their way in via pre-championship qualifiers.

Adam Stanley is an Ottawa-based contributor to the Star’s Sports section and the host of golf podcast Next Round’s On Me. Follow him on Twitter: @adam_stanley