Three would indeed be a magic number for Brooke Henderson this week.
The 23-year-old earned a piece of history in her last visit to Hawaii when she matched the record for most wins for a Canadian golfer in successfully defending her Lotte Championship title in 2019.
She’ll chase another significant feat this week when she returns to West Oahu for a delayed shot at a third straight Lotte win, although she’ll have to navigate a different course to get there with the tournament’s move to Kapolei Golf Club.
“It’s definitely a rare opportunity, and so it would be nice to make the most of it,” Henderson said Tuesday. “But I’m just really excited for the chance. To be in this position is really cool.
“You can only do one shot at a time, especially on a different golf course. There is a lot of learning
to it. So just being patient and trying to stick to the game plan.”
Henderson has spent the past three days coming up with said game plan with her sister and caddie, Brittany, and opens her pursuit of becoming the first LPGA player in six years to earn three consecutive victories in an event — Inbee Park at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, 2013-15 — in today’s 1:01 p.m. tee time at No. 10.
Henderson is spending the week within sight of Ko Olina Golf Club, home of the Lotte Championship for its first eight years, where she finished no lower than a tie for 11th in four starts and shot a combined 49 under par.
She shot in the 60s in 10 of her 16 rounds at Ko Olina, with a low of 65 in the opening round in 2019 on her way to becoming the tournament’s first repeat champion. She finished at 12 under to win her first Lotte title in 2018 and improved by four shots the following year when she matched the Canadian record for wins.
Her chance for a third straight Hawaii win was pushed back when Lotte was canceled last year due to the pandemic, and the tournament was moved to Kapolei last month.
“I was a little disappointed when we changed golf course this year,” Henderson said. “I really loved the other one. But this one is great as well, really pretty, and we’ve spent the last three days trying to learn it the best we can and just trying to get a strategy together and hopefully the game is in a good spot come (this) afternoon.
“This golf course at first glance looks similar to Ko Olina, and you get out there and there are some slopes, elevated greens, which you don’t see as much at Ko Olina. Just like any time you’re playing in Hawaii it’s very windy and you just have to play smart and hopefully hit quality golf shots. But patience will definitely be a big key.”
Henderson enters the week ranked sixth in the world, with two top-10s this season as she seeks her first win since she claimed the ninth victory of her still young career
at the 2019 Meijer LPGA Classic.
She tied for 10th at the Kia Classic and is coming off a tie for 19th at the ANA Inspiration, the season’s first major, two weeks ago. While she dabbled with a left-hand-low putting grip on shorter putts at ANA, Henderson said she’s gone back to her normal grip for this week’s tournament.
“I think it’s just a good feel for me to have,” Henderson said. “But short game has always been something I’m working on since I was young. My strength has definitely been in the long game. If I can match the short game to how consistent I am with the long game I feel like really good things could happen in the future.”
