Brooke Henderson’s wire-to-wire win provides ‘dream start’ to 2023 LPGA season
Posted Jan 23, 2023 08:00:00 PM.
Brooke Henderson’s never won The Northern Star Award as Canada’s top athlete but given the way she’s busted out of the gates in 2023 – and especially with how 2022 ended – there’s a chance this could be her biggest year yet.
Henderson won the season-opening event on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, by four shots on Sunday, Jan. 22. She won in wire-to-wire fashion for the third time in her career and the 13th time overall.
Thirteen times. At 25 years old.
She’s won two majors – including last year’s Amundi Evian Championship – but her win Sunday may have been the most impressive top-to-bottom effort of her career.
“Coming into this week I couldn't have asked for anything more,” said Henderson. “It was kind of the dream start, which is really exciting looking forward to the rest of 2023.
Expectations were low to start the week. Henderson had withdrawn from the second-to-last event of the 2022 LPGA Tour season and used a “manufactured” swing, she said, to compete in the season finale. She hurt her upper back last fall and she said this week was the first time she was swinging at 100 percent since last October.
Not only that, but Henderson got her wisdom teeth in November and spent most of the time leading into the holiday season only being able to chip and putt.
While Henderson did ask her oral surgeon if there was a correlation between her teeth and her back, she confirmed the doctor said no – although she likely made some compensation with swing due to her teeth pain – which compounded everything else.
Wire-to-wire victory for @BrookeHenderson
