Orlando, Fla. — Brooke Henderson is more excited about the opening day of the new LPGA Tour season than the tough, waning days of last season.
Henderson, who has been swinging the club freely since October, shot a six-birdie 5-under 67 on Thursday to take a one-shot lead at the Hilton Grand Vacations tournament. Champions.
Henderson, who finished third at last year’s CME Globe, got off to a fast start with birdies on three of the first eight holes. She added three more with one bogey on the inside nine to take a one-shot lead over Nellie Korda, the top player in this week’s winners-only field, at the 2nd.
“It feels great, to get off to a hot start, it’s always a good feeling,” said Henderson, who won twice last season, including her second career major at the Evian Championships. “Over the next three days, I’m hoping to get more momentum and more birds to keep it going. If the conditions are going to stay as beautiful as they are, you’re going to need to be low here.”
A year ago, the players were in hoodies and layers in unseasonably cold Florida weather. Thursday was a nice, sunny day with temperatures in the high 80s.
While many players have been out for short periods, few have shown any signs of rust. In 2021 and 2022, 17 players broke even out of the 29-player field of LPGA winners.
In the year Korda, who won the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona in early 2021, nearly matched Henderson, making five birdies on a lone bogey in an opening 68.
In the mixed field, she played former MLB pitcher Derek Lowe, the defending champion of the elite-athlete division. There is a division for LPGA professionals and celebrities, each with their own prize fund. She and Lowe, paired for three rounds in this event a year ago, spent the day encouraging each other to make birdies.
“I’m rooting for her more,” Lowe said. “It’s great to play with her, I hope she wins.”
England’s Charlie Hull and first-time winners Gemma Dryberg (Scotland) and Ashley Buhay (South Africa) opened with 69s. Defending champion Danielle Kang played early on the leaderboard, but bogeys at 12 and 13 left her at 1-under 71, tied for ninth.
Henderson’s 2022 campaign ended with a whimper: She withdrew from her second-to-last start in November and crashed out for the seventh time at the CME Team Tour Championship in her hometown of Naples, Florida. After that, it was time for some rest, then for back recovery.
Henderson had a bag full of new clubs Thursday (so did Korda) and swung hard. Her only blemish was a bogey on the par-3 17th, where she missed an 8-iron short fan and up-and-down, but she got that shot right back on the 388-yard 18th for birdie. She piped her drive to the fairway (missing just two fairways), then hit the putt to 15 feet and converted her putt for one final birdie.
What about the back? Painless.
“Today was good, yeah nothing, I didn’t even think about it,” she said. “I’ll make sure I do the right thing tonight and tomorrow and the same in the future.
“It’s great to be able to be aggressive and do it again after a shot.”
Leading the celebrity class was a familiar name to all – 72-time LPGA champion Annika Sorenstam, a Lake Nona resident. In the year Sorenstam, the runner-up in 2022, collected 39 points in the revised Stableford scoring system, ahead of 2021 champion Mardy Fish in former tennis highlights.
Her husband and caddy, Mike Magee, told her when the round was over, it was her first bogey-free round in a while.
“It wasn’t in my mind, but I’m very happy to play here without a bogey,” Sorenstam said.