Welcome back to another year of On the Bag with Brittany! We’re thrilled to give you an inside look on how Brittany and Brooke Henderson travel the world, prepare for the biggest events on the LPGA Tour, and more. The pair has had an excellent start to 2024, so let’s get you caught up.
We’ll have more chats with Brittany as the year goes on. Stay tuned!
After the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore earlier this year, Brittany and Brooke Henderson took in a night of fun thanks to the biggest entertainer in the world – Taylor Swift.
“Everyone says how amazing it is, and it lived up to the hype,” Brittany says. “She didn’t even sound out of breath when she was sprinting across the stage. I don’t know how she was doing it! The stadium had a roof covering it, but there was open-air on the side, and you looked out and there’s the Singapore skyline on one end. It was a really cool experience.”
It’s been a springtime of cool experiences so far for Brooke and Brittany Henderson – and some fabulous play by the former. Brooke has notched five top-10 finishes including a tie for third at The Chevron Championship, the first major of the season.
Brittany, who has of course been right there step-by-step, says she feels like all aspects of Brooke’s game through the beginning of 2024 have been very good. Brittany points to Brooke’s new driver, the TaylorMade Qi10, as being a big help.
“She’s hitting it very well. Her accuracy has gone up a little and she feels like she can be confident over it. It feels like a really stable driver that can be there when you need it,” Brittany says.
Brittany says Brooke’s putting has been slowly getting better as the year chugs along and it all came together at The Chevron. Brooke needed just 23 putts in the third round that week en route to an 8-under 64 – setting the new tournament scoring record at Carlton Woods.
“From tee to green it’s been really good. On the green I feel like we’ve found something at Chevron. I feel like a lot of ‘putting’ is about confidence in the line you see, and you also need to be comfortable in your mind with rhythm and timing. It’s just a different level of not second-guessing, you’re just trusting it and hitting a confident stroke,” Brittany says.
“Brooke hit a lot of really great shots and gave herself some shorter putts for birdie and made a couple that were over 30 feet (in the third round). It was pretty cool!”
With just one major championship down and four to go – plus the CPKC Women’s Open and, of course, the Olympics – Brittany says kickstarting the heady summertime stretch with such a great result has been a wonderful feeling. Brittany can’t wait to see how Brooke does through the rest of the 2024 campaign as they tee it up at some big-time golf courses, including the iconic St. Andrews for the AIG Women’s Open.
“Something that I’ve always felt about her game is that Brooke is designed to play well on tough golf courses and the biggest stages. It feels like her game is well suited for that,” Brittany says. “We hit a lot of greens, a lot of fairways, and get it out there pretty good off the tee. All that, when you have a good gameplan, we usually are able to scout those courses well and realize what’s a good score and what you can shoot for.
“And it just makes you excited when you have a good result under your belt. It gives you a lot of confidence going forward.”
After the initial stretch in both Florida and Asia, Brooke played at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. She played well and just lost out at joining the quarter-finals. That golf course was “so difficult,” Brittany says, and they worked very hard at the beginning of the week on a tight game plan.
“It was the third tournament in a row so you’re tired from that, but we felt pretty solid about our game. It was just a matter of getting the knowledge about the course – which was important for me,” Brittany says.
It was still Vegas, though, and later in the week Brittany enjoyed a fabulous sushi dinner at Yellowtail, a venerable restaurant inside the Bellagio hotel with special views of the famous Bellagio fountains.
“I had driven by the fountains before, but I had never actually sat down and watched it. We saw a lot of different songs (played while the fountains went off) and it was a really cool experience!” Brittany says.
From the fountains in Vegas to Taylor Swift in Singapore (and the 18-hour flight home that followed – “It’s just a long time. They feed you a few times and I wake up hungry in the middle of the night because your body is like, I have no idea what time it is. I get at least seven hours on a long flight like that, I try to at least, but there was still 10 hours to go,” Brittany says with a laugh) it was a wonderful start to 2024.
And now, with some big tournaments ahead Brittany is hopeful – with Brooke sitting second in scoring average so far this season – a win is around the corner.
“This time of year, it’s not really time to make changes and I feel like our game is in a great spot where we don’t really need to either,” she says. “That’s a great feeling!”
I have followed you since you were 12 at the Eastern Ontario Women’s Tournament at Cataraqui when I walked behind you and your Dad. You were a talent then. I have been following you since. My granddaughter Scout was Captain of the Gaels Women’s Hockey this past year and would love to play on the Professional Women’s team! I know you played hockey as well and dreams do come true. You are a testament to that. All the best, Susan Southward