When Brooke and I were in Malaysia for the Maybank Championship this fall, we were getting ready for the weekly Wednesday Pro-Am, but we couldn’t find the cart to take us out to our starting hole. You know how chaotic it can be right before a shotgun start – everyone scurrying around trying to figure out where they’re going and how to get there.

I searched for the cart and finally found it, on its own, away from the lineup of carts assigned to each hole. I was hesitant to approach it as there were several police officers hovering near it. We didn’t know what was going on, but we quickly found out why we were getting special treatment – it turns out we were playing with the Prince and Princess of Malaysia!

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Brooke would go on to finish tied for sixth that Sunday after starting the week in the presence of the Royal Family of Malaysia – such a fun moment for us.

As our 2023 comes to a close, it’s time to get you caught up on everything before the holiday season.

Brooke ended up recording eight top-15 finishes this year including her victory at the first event of the year, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. It was a solid season for us, and the depth of extremely talented players on the LPGA Tour feels like it continues to grow every year. We started out really strong and had a lot of high points, but also had a handful of weeks that didn’t meet our expectations. That said, we learned so much this season! We were really resilient and really gritty out there. And sometimes, it’s the harder times that help you improve even more. Once you go on a good run, it’s easier to keep your positivity up and continue to drive forward. But we took things in stride this year and even with a few down weeks we ended up coming out strong.

Take the Amundi Evian Championship, for example. Brooke was the defending champion there this summer and nearly won again, eventually finishing second to Celine Boutier (who won four times this season, which was incredible!). That result came after a couple of weeks in the summer when we just didn’t have our ‘A’ game and we missed the cut. Coming off of a couple of disappointing results and bouncing right back the following Sunday afternoon to compete for a major championship, was very resilient. We got right back to a high level of play – competing in a major – that’s where you want to be. Golf has highs and lows, but it’s all part of the journey!

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That tournament, in Evian-Les-Bains, is always one of our favourites and after Brooke won last year it became even more special. It’s easy to love it there. The golf course is built into the side of a mountain and there’s natural beauty at every turn – the clear blue water of Lake Geneva, the towering French Alps and views of the expansive Swiss countryside across the lake. It’s a really special place.

Perhaps you’ve noticed over the years that Brooke is able to take it to another level in major championships. It’s no surprise that some of her best results this year came at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open. She’s consistent, hits it well off the tee, usually hits a lot of greens in regulation, and it feels like she’s built to perform on the biggest stages, in the toughest tests of golf.

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The U.S. Women’s Open this year was at Pebble Beach, which is such a renowned venue in the game. Growing up being a golfer, you hear so much about Pebble Beach and how great it is. For us to have never been there and then to go play it for the U.S. Open, it was a really cool experience. It’s hard to put into words because it’s just so iconic. Even to get the chance to visit Pebble is incredible, but to go there and play in an event of that magnitude was really amazing.

And talk about natural beauty – Pebble Beach and the Monterey peninsula embody the beauty of nature. The course is contoured into the coastline and the Pacific Ocean is your shadow on a number of holes. The area has a relaxing and quaint feel. Brooke and I stayed in downtown Carmel-By- The-Sea at a boutique inn. We were able to walk around town and window- shop many art galleries. It seemed as though many artists are inspired by the scenery there – even I was inspired to paint! Everywhere I looked I thought, ‘Oh, I would love to paint that.’ There were also amazing bakeries – my husband, Zach, and his mom joined us that week and they went to one bakery every day that always had a line out the door. We’re big fans of chai tea lattes, and they had a great one there!

From one West Coast event to another, we had a wonderful year playing in front of the Canadian fans at the CPKC Women’s Open in Vancouver. As CPKC Ambassadors, Brooke and I were so excited to see that the tournament was named the LPGA’s Tournament of the Year for the second year in a row! We know the Brooke Brigade was out there cheering us on, and we were happy to deliver a solid finish.

Playing in front of Canadian fans at the CPKC Women’s Open is always exciting and the energy is unlike anything else. I had a caddie tell me the next week, “Oh, we could hear you on the course on Sunday. We were thinking, ‘Is that the lead group? Are the leaders making a charge?’ And no, it was Brooke’s group.” It was fun to have that Sunday momentum when Brooke shot 5 under for her first nine holes, including an eagle-birdie-birdie run just before the turn. That was a week when Brooke really showed her grit and resiliency over four days. It was kind of funny to see her scores at the end of the week being so similar – 75-68-75-68 – but she really dug deep to find something that worked in order to go out there and shoot low. That was pretty impressive.

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We started the fall with a family trip to Banff, which was incredible! Then we got into the Asia swing where we played well and had a few unique experiences – including playing with royalty in Malaysia. We stayed right in downtown Kuala Lumpur for that tournament, and had the chance to see the city. We stayed next to the iconic Petronus Towers (you see them on almost every tourist photo of the city) and visited the huge mall there with all the big designers. While Brooke played well, it was a challenging week to be a caddy! It was extremely hot and humid. In fact, during one rain delay (it rains every afternoon there) I looked at my phone and saw it was 92 degrees Fahrenheit, but it felt like 113 degrees. I had never seen a temperature differential like that!

Alas, we returned to the U.S. for the final two events of the year and Brooke put a bow on her year with two more good finishes.

We’re really looking forward to playing alongside Corey Conners at the Grant Thornton Invitational to wrap up 2023 and see so many of the guys from the PGA TOUR play with some of the best in the women’s game.

After that, Brooke and I are looking forward to the holidays and time with our family. It’s been a long, but fun year! We’ll be back to work before you know it, though, as Brooke will be the defending champion at the first event of the season in January.

Thanks so much for following along this year, all your support, and here’s hoping you have a great holiday season too!