View photos of Brooke Henderson throughout her career, including multiple major wins.
Brooke Henderson is one of the many young stars that shine on the LPGA Tour.
Beginning her professional career at just 17 years old, Henderson has been the face of Canadian golf since her LPGA debut in 2015.
Earning LPGA starts through Monday qualifiers and sponsor exemptions, Henderson made history when she won the 2015 Cambia Portland Classic by eight strokes. The margin of victory was the largest on Tour since 2012 and Henderson became just the second Monday qualifier ever to win an LPGA event.
In 2016, she became the second youngest women’s major winner when she won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in a playoff over Lydia Ko.
Shadoff won for the first time in her 246th start last year to qualify for the Tournament of Champions field.
The first time Jodi Ewart Shadoff met her husband Adam was during her sophomore year at the University of New Mexico. Adam, a local TV reporter, interviewed Jodi after that first round in Albuquerque, and as the young Englishwoman kept playing well, they kept talking.
That conference victory eventually led to a date that led to a lifetime of conversations. But after college, the next time Adam found himself working a tournament with Jodi in the field was last week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando. Adam, a sports anchor and reporter at FOX 35 Orlando, came out to media late last year at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.
Jodi, who won for the first time in her 246th start last year at the Mediheal Championship to qualify for the TOC field, was part of the pre-tournament interview panel. At the end of the session, a colleague in the room asked, “Nothing from you Adam? You’re not going to ask a question?”
Adam looked to his wife and jokingly asked, “Who’s the best sports anchor in Orlando?”
“She said ‘Get out of here,’ ” said Adam, smiling, “and she walked away. It was funny.”
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The Shadoffs, who recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, live less than 25 minutes from Lake Nona. Jodi, who plays out of the Ritz in town, isn’t a member at Lake Nona, which was the case for several in the field, but this was as close to a home game that she could hope for. In fact, when Shadoff finally broke through with her first victory last year in California, the TOC was one of the first things that came to mind.
“It’s pretty pure,” said Shadoff of Nona. “It’s probably one of the best courses we get to play all year, in my opinion.”
In the second round, she played alongside Brian Urlacher, a fellow Lobo and NFL Hall of Famer. It was the first time the two former UNM standouts had met.
“It was funny,” said Jodi, “walking down one of the early holes he goes, ‘Did you go to UNM? I’m like, yeah. He’s like, so did I. I’m like, yeah, I know. You were like the legend.’
Adam wasn’t working in the studio the day Jodi won the Mediheal. He thought about flying out for the final round to surprise Jodi.
“I thought, if I show up and she doesn’t win,” he said, “I’m going to feel like a huge jerk. So, in the end, I didn’t go.”
He only started to relax back home in the living room after she hit the green on No. 18 in regulation. The joy of that moment was felt coast-to-coast.
The couple recently took a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during Jodi’s brief offseason. The Englishwoman likes to get out in the snow at least once a year.
“I don’t ski because I can barely walk around without getting injured,” she said with a laugh.
Given how good things were going at the end of last season, Jodi didn’t want to “lose the feels” she had after her best year on tour and took off less than two weeks. She was soon back to work with her instructor, former PGA Tour winner Grant Waite, who said they mostly focused on ways to be more efficient.
“We spent quite a bit of time talking about flighting the ball a little bit more,” he said, “putting some curves on curves off, trajectory control, stuff like that. … Again, for her it’s not about reinventing the wheel, just making it turn a little bit better here and there.”
Short game was another area of focus. Jodi, one of the best ball-strikers on tour, finished last season ranked 3rd in greens hit in regulation, 60th in driving distance and 20th in driving accuracy. She was 88th in putts per green in regulation.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff reacts on the 18th green after winning the 2022 LPGA Mediheal Championship at The Saticoy Club in Somis, California. (Photo: Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
While she prefers to focus on smaller goals, there’s no doubt that the 2023 Solheim Cup in Spain is on her mind.
“I would love to represent Europe for a fourth time,” she said, “and under Suzann (Pettersen), I think that would be a lot of fun.”
Adam covered the TOC several days early in the week but took the weekend off to walk around Lake Nona with his wife. Jodi finished tied for 18th in her TOC debut, and because an LPGA victory guarantees a start in that tournament for two years, she’ll be back.
“Again, that’s what I think everybody loves about this game. It brings out a different type of nerve.”
ORLANDO — The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions awards LPGA players who have hoisted trophies over the past two seasons. But it’s also billed as the biggest party on tour, with 56 celebrities playing alongside 29 LPGA pros. There’s a DJ next to the 18th green in the mega hospitality build, and nightly concerts are held in the shadow of the official player hotel.
This year there were 14 newcomers to the celebrity field, which features a blend of professional athletes and entertainers. Notables include past champions Mardy Fish (2021), Derek Lowe (2022) and John Smoltz (2019, 2020).
Here’s what some had to say about why they love this game, dealing with pressure and what they learn from the LPGA’s best:
This week is Henderson’s first event using new clubs.
Brooke Henderson had never played alongside Annika Sorenstam until this week. Two rounds later, Sorenstam was quick to praise Henderson’s steady, even-keel performance.
“I think that was one of my strengths, a lot of fairways, a lot of greens,” said Sorenstam, one of the best to ever play the game.
Henderson has certainly made a strong first impression on the 10-time major winner, taking a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions over Nelly Korda and Nasa Hataoka, who posted a sizzling 66 on Saturday that included six birdies in her last eight holes.
Henderson, a 12-time winner on the LPGA, has a 41 percent success rate on the LPGA when holding the lead.
Henderson called it a privilege to play alongside Sorenstam at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, the Swede’s home for decades. She trails former tennis player Mardy Fish by 15 points in the celebrity division, which uses a Stableford format.
“If I can just take little pieces of her game and add it to mine,” said Henderson, “that would be phenomenal.”
What impressed Henderson the most about the 72-time LPGA winner?
“I think just the toughness,” said Henderson. “She’s a tough competitor, and I really admire that about her.”
Henderson looks to win the season-opening TOC in her first week using a full bag of TaylorMade equipment at an LPGA event.
“I wasn’t as smooth out there today,” said Henderson of her third-round 69, “but I feel like we fought it out pretty well. I still was hitting the ball very well and giving myself a lot of opportunities, so no complaints there.”
A birdie putt on the ninth hole propelled No. 2 Korda to post four more birdies on the back nine and shoot 4-under 68. Korda won the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona.
“You know, my style of play is pretty aggressive,” said Korda, “so I wasn’t really hitting it too great on the front nine. I was hitting it fine. I was just missing pretty much my spot by a couple of yards here and there, and obviously, that goes from 10 feet to maybe 15, 20 feet. Right there, that’s kind of a little bit of the problem.
“On the back nine, I kind of picked a target, a little bit more of an aggressive target and really dialed into that, and I think that really helped.”
Three birdies in four holes 👏 @NellyKorda is making her move in Orlando
Stark will enter the final round at Lake Nona five back of Brooke Henderson.
Maja Stark took three days off during the offseason, and she spent those days counting down the minutes until she could get back out there.
“I was just waiting,” she said. “I was like, can I go now? Can I go to the course now?”
Stark, who enters the final round of the Hilton Grand Tournament of Champions five strokes behind leader Brooke Henderson, played her way onto the LPGA with a victory last season at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland.
The 23-year-old Swede reports that she’s loving golf more than ever these days. So much so that she stopped throwing clubs.
“I just told my caddie, ‘I love this day,’” said Stark after the second round. “He goes, yeah, I mean, he said he had to call my mom, has to call my mom and ask what happened to Maja. She’s not throwing clubs. She’s being kind of fun. Not too mad.
“Yeah, I don’t know what has happened. I don’t know.”
When asked for the last time she threw a club, Stark said the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
“First, a 60-degree (wedge) and next hole after, I threw a hybrid,” she said.
Maja Stark of Sweden poses for a photograph with the trophy after winning the Women’s ISPS Handa World Invitational on Day Four of the ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics at Galgorm Castle and Massereene Golf Clubs on August 14, 2022 in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Stark’s victory at the ISPS came one week after heartbreak at Muirfield when she closed with a 79 at the AIG Women’s British Open. On the Monday after Muirfield, Stark said she sat in the golf course restaurant in Northern Ireland and cried for two hours over the phone with her mental coach.
“I mean, I cried so much that like my ribs got locked,” she said, “like they were so strained. I’ve never cried that much in my life, so that was pretty interesting. I think it was good because I didn’t have the energy to do my chicken wing that I usually do so, I think my technique got better honestly.”
By Sunday, she was in the winner’s circle at the LET and LPGA co-sanctioned event.
Life changed overnight, and now, she can’t stop smiling.
ORLANDO, Florida – Gemma Dryburgh broke through in Japan last fall to claim her first LPGA victory and qualify for this week’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. There’s something noticeably different, however, about her look this week: She’s wearing a blank hat.
“I guess it’s a message that it’s open,” said Dryburgh, of the blank billboard on her head.
When Scotland’s Dryburgh, 29, earned her LPGA card for the 2018 season, the rookie asked Callaway for some hats. She’d been playing Callaway clubs since high school but hadn’t actually signed with the company. She was wearing their hat for free.
“I didn’t mind supporting them,” she explained, “and they support me a lot with clubs. But I think it’s time to get paid for the hat.”
Dryburgh said her agent is currently in talks with one potential sponsor. While the value of a player’s hat varies greatly, Dryburgh estimates she’s looking at north of $20,000.
“It’s so nice to be able to actually have expenses maybe covered before the season starts,” she said of a luxury she has yet to experience in her career thus far, and she’s not quite there yet either.
Mel Reid is feeling a little less pressure after finishing third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. (Gabe Roux/LPGA)
Dryburgh is hardly the first, of course, to be in the market for a hat sponsor. Veteran Solheim Cup player Mel Reid wore a blank hat at big events in the summer of 2019. Meg Mallon won the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open wearing a USGA hat.
Dryburgh won the 2022 Toto Japan Classic last year by four strokes and finished 34th on the CME points list and 45th on the money list with $662,000. That’s more than three times what she’d earned in her previous four seasons on tour combined.
ORLANDO, Florida – Nelly Korda woke up 30 minutes before her alarm went off on Friday to watch her brother Sebastian take on No. 7 Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open. She was in player dining when he pulled off the upset in three sets.
Mardy Fish, Sebastian’s Davis Cup captain, was up at 5 a.m. to watch him play.
“He’s a great kid and I root for him like crazy,” said Fish, who leads the celebrity division at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after a sparking 5-under 67 at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Fish pulled nine points ahead of home-course favorite Annika Sorenstam in the Stableford format.
Nelly, an eight-time winner on the LPGA, objected to the notion.
“It’s complete BS,” she said. “He’s the best. Honestly, he’s the best. His hand-eye coordination is unbelievable. His swing – I’m jealous of his swing actually. It’s crazy. He’s a lefty. He’s a natural righty, but he plays golf lefty. He played hockey lefty. I mean, he grew up playing hockey. He was pretty good at it, too. Like he skates really nicely, plays golf nicely, plays tennis beautifully.
“He’s full of s**t. Excuse my French.”
Sebastian Korda of the US celebrates after victory against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev during their men’s singles match on day five of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 21, 2023. (Photo by Paul Crock/AFP via Getty Images)
Petr Korda won the 1998 Australian Open and Nelly’s big sister, Jessica, made the 2012 Women’s Australian Open her first LPGA title. Mom Regina, a former Olympian, was a strong player in her own right before an injury took her out of the game.
“Their dad is very strict with their schedule, Petr is,” said Fish of his time captaining Sebastian, “and so I understood that and respected that.”
Nelly carded a 3-under 69 in the second round at the TOC and trails Brooke Henderson by four strokes heading into the weekend. Nelly, a major champion and Olympic gold medalist and the current world No. 2. won the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA event here at Lake Nona, one week after her sister Jessica won the 2021 TOC. Jessica, a six-time winner on the LPGA, battled a back injury late last season and will begin her 2023 campaign next month in Thailand.
As for Sebastian’s golf swing, Nelly marvels at his pure athletic talent.
“It’s funny, he swings it lefty which is really nice,” she said. “He doesn’t change his hands and he swings it righty and still pures it. Yeah, it’s just, he’s special. He’s one of a kind.”
ORLANDO, Florida – Brooke Henderson first started feeling pain in her upper back at the Aramco Series event in New York last October. It was a slow build-up, she said, until the pain reached its peak at the Pelican Women’s Championship in November, where she withdrew after the first round.
At the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, she manufactured a swing that got her through the tournament and, soon after, she had her wisdom teeth removed. Henderson, 25, does believe there might be a small connection between the two health concerns, though her oral surgeon didn’t seem to think so. After some time away from everything, she began to strengthen her back and reports that it “feels really good right now.”
She’s able to be aggressive again with her new bag of TaylorMade equipment, and she likes what she sees. Playing alongside the legendary Annika Sorentam for the first time, Henderson fired a 6-under 66 on Friday at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and jumped to a four-shot lead over Nelly Korda.
“I said ‘good shot’ many times,” said Sorenstam, who trails Mardy Fish by nine points in the tournament’s celebrity division, which uses a Stableford scoring format.
Henderson, the winningest Canadian golfer in history, got off to a scorching start, making four birdies in a row to begin her second round. She’s at 11 under for the tournament. England’s Charley Hull and Wei-Ling Hsu are five shots back at 6 under. Defending champion Danielle Kang trails by seven.
“I feel like a lot of things have been working really well, especially the wedges,” she said. “Feels really nice to be able to feel aggressive, and they’re holding really well, which is sort of a new thing for me.
“On No. 2, I was able to spin it back, which is also a great feeling.”
Last year, Henderson lost a good deal of distance with her driver after the LPGA chose to implement the USGA’s new Model Local Rule, which forced her to switch from a 48-inch driver to one that’s 46 inches.
Henderson, a 12-time winner on the LPGA had used a 48-inch driver for her entire career on tour. Known for her aggressive style, power and the way she chokes down on her clubs, Henderson finished ninth on tour in driving distance in 2021 with an average of 274 yards. Last year she dropped to 25th on the list, averaging 267 yards.
The new TaylorMade ball and Stealth 2 Plus 9-degree driver, she said, have helped her get some of it back.
Annika Sörenstam of Sweden looks on after her shot on the 18th tee during the second round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club on January 20, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
Sorenstam was asked to weigh in on the length of Henderson’s swing after their first round together.
“I know she has this little drop-kick,” said Sorenstam, “but she hits it out there. She gets some good distance, some good carry.
“A lot of times when we look at people and people say, ‘Hey, give me swing advice.’ If she wasn’t a professional, we probably would tell somebody, ‘Hey, shorten your swing a little bit.’ But somebody like that, you just don’t want to touch it. She’s got good feel and good touch and she hits it a long ways, so it works perfectly for her.”
“I’m very happy where I am. But the competitive part doesn’t go away.”
ORLANDO, Florida — Annika Sorenstam put together her first bogey-free round in more than a decade to open the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, where she leads the celebrity division. Caddie Mike McGee was quick to point that out to his wife after her round.
“Obviously I’m very pleased,” said Sorenstam, who amassed 39 points in the Stableford format after shooting 3-under 69 at her home course, Lake Nona Golf and Country Club.
Sorenstam, who lost in a playoff here last year to World Series champion Derek Lowe, leads Mardy Fish by two points. When the 72-time LPGA winner was asked whether she finds herself checking out the LPGA side of the board from time to time, where Brooke Henderson leads after a 5-under 67, Sorenstam replied: “Of course.”
“I’m competitive, but it’s not like I look there and say, I wish I was there,” she said. “I’m very happy where I am.
“But the competitive part doesn’t go away.”
Brooke Henderson reacts with caddie Brittany Henderson after making her putt on the 18th green during the first round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club on January 19, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
After competing in the PNC Championship with son Will last month, the family jetted off to Tahoe for several weeks of skiing at their second home. The early part of the year has been filled with foundation work, with the Hilton Grand Vacations Annika Invitational wrapping up a few days ago.
Ashleen Kaur made a 40-foot downhill putt for eagle to win by one, and with her victory, received a spot to compete in this week’s field.
“I saw her this morning, and her dad is like joy,” said Sorenstam, beaming herself. “That’s what we want to provide is amazing experiences that they won’t forget. Very happy for her.”
Sorenstam played alongside TOC rookie Gemma Dryburgh on Thursday. The Scot told Sorenstam that she competed in her junior tournament when she was 17 years old.
“So it was pretty crazy looking back now and now playing with her in an event, said Dryburgh. “Very cool. I asked her a few questions. Hopefully I didn’t bombard her too much, but wanted to soak up as much information as I could.”
While Sorenstam didn’t get as much preparation time as she would’ve liked coming into this event, she does have new Callaway clubs in the bag.
After she put a new Paradym driver in the bag and found an extra 8 yards, Sorenstam asked Callaway for more new clubs. A recent tweak to her new Paradym irons, and she’s zipping along.
“I’m searching for things to give me one extra mile an hour of club head speed, one extra yard,” she said, “whatever I can get. And right now they’re doing it for me.”
Sorenstam said she’s starting the tee the ball higher and launch the ball higher with her driver.
“If I can get it up in the air,” she said, “it’s actually staying up there a little longer, and that’s what I need. Then I can feel like it’s almost 10 yards. That’s the goal.”
While she’s feeling good after her opening round at home, Sorenstam isn’t sure what the rest of her competitive schedule will look like this year. She will head to Portugal in two weeks to play in a senior event.
“I know obviously LPGA is not where I belong anymore,” said the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open champion. “So just kind of see how it goes and how I feel.”
One of the most fun events on the LPGA is underway in Orlando.
The LPGA 2023 opener is here.
The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions doesn’t just feature stars like Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang and Brooke Henderson, but also a slew of celebrities including Derek Lowe, John Smoltz and the GOAT, Annika Sorenstam.
Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando is the host and will play as a par-72 track measuring 6,617 yards this week.
At last year’s event, Kang used a final-round 68 to take home the title. Lowe took down Sorenstam in a playoff to claim the amateur division.
Check out some of the best photos from the fun week in Florida below.
