Evian Championship offers Henderson a chance to return to a source of her success

Brooke Henderson had a unique bit of inspiration for this week’s Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth of five major championships on the LPGA Tour. She started her week at Wimbledon, giving putting lessons to the defending men’s champion, Carlos Alcaraz.

“I had three other pros with me so together we just tried to give a couple tips — but he was the only one that made (the putt) so maybe he should have been giving us tips,” Henderson said with a smile. “It was just so cool to have that opportunity to spend some time among greatness.” Henderson’s trip to Wimbledon was the first time she’s ever watched a tennis tournament in person, and said she was inspired by watching the precision of the best in the world.

Not that she needs any help at this particular major championship, however. Henderson has finished 1-2 at Evian-Les-Baines the last two years and is in second in “strokes gained: total” at the Evian Championship the last three seasons.

We’ve got your featured groups for @EvianChamp ️‍♀️✨

Nelly Korda
Amy Yang
Yuka Saso

Rose Zhang
Hannah Green
Nasa Hataoka

Lilia Vu
Lydia Ko
Charley Hull

Hyo Joo Kim
Ayaka Furue
Megan Khang

Celine Boutier
Minjee Lee
Brooke Henderson

Linn Grant
Atthaya Thitikul
Angela Stanford pic.twitter.com/uPBEcop1AF

— LPGA (@LPGA) July 10, 2024

There’s a restaurant near to the resort where, she said, she gets crêpes from almost every night. The stunning beauty of Evian-Les-Baines — the course is built alongside a mountain — also helps Henderson to have a calming approach to the week.

“Coming to this golf course, we have so many great memories and feel like we know it pretty well — which is another good thing. Feel like we’ve had a decent strategy that’s worked really well, especially the last two years,” Henderson said. “Looking forward to trying to put it into play again and hopefully have another top finish.”

Henderson, who has notched six top-10 finishes so far this season (including three third-place finishes, one at the first major of the year) comes into the week after a bit of an up-and-down stretch. She finished tied for eighth her last time out — alongside Lexi Thompson at the DOW Championship, the LPGA’s only team event — but prior to that she hadn’t finished better than tied for 22nd at any of her last six tournaments.

Just as she did for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Henderson switched putters before teeing it up at a major. This time Henderson went back to using the TaylorMade mallet putter she wielded when she won the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in 2023.

Henderson sits 67th in putting average this season, down from 46th last season.

“Always trying to improve and make tweaks and be better and more comfortable every single week,” Henderson said. “I’m always switching it around and just trying to […] find that good energy and excitement level that helps you make putts. For me that was another putter change and just green-reading and trying to be comfortable and confident out there.”

Henderson is about to enter an extremely busy stretch of golf on the LPGA Tour schedule. She’ll fly home to Canada for a quick break next week before teeing it up at the CPKC Women’s Open in Calgary, the Portland Classic, and then the Olympics before the AIG Women’s Open — the final major of the season — the third week of August.

Henderson said she feels like her game is trending in the right direction.

“It’s definitely a huge stretch, so it would be a great time for the game to really show up and be in a good spot. It was a lot of fun playing with Lexi a few weeks ago, and she is playing so well and has a lot of confidence right now. I was trying to feed off that and add some of that to my game as well,” Henderson said. “Very exciting stretch coming up. All very big events, and hopefully I can peak at all of them.”

Henderson is grouped with Minjee Lee and defending champion Céline Boutier for the first two rounds. Boutier won the Evian Championship by an astounding six shots last year — “The show she put on last year was incredible. Nobody was going to catch her” — becoming the first Frenchwoman to win a major in her home country. Boutier is ranked sixth in the world (with Lee at No. 11 and Henderson at No. 14)

World No. 1 Nelly Korda returns to action after getting bit by a dog at a café in Seattle, forcing her to withdraw from a Ladies European Tour event last week. The dog jumped up and bit her in the thigh, she said, and Korda had to go through some “medical things” last week. She is doing better now.

Korda has won six times already this season but struggled at the last two major championships, missing the cut at both the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open.

“I think I’ve gone through every emotion possible, and it’s just July, on the golf course. You know, I love this game. I love the bad, I love the good,” Korda said. “The game humbles you enough itself, which I learned a great deal recently. That’s what I love about. Even if I’m not playing well, I’m going to go out and give it a 100 percent and go back and word harder and do the same thing.”

Korda won the first major of the season on the LPGA Tour while Yuka Saso won the U.S. Women’s Open and Amy Yang won the KPMG Women’s PGA.

Savannah Grewal is the only other Canadian to tee it up at the Evian Championship.