Brooke Henderson is back on familiar ground this week. Or at least what used to be familiar ground.
The veteran Canadian is set to tee it up in the LPGA’s fourth major of the season, the Amundi Evian Masters. Henderson won this tournament back in 2022 and followed that up a year later with a runner-up performance.
This year, however, the course on which the tournament is contested has a few different looks as renovations to a number of holes will be brought into play. The alterations, which were started last November and completed in March, are most visible on the 18th hole, where a number of strategic bunkers have been added.
For Henderson, this tournament couldn’t have come at a better time. She is coming off a tie for third at the last major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, two weeks ago. It equalled her best finish of the season but the other third place was in her first start of the year back in January. Since that time, she’d been wallowing in the middle of the pack.
She gave credit to her performance at that major in part due to the arrival of her niece, a baby born to her sister and former caddie, Brittany. She hopes to continue riding the high of the new addition to the family this week.
Another good reason for the two-time major winner to be happy this week is the food in the area. Henderson has been known to tuck into a number of crepes during her stay in the town located on the shores of Lake Geneva. She has admitted to having a passion for the French delicacy.
On the course, some of the credit to her play of late should also go to her putter. Never known as being great with the flatstick, Henderson ranks fifth in Strokes Gained: Putting on the LPGA Tour. She averaged 29.3 putts per round in the first three majors of the year, a mark she hopes to continue this week.
The changes on a number of holes will mean some adjustments. Perhaps the most significant is to the 18th, where two bunkers have been added, one to the driving area on the right side of the hole and the other closer to the green ready to grab any errant layups.
“Off the tee I don’t think it changes too much,” said defending champion Grace Kim, “but if you end in in the fairway bunker it just forces you to lay up. You can’t slack the layup either because of the additional bunker on the left, so just making sure you’re switched on throughout the whole hole.”
This marks the third women’s major championship in six weeks, a tight schedule for the year’s biggest events. The first two were captured by the world’s top-ranked player Nelly Korda, who admitted that the tight turnaround means a focus on staying rested.
“The scheduling of three majors in a short amount of time is definitely a lot mentally, physically,” said Korda, “and with it being kind of week and a half ago we were in Minnesota and then this week we’re in France and then kind of traveling all over, it can get a lot.”
In addition to Henderson, three other Canadians will be in the field, highlighting the depth of the country’s women’s golfers. They are Anna Huang, 17, of Vancouver, who plays professionally on the Ladies European Tour where she has won three times; Surrey, B.C.’s Lauren Kim, 20, ranked 19th in the Women’s Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR); and 16-year-old Aphrodite Deng of Calgary, who sits sixth on the WAGR.
