On August 16, 2015, 17-year-old Brooke Henderson became only the third Monday Qualifier to ever win on the LPGA Tour, when she clinched the title at the Portland Classic by eight strokes. That set the stage for a player that would develop over 10 years into one of the most recognizable stars in women’s golf. By the time she won at the same course the next year, Columbia Edgewater Country Club, she was also a major champion.
Now Henderson, a veteran but still only 27-years-old, is back at Columbia Edgewater this week in a very different place. She’s now a 13-time winner on Tour, with two of those being major championships. She also is in one of the worst stretches of her career, without a win since January, 2023, and falling out of the top 50 in the Rolex Rankings for the first time in a decade.
During her pro-am round on Wednesday in Portland, Henderson seemed pretty relaxed and in solid rhythm, but is her game in a place that she can get back into the winner’s circle?
Henderson has made 11/16 cuts this season and is still looking for her first top-10 finish in a stroke play event. She has had four top-20 finishes, with two of them coming shortly before the LPGA entered its European swing. She also has missed just one cut in her last five events, the AIG Women’s Open. Henderson ranks No. 53 in the Race to the CME Globe Standings and is certainly on the bubble to make the season finale event.
Digging into the statistics, it is clear to see where Henderson is struggling. The most obvious place is in her approach game. Henderson, while not always ranking toward the top of the LPGA in that category, has always been very good. Since the KPMG Performance Insights started, she was never even close to losing strokes on approach shots. In 2025 she is losing .31, which ranks No. 115 on the Tour.
Henderson is also losing a bit of distance to the field. Her driving numbers are still good, arguably the strength of her game, but her average distance ranks have steadily gone down. The last two years Henderson has ranked outside the top 50 on the LPGA Tour in driving distance. She never ranked outside the top 25 before that and in her prime, was consistently in the top 10. Henderson did have a back injury at the end of 2022 that could have had some impacts on that particular statistic.
Henderson’s putting is almost dead average. She’s gaining .01 strokes putting, which ranks No. 80 on the Tour, but it isn’t always particularly timely.
The good news? There arguably isn’t a course that Henderson plays better than Columbia Edgewater. It certainly suits her game, she’s had four top 10 finishes here including those two wins. She also won her first major on a course in the same region, Seattle area, that had a similar look to it. Henderson needs some good finishes to insure she can play for women’s golf’s biggest paycheck. She also has the International Crown coming up, where she’ll be taking part for the first time. This and her home-country event next week feel like good chances for Henderson to flip the narrative of her season.
