Coming off of their playoff battle at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the top two players in the Rolex Rankings, No. 1 Lydia Ko and No. 2 Brooke Henderson, are ready to tee it up at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give.
“I had tons of emails, Twitter messages, text messages, all of it,” Henderson said of her win. “It was kind of overwhelming a little bit, but I’ve been able to respond to quite a few and just kind of thank everybody for their support. Especially back home in Canada, everybody kind of went nuts, which was a pretty cool feeling.”
While Ko didn’t take home the trophy, she still took positives from her runner-up finish.
“Even though there are a lot of great memories, I wasn’t trying to think about what happened last week and just focus on what’s ahead of me this week," Ko said.
While they may battle it out on the golf course, both share a mutual admiration for one another.
“I think she will always be an inspiration to young golfers, to women that play the game, even men that play the game and I don’t think that will ever change,” Henderson said. “Her career has been really remarkable. But I think she has kind of proven to everybody and shown everybody that things are possible even though they haven’t happened before. She’s broken so many records and made history so many times and I think it’s just kind of confidence knowing that like she did it, I can do it, too.”
“She’s been playing really solid all year, a bunch of top-10s. And for her to win this and for her to win her first major, it’s amazing,” Ko said. “And when she’s doing it at her age, she’s still only 18. I think it’s great. I think it’s great for the Tour. And it’s good for the women’s game.”
BROOKE HENDERSON BACK AT IT AFTER A BUSY FEW DAYS
Brooke Henderson, who recently moved to No. 2 on the Rolex Rankings, will be competing at the Blythefield Country Club for the first time and is excited to play with the momentum and energy she gained from winning the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“I definitely have more left,” Henderson said when asked if she still had anything left in the tank. “It was definitely a high moment for me and I had a ton of adrenaline on Sunday, especially the last couple of holes. But it’s just a good steppingstone in the right direction and I definitely have a ton of momentum and confidence coming off of it. But I’m starting to really get focused on this week and just kind of move on from it and just use it as good confidence moving forward and hopefully get another win in the next couple weeks or at least have four solid days this tournament and just get some good finishes.”
The 18-year-old has been busy since picking up her first major win at Sahalee.
“I had previously committed to doing a media day in Portland on Monday, so we hopped in the car on Sunday night, drove a couple hours down to Portland, stayed the night there,” Henderson explained. “You know, at the media day it was fun. I did a clinic with a bunch of little kids, went to see the floats from the Rose Parade that had happened on the weekend, which were really beautiful. Tons of media there as well. Then hopped on a plane, got here yesterday. I played 18 holes. This is my first time at this golf course so I wanted to take a good look at it and hopefully get a good strategy going into the week. And then here I am today.”
Henderson said that her success on Tour this year comes from being able to adapt to the different courses on Tour and the support from her team.
“I was able to adjust to certain golf courses and I was working on different aspects of my game for every week and was able to adapt to different conditions and different courses, which I think has been the key,” Henderson said. “I have such an amazing team around me. My sister’s caddying for me, my dad’s here this week and he’s our coach, and my mom’s here this week as well. Just support from IMG and my sponsors, I think everything’s kind of clicking into place and I’m really looking forward to this summer.”
LYDIA KO HAPPY TO BE BACK IN GRAND RAPIDS
Back in 2014, Lydia Ko finished tied for 12th at the Meijer LPGA Classic For Simply Give carding a 5-under, 279. Ko said that Grand Rapids brings back a lot of memories and is looking forward to playing on Thursday.
“Yeah, it’s definitely good to be back here at Grand Rapids,” Ko said. “I had played pretty solid here two years ago so it’s always good to come back to a place where you feel welcomed and you’ve got some good memories here.”
Ranked No. 1 on the Rolex Rankings, Ko battled Brooke Henderson at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last week, which ended up going to a sudden death playoff where Ko missed a putt on the playoff hole for Henderson to win the tournament. When asked about the conditions of the course compared to those at Sahalee, Ko said that the Blythefield Country Club course is more relaxed then the course at Sahalee.
“There are less trees that are overlooking the fairways,” Ko said. “But I said this course is a narrow-wide course. The fairways itself is on the narrow side, it’s not wide fairways, but then at the same time because there are no trees, it doesn’t seem as narrow as Sahalee. But as I always say, no matter how wide the fairway is, the ball fits there. As long as I commit to my lines and commit to a good swing, I’m sure it will get there eventually.”
So far, Ko has seven top-10 finishes through 11 tournaments and two wins this year and is looking to add her 13th career win in Grand Rapids. Ko said she is very happy with how she is playing so far and that playing well last week helped her confidence.
“Playing well last week definitely helps with the confidence coming into this week, but every week it can change,” Ko said. “Even round to round it can change. I’ve come off from shooting 80 on the last round of the British Open and then winning the week after. So obviously if you play well the week before, it gives you a lot of good momentum, but then at the same time you can’t think about it in such a high note. You have to go back to your basics and just kind of start over as it’s a new week on Thursday.”
NUMBERS TO KNOW
1 – Lexi Thompson leads the LPGA this season in driving distance average (283.6), eagles made (10) and par-5 scoring average (4.56)
>> With a victory this week, Lexi Thompson has the opportunity to successfully defend a tournament title for the first time in her career; Thompson has seven career victories to date all at different tournaments from 2011-16.
3 – Three players have crossed the $1 million earnings mark this season: Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn and Brooke Henderson. All three are under 20 years of age
8 – Eight American players finished in the top-10 last year at the Meijer LPGA Classic including current Rolex Rankings No. 15 Gerina Piller who tied for second place with Lizette Salas; The most Americans finishing in the top-10 this year is seven at the JTBC Founders Cup
10 – Brooke Henderson has 10 top-10 finishes in 2016; the most of any player this season by three
53 – Lydia Ko has spent 53 total weeks as the No. 1 player on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings in her career; Ko is eight weeks behind Annika Sorenstam who holds the fourth most weeks (61) at the number one position
)
)
)
)
