ANA INSPIRATION

September 10, 2020

Brooke Henderson

Mission Hills Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Brooke, happy birthday, first of all. No better gift to yourself than a nice 4-under par 68 to start the ANA Inspiration. How did it feel to get into major competition mode.

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, I made a lot of pars on the front nine. Solid start, and I felt like I was really close to making a lot of birdies, so I was happy when they started to fall a little bit more on the back nine. Happy with 4-under, it's definitely a solid start, nice way to spend your birthday, and hopefully I can just keep making some birdies and climb the leaderboard.

Q. How nice was it to have that advantage of taking an electric cart for Brit in the heat and have her kind of get out in front of you and get prepared for when you got to the ball?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, normally I would never agree to taking carts, but definitely under the circumstances with it being so hot out here, and I definitely felt like since the LPGA was allowing us to use them, it was definitely an advantage for us. It was nice, she was able to zoom along, get to my ball fast, calculate some numbers, really get a feel for all the conditions, and then by the time I arrived she already had everything already set out and we could discuss a little bit more specifically.

That was really nice, and I think we'll continue to do it over the next three days.

Q. Morning tee time today so you got a little taste of the heat, but tomorrow you'll have that full taste. What did you learn during practice rounds this week to be prepared for that tee time tomorrow?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, definitely very hot and very different from today. It was kind of nice in the morning, things were a little bit softer, it was a little bit cooler. Felt like it was definitely scoring conditions. Tomorrow afternoon I think we'll just have to play really smart, play our way around the golf course, hitting to specific spots and just being careful of run-outs on the fairways and on the greens.

Q. How different is the course playing in your opinion?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, it's like totally different. It's funny what a few months, how much it can change the course. I feel like it was kind of a bit of a learning curve the first few days to kind of readjust to the different types of grass and just how differently the course was playing.

Q. Any other birthday plans for the rest of the day?

BROOKE HENDERSON: I don't think too much, just kind of hanging out and hopefully have some cake.

Q. Lexi was talking about your very aggressive style of play. What are the challenges of translating that to a major championship setup where the penalties are a lot higher for a miss?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, for sure. I feel like when your game is on, you can still attack, but you kind of have to do it in a smart way. You kind of have to know where your misses are and kind of some holes it is just stay patient and try to make par. Otherwise it's attack and try to make some birdies because there's going to be bogeys out here, that's just the way major championship golf is, but hopefully you're making a lot of birdies to counter them.

Q. Last year you didn't have your best results in the majors. Are you approaching them a little differently this time around, things you learned?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, last year was a little bit of an off year, but I have had success in them before, so hopefully this year will be a little bit different. I feel like it was nice to get a solid round in the first round like today, and hopefully play a solid round tomorrow and see what the weekend brings.

Q. Reporters tend to focus a lot on the major championships. Do they have the same meaning to you as players?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, for sure. The atmosphere is always way different. You have a little bit more adrenaline. The courses are definitely better and tougher. And there's just that extra prestige that comes along with it. It's definitely weeks we want to peak for.