HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 21, 2024

Brooke Henderson

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Brooke Henderson after her fourth round at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Just kind of summarize your week as defending champion and starting the day six strokes back to play into the Top 5. Just what was the game plan coming into today?

BROOKE HENDERSON: The game plan was to try and climb the leaderboard as much as possible, stick to the game plan. To shoot minus-4 in these conditions, I'm really happy with. It was very cold and very windy.

Yeah, no, just happy to climb the leaderboard and get a top finish. Yeah, it's a great week overall.

Q. What is it about Nona that brings out the best in you?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Well, I love this golf course. It's beautiful. You have to play well here to shoot good scores. You can't really get away with anything. You have to be able to get up and down and the greens are tricky and you need to hit good shoots into the green to make birdie.

I know it takes the A-game, so I try bring it every year. Again, happy to be at double digits and minus-10 for the week.

Q. I know a dream start is always a win, but a top 10 and 5 to start the year is a good note. How much confidence does this give you looking ahead to the rest of the season and next week?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, this is great. Coming into the week you just want to get a top finish, want to see where the game is and what you need to improve on for the rest of the year. This was a really exciting week for me coming in as defending champion.

I gave it all I had, but unfortunately a little bit short this year. Take the top finish and keep moving forward.

Q. What got going for you in that birdie run there on the front?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, that was really fun. I was playing pretty steady. Made a couple clutch par saves, on 5 and again on 12 to kind of keep the round going.

To get three birdies in a row, 7 through 9, and then another on 11, that was a lot of fun. I felt like I was feeling the momentum and just try to keep pushing and climb up as much as I could.

Q. I don't know if you had a Lydia pairing this week or not. Can't remember.

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah.

Q. What's it mean for the Tour to have her winning again as a former No. 1?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, Lydia is the best. I've always really looked up to her. She's such a great person and obviously an amazing player as well. So to see her back at the top is great, especially after she didn't have quite the year she wanted last year. Definitely got it going now, so we all better look out.

Q. Actually, it's not just Nona, but in this event, going back to the previous site, you're 72-under par over 24 rounds. What is it about this event? Is it the format? Just the time of the year? What gets you off to such a great start?

BROOKE HENDERSON: I love the atmosphere of this event. It's a lot different than just a regular Tour event. It's really fun, and meeting the different celebrities, getting to know them a little bit and learning from them, I really enjoy that aspect of it.

Hilton Grand Vacations, they do an amazing job, and I'm always excited to be in the field. I work really hard to try to get my invite back to this event. I just look forward to it. It's nice that I've been able to finish pretty well at it.

Q. It's looking like Lydia is gonna get to within a point of the Hall of Fame. Considering the depth of the tour, can you put into perspective how hard it is to get to 27 points?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Yeah, I always think the 27 points thing is way too high for the modern day. I feel like it was probably good back in the day, but now it's way too high. Like Lydia should already be in, in my opinion, but I believe she's going to get there anyway.

Just, yeah, proves how amazing of a player she is. She definitely deserves it, and I look forward to celebrating when she gets in.

Q. What would you consider to be a reasonable number in today's landscape?

BROOKE HENDERSON: I mean, definitely needs to be lower. Like Cristie Kerr in my opinion should also be in. I am not sure if Laura Davies is in, but she should be in as well. Like there is a few names like that there is no way they played that well and did so much for the Tour and they're not recognized.

It definitely needs to be lower. I'm not really sure how much lower but, those types of players should be in.

Q. First week with the new clubs. How did they feel?

BROOKE HENDERSON: Good. Today I really got things going, which was great. Felt like everything was on today, which is what you want on a Sunday in the final round. That felt nice.

Yeah, feel like I have a couple things I want to work on, but the clubs felt great.

Q. Last year when you won there was a long break before the next tournament. This year there is another right afterwards. Is there an excitement level to get right back into it?

BROOKE HENDERSON: I like that a lot better. Last year was such a high and then I had to wait such a long time to get going again. Looking forward to playing next week and then couple weeks off again before we go to Asia.

But I think that will be good to rest up. I kind of lost my endurance over the off-season. Playing 18 holes four days in a row and the pro-am and stuff takes it out of you a little bit, so I excited to rest tomorrow and get started again.