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Canada’s Brooke Henderson opened up a four stroke lead at the LPGA’s season-opening Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf Club in Orlando after shooting a bogey-free six under-par round of 66 on Friday.
Henderson leads from American Nelly Korda who shot a three under-par round of 69 just hours after her tennis-playing younger brother Sebastian had enjoyed a surprise three set win over Russian Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open.
After shooting a five-under opening round, Henderson wasted no time building upon her positive start making four birdies in a row from the second hole on.
Birdies on the 12th and 15th made sure that she ended they day comfortably on top of the leaderboard.
“It was a lot of fun to get four consecutive birdies on the front nine. Really kept the momentum going. To finish the back nine with two birdies too felt well nice,” said Henderson, who had played with ten-times major winner Annika Sorenstam and former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz, both playing in the celebrity tournament.
“It was just really exciting day. Having an opportunity to play with Annika and John again was just really cool. I think everyone on tour, we all look up to Annika, so to have an opportunity to play alongside her, same group, was pretty special,” said Henderson.
Swede Sorenstam, who retired in 2008 after winning 90 tournaments as a professional, was impressed with what she had seen close-up from Henderson, particularly the Canadian’s long swing.
“I know she has this little drop kick, but she hits it out there. She gets some good distance, some good carry.
“A lot of times when we look at people and people say, hey, give me swing advice, if she wasn’t a professional we probably would tell somebody, hey, shorten your swing a little bit,” she said.
“But somebody like that, you just don’t want to touch it. She’s got good feel and good touch and she hits it a long ways, so it works perfectly for her,” she said.
Korda was disappointed with her performance even with a…
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