Brooke Henderson knows a thing or two about hitting bombs.
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Ten-time LPGA Tour winner and major champion Brooke Henderson has been bombing it since she was a child — a talent she attributes to her father’s willingness to let her enjoy herself on the course without worrying too much about technique.
“I’ve had the same swing since I was around three years old,” Henderson said in a recent interview on behalf of her shoe sponsor, Skechers. “My dad’s my coach, and he just let me have fun with the game. He kind of just let me do whatever, and to hit it far. I really appreciate that, growing up, just being able to swing freely and have fun with it.”
Since her childhood days, Henderson has blossomed into one of the longest bombers in the women’s game, averaging over 275 yards off the tee, and hitting the fairway an impressive 72 percent of the time.
And when it comes to hitting it both long and straight, Henderson has some simple yet effective advice for recreational players.
“I love hitting driver,” she said. “It’s my favorite club in the bag. It’s just so exciting when I can just step up to a tee and just go at it as hard as I can. Growing up, I was always chasing after my older sister. She’s six years older, so she was always a lot more talented and hit it a lot further than I did, but I was always trying to keep up and catch her. So I was always trying to swing out of my shoes and trying to get it out there as far as I could.
“I think a lot of the time recreational players are already swinging full bore,” Henderson continued. “Maybe they need to tone it back a little bit and just swing, like, 90 percent. Because it should help with the accuracy. It’s actually funny, sometimes when you swing a little bit less, it actually goes just as far or even further.”
To add more pop to your swing, get a driver fitting from the experts at 8AM Golf affiliate True Spec Golf.
As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Issue, which debuted in February 2018. Her original interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.