Brooke Henderson Blames ‘Annoying’ Health Issue for Holding Her Back Amid Career Resurgence

When Brooke Henderson arrived at the 2025 Chevron Championship, she carried the burden of two missed cuts in a slow start to her season. However, with two top 15 finishes ahead of the event, she expressed hope, stating, “We’ve been working on a lot of things and just trying to get things trending in the right direction. This would be a great week to start that.” She finished T44 at the Chevron Championship, a decline from her T3 finish in 2024. Skip three months, and Henderson turned the tables at the 2025 Meijer LPGA Classic, despite an “annoying” illness.

Pterygium, or surfer’s eye, is a triangular, fleshy growth that develops in the corner of the eye due to prolonged UV light exposure. While it often remains asymptomatic, it can irritate and, if it enlarges significantly, may impact vision. At the 2025 Meijer LPGA Classic, Henderson shared, “I have kind of—I don’t know if it’s rare, but I had a condition; some golfers out here do have it. It’s called surfer’s eye, a bump on the right eye. So I was unable to wear contacts, so that’s why I wore glasses for the last two seasons.”

In 2024, Henderson told Sportsnet that she underwent minor eye surgery that fall and took a two-month break for recovery. Following the surgery, she wore contacts for the first time at the 2025 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, marking her first play without glasses since August 2023. At that time, she shared, “It’s been healing really well.” She shared a similar sentiment this time, too.

“It’s been a big adjustment going from nothing to glasses and then to contacts. It’s definitely been a big change, but I think I’m just continuing to get more comfortable, and it makes a huge difference when it’s rainy or windy. Glasses were really annoying, especially at the British Open last year,” she said. Although Brooke Henderson appeared promising ahead of the 2024 AIG Women’s Open, with two top 10 finishes in her last four LPGA starts, she missed the cut after scoring 77 and 76.

Interestingly, ahead of the 2025 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, she blamed the glasses. “Like looking down the line, even on long shots I could always see the frame a little bit, which was a little bit annoying. And I think it might have even changed my swing a little bit, unfortunately.” Now, with them out of the way, Henderson has indeed shown some improvement.

Though Brooke Henderson has yet to register a breakthrough performance this season, she has registered 3 top 20s, along with 4 missed cuts. At the latest Meijer LPGA Classic, she registered a finish of T14, a massive improvement from her 2024 performance (T34). But, hey, was more at play for her improved performance?

Brooke Henderson looked for inspiration in the Ottawa Senators.

Brooke Henderson was preparing for the 2025 Black Desert Championship while her favorite hockey team, the Ottawa Senators, was in action. The Senators were in the midst of their first-round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They managed to win the last two games, which allowed them to avoid elimination and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Supporting the team’s run, Henderson said, “I feel like I’ll still be playing while they’re playing, but it’s just been so exciting to watch. They’re such a great team, and they have so much talent and so much heart and so much fight in them, and it’s definitely really inspiring.” She eventually went on to register her second-best performance of the season so far, with a T12 finish at the Black Desert Championship. But why, particularly the Ottawa Senators?