“You kind of have to pay attention to that and remember you’re in a tournament, you need to wake up early, and you need to go through your regular routines,” Henderson said. “Just because when you’re on the road week after week you really get into the routine. You stock your bag the night before and you are in a hotel room that’s only so big, so you kind of know where everything is, where at home everything is spread out.
“So it does take a little bit of adjustment, But I do appreciate staying in my own bed. At the same time, I enjoy the relaxation that home presents.”
Popov and her family have been coming to Naples for years.
“It’s been really nice to just sleep in my own bed and go home every night and forget about golf for a little bit,” Popov said. “That’s definitely an up side for this week.”
And she gets to see her grandmother.
“I get to spend quite a bit of time with her,” Popov said. “Just coming home and seeing her every day is really nice, just to see what she’s been doing and her day. It’s very refreshing because it’s very different to what my day looks like.”
Popov’s days have changed quite a bit over the past two years. She was in the first Drive On Championship — tournaments sponsored by the LPGA itself to help fill gaps in the schedule for overseas events postponed by the coronavirus pandemic — at Inverness in Ohio. But she was a caddie then.
After making it through the now-Epson Tour, Popov didn’t have full status when she won the 2020 AIG Women’s British Open so she ended up not being able to play in the CME Group Tour Championship in her hometown that November. She followed that up with a solid 2021 to qualify for the CME, and also represented Germany in the Olympics and played on the victorious European Solheim Cup team.
Popov is ready for a fresh start after struggling toward the end of 2021.
She tied for 18th in the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, then missed the cut last week at the LPGA Gainbridge at Boca Rio in Boca Raton.
“After last year I just was pretty drained — not going to lie,” she said. “I was a little burned out and I took quite a bit of time off. I think I took five weeks off not playing at all because I really needed to.”
Popov, 29, said her putting is what she needs to be more consistent.
“I think my ball striking has been a lot better,” she said. “I think if I can clean up my putting a little bit, that’s definitely something that I have been working on a lot the last few days.”
Henderson, a 24-year-old Canadian, has been one of the top players on the tour since she started in 2015. She has 63 career Top 10s and 10 victories, the last in 2021 in Los Angeles.
But last year Henderson was not as consistent as she had been.
After 30 Top 10s in 65 events from 2018-20, she only had seven Top 10s last year. So she’s been buoyed by two Top 10s already to start 2022.
“Last year that was something that I was a little disappointed in, the lack of number of Top 10s that I had in comparison to other years,” she said. “It’s nice to get off to a faster start. Solo second the first week back was really nice, and both weeks I feel I was very close to being even better, which is very exciting.
“Just gives me some more motivation to continue to work hard and try to fix a few things that need to be fixed and also just continue to work on the consistency of the rest of the game.”
Henderson, who switched to a TaylorMade golf ball, also has an added motivation to play well early. Because of changes in the United States Golf Association rules that were adopted by the LPGA, the 48-inch driver she’s used will no longer be legal after March 21. She’s been trying out some shorter drivers in practice.
“I’ve also been really trying to take advantage of using my 48-inch driver the last few weeks,” she said. “I’ll be able to use it in Asia, but after that I’ll have to make the switch. Definitely trying to make the most of these weeks. That’s definitely been in the back of my mind.”
The LPGA is at Crown Colony Golf & Country Club for the first time ever.
En route to the $1 million prize, players must calculate risk vs. reward all season long! @Aon_plc
At this week’s LPGA #DriveOn Championship, the #AonRiskReward Hole is the par 4 13th. Check it out 👇 pic.twitter.com/rKpNBnHRFl
— LPGA (@LPGA) February 3, 2022
Popov and Henderson have been pleased with what they’ve seen of Crown Colony, even though neither were familiar with the course despite being so close.
“There are so many great golf courses in this area, which is one reason why I moved here,” Henderson said. “Just so many opportunities.”
“I’m very actually pleasantly surprised,” Popov said. “I didn’t know the golf course. I heard from other members down where I play in Naples that it’s a very good golf course, and I came here and (Wednesday) I played the back nine; played the front nine on Monday.
“Especially I’m pretty excited about the back nine. I think it’s really a great-looking golf course, very fun to play. It’s difficult. It’s narrow at times. It’s just really, really nice I think design. It’s in very good shape, really good greens, around the greens very nice.”
The comforts of home also extend to cooking for Popov, who underwent three surgeries and was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 2017.
“I put a lot of emphasis on my healthy diet, which is really, really important to me, because if I don’t eat as clean as I do then I get very tired at times and fatigued,” she said. “So I think that’s been very important for me, to be conscious of where I’m staying every week so that I can actually cook and prepare my own meals.
“That’s nice. When you’re in your own kitchen you know where everything is and you know it’s fully stocked. I think that’s my favorite part.”
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