Esther Henseleit: Producing Her Best Golf on the Biggest Stages

Why Fans Are Talking About Esther Henseleit

The Putt That Nearly Won Her a Major

The 2026 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes became the best major-championship performance of Henseleit’s career.

She arrived at the final hole needing birdie to extend the championship against Shiho Kuwaki.

From roughly 40 to 45 feet, Henseleit rolled in the putt and forced a playoff.

The drama continued in extra holes. On the second playoff hole, one of Henseleit’s shots struck a marshal and ricocheted approximately 15 yards into gorse. Henseleit eventually made bogey while Kuwaki made par to capture her first major championship.

It was an extraordinary break during an extraordinary finish, but it should not overshadow what Henseleit had accomplished. She had taken a major championship to extra holes and produced the best major finish of her career.

For golf fans discovering Henseleit through that playoff, however, the Women’s Open was only the latest chapter of a much longer rise.

The Olympic Sunday That Changed Everything

Two years before the Women’s Open playoff, Henseleit produced another dramatic final-round charge on an even larger international stage.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, she entered the final round outside the medal positions. Then she shot 66.

Henseleit made seven birdies during the round and finished birdie-birdie to surge into second place behind Lydia Ko. On the 17th hole during that closing charge, Henseleit later described her approach as “probably the best golf shot I’ve ever hit.”

The result was a silver medal and a piece of German golf history: Henseleit became Germany’s first Olympic golf medalist.

Source: “Esther Henseleit reflects on winning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics,” Ladies European Tour, August 2024.

The performance also introduced a much larger international audience to a golfer who had already been winning in Europe for years.

The Longer LPGA Climb

Henseleit joined the LPGA Tour in 2020. Her progress there was more gradual than her immediate breakthrough on the Ladies European Tour, but over time she began appearing more regularly near the top of stronger international fields.

By 2024, that progression was becoming increasingly visible. She finished seventh at both the Chevron Championship and the Evian Championship before producing her Olympic silver-medal performance in Paris.

Henseleit had already shown strong form in 2026 before Royal Lytham, including a T10 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and a T9 at the Ford Championship. Her runner-up finish at the AIG Women’s Open then became the best major-championship result of her career.

Henseleit is still chasing her first LPGA Tour victory, but her career no longer looks like a player trying to prove she belongs at that level. Her recent results show that she has increasingly put herself into contention against elite LPGA and major-championship fields.

Reece Phillips: Husband, Coach and Caddie

One of the more personal parts of Henseleit’s golf story also happens inside the ropes.

Reece Phillips is her husband, but he is also an important part of her professional team. Phillips is an English former professional golfer who became Henseleit’s swing coach and caddie as their relationship developed.

The two met around late 2020 and began working together in 2021. They married on December 13, 2025, in the Italian Dolomites.

Source: verified YouTube Short — Reece Phillips’s reaction as Henseleit forced the AIG Women’s Open playoff, August 2026.

That means the person walking beside Henseleit during some of the biggest rounds of her career is simultaneously her husband, coach and caddie. For Henseleit, the partnership between home life and tournament golf is unusually direct.

What Clubs Has Esther Henseleit Been Documented Using?

Henseleit’s equipment has evolved significantly during the same period her career has moved toward bigger stages. TaylorMade published a first-party WITB in June 2026 documenting a setup built around a Qi4D LS driver, Qi35 and Qi4D fairway woods, a Qi4D rescue, a mixed P·770/P·7CB iron set, MG5 wedges, a Spider Tour V Torched putter and TP5x golf ball. That setup differs substantially from an earlier documented 2024 configuration, including changes to the driver, long-game setup, scoring irons, wedges and putter. Rather than treating either setup as permanent, My9Iron documents the equipment by date.

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Build a Bag Around Your Own Game

The equipment documented in Henseleit’s June 2026 setup was selected around her own swing and competitive needs — not a template for another golfer’s bag.

Equipment detail intentionally kept brief here — see the Esther Henseleit WITB page for the full, dated breakdown.