When Brooke Henderson was walking up the fairway of the 72nd hole at the 2015 Cambia Portland Classic, she had a nine-stroke lead. Only then she did realize the magnitude of the situation that was about to unfold.

“I knew I could make some errors on the green and I’d still be fine,” she says with a laugh, flashing that megawatt smile that has become more commonplace on the LPGA Tour over the last 12 months.

And what a 12-month run it’s been for the 18-year-old Canadian.

Henderson, who, this time last year, didn’t have LPGA Tour status, is now a major champion, having captured the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship two weeks ago. She’s third on the money list – having earned just over $1 million – and is second on the Rolex Rankings behind Lydia Ko, who she took down in a playoff at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Despite her major victory win and a late evening of celebrating – if you call Mexican take-out in the car with her sister and agent a celebration – she kept a commitment to appear in Portland for a media day the Monday after her life-changing triumph to speak with a group of junior golfers, put on a clinic, and address any and all questions that were posed.

Although this week will be Henderson’s first time defending a title on the LPGA Tour, she’s no rookie when it comes to returning to events that she’s won before.

And, she has one goal in mind this week.

“Hopefully I’ll lift that trophy up again,” she says. “I’ve done it in amateur events, but never on the LPGA Tour, so I’m looking forward to soaking it in.”

In 2015, event organizers extended a sponsor’s invite to Henderson’s older sister, Brittany (who is now her full-time caddy), and that encouraged the younger Henderson to try to Monday Qualify for the event.

She got through, and became just the second Monday qualifier to win on the LPGA Tour after Laurel Kean (2000 LPGA State Farm Classic).

She also joined the aforementioned Ko and Lexi Thompson as the only golfers to win on the LPGA Tour before turning 18. She was the first Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour since Lorie Kane in 2001, when Henderson was three.

She says the key to her success that week was her driving, but is quick to admit that it was just one of those weeks when everything was going well.

“I was kind of on fire,” she explains bashfully. “I played well in the practice rounds and got a good feel for the course. Once the week started, I had four very solid rounds of golf and it just seemed like everything came together. I just love that golf course.”

Columbia Edgewater Country Club, according to Henderson, very much like Sahalee Country Club, where she won the Women’s PGA Championship a few weeks ago.

“I love tree-lined courses,” she states. “(Portland) can be tight at times, and you have to be careful with some tee shots, but if you’re hitting driver well then a lot of doors and opportunities can be open.”

Henderson has always been known as a tremendous driver of the golf ball, but if there was one aspect of her game that she needed to continue to work on, it was her putting.

That is, until the Women’s PGA Championship.

She switched to a new putter on the Tuesday of tournament week, and proceeded to make clutch putt after clutch putt, including a 90-foot eagle on Sunday.

“I felt like everything had a chance to go in, which was kind of new for me,” she said Monday after her victory.

Her win a few weeks ago was a direct contrast to the seemingly walk-in-the-park win in Portland last year, but, she says, Sunday in Portland wasn’t without its own challenges.

“I wasn’t really playing my game,” she explains. “Around the sixth hole I needed to get something going, and I felt like I needed to do something to get away from the rest of the players. I chose a number and I started to make birdies. Every hole I was trying to make birdies.”

“I was trying to get one extra shot ahead of everybody, and it helped nerves-wise when I was chasing a number and not really looking at the people who I was playing with,” she continues.

That kind of go-for-it attitude is reflected in Canada’s other female major champion, Sandra Post, as well.

Post, who won the 1968 LPGA Championship (also in a playoff, becoming the first non-U.S. player to pull the trick) told the Canadian Press that Henderson is “fearless” and compares her game to that of the youngster.

“We didn’t think it had to be perfect all the time, but we just knew how to make a number and that’s how she plays, and it’s kind of refreshing to watch,” said Post, 68, who won the Lou Marsh Award (bestowed to Canada’s top athlete) in 1979, a trophy that Henderson is now the early 2016 favorite for.

But for all the accolades and the accomplishments of the native of Smiths Falls, Ontario (population: 8,900), she’ll always think back to her first LPGA Tour victory in Portland as the moment when, for her, it all happened.

“It’s hard to explain what that feeling was like,” explains Henderson. “All last year I was trying to get my LPGA Tour card, which was a dream of mine since I was a little girl. The dream was to win on the LPGA TOUR, and all of that came true on that Sunday.”

"I Was Kind of On Fire" - Brooke Henderson Remembers Portland Win

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