It was a year wrapped in emotion for Golf Town athlete Brooke Henderson, but with the support of the #BrookeBrigade – and family, Henderson’s good play left her summing up 2018 with a big smile on her face.

On December 26, The Canadian Press announced that Henderson was named the Canadian Female Athlete of the Year – her third win in the last four years.

Henderson, who captured the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii in April and the CP Women’s Open in August in Regina, had one of the most consistent years of her professional career.

We recently caught up with the 21-year-old to get her take on her performance in 2018.

“Starting the 2018 season, I was really confident because I put in a lot of hard work over the off-season and I felt like my game had improved in a lot of different areas, especially in my short game,” says Henderson. “That gave me a lot of confidence starting in January.”

This year, she earned more than $1.4 million on the heels of 11 top-10 finishes. She was second on the season-long Race to the CME Globe, and owes a lot of that consistency to her laser-like focus on improving her Driving Distance (she was 8th on Tour) and Greens in Regulation percentage (she was 4th on Tour). Her solid play tee-to-green gave her a scoring average of under 70.00 for the first time in her career.

At the LOTTE Championship, Henderson says she had just switched putters and was feeling a lot of good energy being in such a fabulous setting like Hawaii.

“Going into the final round I thought, ‘this could be my week’ and it was. To raise that trophy for my sixth LPGA Tour victory was just incredible and I’m just really grateful for how everything turned out that week,” she says.

It was an emotional win, as Canada was in mourning after the Humboldt Broncos bus crash earlier in the week, but Henderson says fellow Canadian Alena Sharp and her caddie Sarah Bowman had an idea that all the Canadians in the field could wear yellow and green ribbons to honour the team from Saskatchewan.

Growing up playing hockey, Henderson says she has “friends for life” from that experience.

“I can’t even imagine what those kids were going through after that crash,” she says. “I’m just grateful I was able to dedicate (the win) to them and hopefully gave them some strength.”

Henderson herself had to be strong as the summer began, after both her grandfathers passed away in a short timespan. She says her game was the best it had been maybe in her whole career, but was fighting the emotional battles of life and loss – she withdrew after the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open to come home to Smiths Falls.

Without a doubt, Brooke’s highlight of the season, and one of the top moments of her career was winning the CP Women’s Open in Regina in August with the #BrookeBrigade supporting her at home.

“I was able to hoist that trophy in Canada and it was a dream come true,” says Henderson. “I know (my grandfathers) were watching down from heaven proudly.”

Henderson opened the week in Regina with a 6-under-par 66 and backed that up with an identical 6-under par round Friday. She saved the best for last, shooting a 7-under-par 65 Sunday to end up winning by four shots.

In the process she became the first Canadian to win on home soil in 45 years and inspired a whole young crop of Canadian girls and boys to think about the game.

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“I played amazing golf, probably some of the best I’ve ever played. Mentally once I started shooting good scores – in the first and second round – I just felt like this was going to be my week. It’s just one of those feelings that was hard to explain,” she says. “That trophy, since I was a little girl, I’ve seen it and I’ve always wanted to hold it and touch it. I told myself, ‘not until I earned it and won,’ so it’s just amazing and a highlight of my career for sure.”

She’s now looking ahead to 2019 with a positive attitude and an excitement for what’s the come. The LPGA Tour has a lot of momentum right now, says Henderson, as the recently announced schedule for next year features four new tournaments and more prize money than ever before.

Henderson says she met a lot of her big goals but is hungry for more as she looks to become the winningest Canadian professional golfer – male or female – of all time. With seven wins, she sits just one victory back of the all-time record held jointly by Mike Weir, George Knudson, and Sandra Post.

“To be playing against the best players in the world every single week and to finish as high as I did in all the stats I did was really awesome,” she says. “It gives me a lot of confidence and motivation to get ready for 2019.”