Brooke Henderson takes early lead at Women’s PGA at Sahalee

But it wasn’t just any ordinary opening round: Once she completed it, she would become the 24th member of the LPGA Tour’s Hall of Fame.

“I was quite nervous this morning”.

WHAT do you do if you’re an 18-year-old professional golfer and win a auto with a hole in one?

“I think I get to appreciate it a lot more”, Park said.

The last hurdle was to complete the equivalent of 10 seasons, and Park did so by getting the first round under her belt at the KPMGA Women’s PGA Championship.

Henderson will now hope to do what she did in the Pacific Northwest previous year, when she won her first LPGA Tour event in Portland last August. “So I thought it was a long dream”. I grinded really well.

For the first seven holes, Park was near-flawless, hitting every fairway and green in regulation – and making birdies on both par-5 holes to get to 2 under. Ko scrambled to a 70 in her bid to win her third straight major.

“It was kind of expected, because …” She now leads by one ahead of Ashleigh Simon who went off in the afternoon and is now three-under par through eight holes.

All the while, her demeanor never wavered.

“Yeah, it was a pretty good day today”, said Henderson. She birdied her last two holes on Thursday.

“She’s told me that earlier in the year at a different tournament”.

With the skies having cleared after spitting rain earlier in the cool day, Park missed the 18th green with her second shot, pitched on and two-putted for bogey. A rules official came up and asked what was the yardage, what club did you hit? and I gave her the wrong yardage, from the other hole we just played. But after the round most of the questions she received were about the 13th hole.

“The score is obviously not the greatest, but I’m satisfied with the score today”, Park said. “I’m not going to die because of the thumb pain. And I’m really going to enjoy Hall of Fame”. She wasn’t as sharp the rest of the way but saved par a number of times with her excellent putting, which has been a hallmark throughout her 17 career LPGA victories.

Inbee Park was not so lucky in her quest to win this tournament for a record fourth consecutive time. And it obviously wasn’t easy to get there.

And the Canadian teenager closed with birdies at Nos.

“I pulled my shot a little but it caught the left apron and funnelled right in”, said Henderson, who leads American Christina Kim and South Korean Kim In Kyung in the year’s second women’s Major.