Hannah Green feels like she has won another major after an emotional, drought-breaking Women’s Australian Open triumph.<\/p>\n
With her one-stroke victory at Adelaide’s Kooyonga Golf Club, Green became only the fourth Australian – and first in a dozen years – to win their national open.<\/p>\n
She rates the victory as equal to her major win – the 2019 Women’s PGA Championship – and her six other LPGA Tour titles.<\/p>\n
“I have said before that winning your own championship is like winning a major – and I still feel that way,” said the world No.9.<\/p>\n
“This is probably one of the bigger weeks for me off the golf course in terms of internal pressure.<\/p>\n
“I have been fortunate enough to win seven LPGA titles and I still think this is just as good as all them … it’s going to be a really special one to remember.”<\/p>\n
Closing with a two-under 70 to finish 11 under for the tournament, Green survived final-round flourishes from emerging compatriot Cassie Porter and France’s Agathe Laisne, who tied for second at 10 under.<\/p>\n
Porter’s Sunday special was a course record 10-under 62, featuring 10 birdies in a 15-hole stretch.<\/p>\n
“Everyone that plays golf dreams of a day that everything just works,” the 23-year-old Sydneysider said.<\/p>\n
“And I’m very fortunate that today was that day.”<\/p>\n
Porter’s stunning feat, and a five-under 67 charge from Parisian Laisne, caused jangled nerves for Green.<\/p>\n
The West Australian joins the legendary Karrie Webb, Jane Crafter and Jan Stephenson as local Open winners.<\/p>\n
Five-time champion Webb’s 2014 title was the most recent for the locals until Green’s emotional victory.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I feel really honoured to have my name on that trophy alongside so many great players.”<\/p>\n
Australia’s Karis Davidson (six under) tied for fourth as her big-name compatriots and major winners Minjee Lee and Grace Kim struggled.<\/p>\n
World No.4 Lee signed for a one-under 71 to finish three over, while Kim made belated ground on Sunday with a five-under 67, finishing three under.<\/p>\n
After Porter signed for her course record, Laisne appeared as Green’s chief challenger.<\/p>\n
Green and Laisne, who was playing in the group ahead of the local, were tied at 11 under for much of the back nine.<\/p>\n
The Parisian was in danger of slipping behind on the par-3 15th hole but managed to save par by chipping in from a precarious down-slope greenside position.<\/p>\n
Green made a break on the par-5 16th by holing a clutch 15-foot downhill putt for birdie to create a one-shot buffer.<\/p>\n
But she then pulled her tee shot on the 17th into a large fairway bunker.<\/p>\n
From an awkward stance, she had a dose of good fortune when her shot from the sand hit a large bunker-side bush but deflected onto the fairway.<\/p>\n
Up ahead on the 17th green – with Green sitting on her golf bag looking in the opposite direction – Laisne left a 25-foot par putt short and could only bogey.<\/p>\n
Green also couldn’t save par and had another nervy moment on 18: her tee shot sprayed right but, in what she described as a “member’s bounce”, the ball veered from a mound to the fairway.<\/p>\n
After Laisne holed a lengthy par putt, the 29-year-old Green also completed a par for a cherished victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hannah Green feels like she has won another major after an emotional, drought-breaking Women’s Australian Open triumph. With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-541566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}