{"id":550145,"date":"2026-03-19T08:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550145\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:12:09","slug":"sleepy-hannah-green-off-to-a-flyer-at-sanctuary-cove-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/550145\/","title":{"rendered":"Sleepy Hannah Green off to a flyer at Sanctuary Cove \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Photo: Monica Marchesani]<\/p>\n

Hannah Green<\/a>\u2019s winning run shows no signs of slowing down after the world No.7 posted a bogey-free six-under 65 to assert early dominance at the Australian WPGA Championship at Sanctuary Cove Golf & Country Club.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Hannah Green determined to complete Australian Open\u2013WPGA double<\/a><\/p>\n

Morning showers served to wake up the West Australian, who fought through fatigue and a 4:45am alarm on Thursday to shoot the low round of the morning alongside Ladies European Tour rookie, Charlotte Heath (65).<\/p>\n

The pair were usurped late on day one by Scotland\u2019s Kelsey MacDonald, who finished birdie-eagle to set a new course record of seven-under 64 and take a one-stroke lead into the second round.<\/p>\n

A regular on the LET since turning professional in 2013, MacDonald came to Australia late last year after losing her status in Europe, finishing tied 19th at WPGA Tour of Australasia Qualifying School in December to earn a category for the four-event LET swing.<\/p>\n

That decision could yield the ultimate result, yet the 35-year-old will need to hold off a raft of internationals and up-and-coming Aussies looking to make their mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaking\u00a0advantage of great weather, good golf courses, bit of travel,\u201d MacDonald said of exploring playing opportunities in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when I left Scotland, it was minus-7 [degrees], so I can\u2019t complain. Just a great opportunity to keep playing for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t win it on the first day, so just got to stick to the process and keep doing what I\u2019m doing and hopefully hole some putts and we\u2019ll see how tomorrow goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE: Hannah Green is still coming to grips with her drought-breaking Australian Open win<\/a><\/p>\n

Green and Heath are one stroke clear of a group of four players at five-under, Green perfectly placed to extend her winning run to three in succession.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s Australian Open champion in Adelaide, Green hit 17 of 18 greens on Thursday morning and with her energy reserves slowly returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was somewhat yawning out there a few times, which was quite bad, but also not surprising of me,\u201d Green conceded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the rain probably woke me up a little bit, caught us off-guard, but it will be nice to have a nap this afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday in the pro-am I made a lot of birdies, but I also made a couple of silly bogeys. I knew there was the potential if you\u2019re hitting it well to be able to make a lot of [birdies].<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I hit the ball good. I think I only missed one green and even then I was still able to putt from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I can continue to do that throughout the rest of the week, I should be in good form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revealing post-round that her last start in Queensland was a victory at the Links Hope Island Pro-Am in 2017, Green had no issue adjusting to the grain in the greens that can often confound players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have had some wins also in Florida, which is very similar to Queensland, so I think that is helpful. But if I hit 17 greens like I did today for the rest of the week, I\u2019ll be pretty pleased that I won\u2019t have to chip and putt,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think it\u2019s less grainy to what I thought. I\u2019ve gone in with a mentality that it was going to be probably more difficult and it\u2019s actually feeling a little bit easier so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Hannah, Queensland rookie Hannah Reeves, is the next best Australian at four-under par, Victorian amateur star Jazy Roberts looking increasingly comfortable in professional company with a three-under 68.<\/p>\n

South-East Queensland greens are nothing new to Brisbane-based Reeves, who has made a stunning transition into the professional ranks.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old won her first three WPGA Tour of Australasia events as a professional late last year<\/a> and has made two of three cuts in the current four-event LET swing, her best a tie for eighth at the Women\u2019s NSW Open.<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Reeves played with Green and Gabi Ruffels in the final round of the Women\u2019s Australian Open and is now tasked with trying to chase down the hottest player in women\u2019s golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a day where you can\u2019t really put a price tag on that,\u201d Reeves said. \u201cYou learn so much just watching them and observing what they do. That was a huge day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s an incredible player, so definitely someone I look up to.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three weeks on the road, Reeves spent time with coach Grant Field early this week, the pair making an adjustment to her putting set-up that yielded instant results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is obviously our fourth one in a row now. I really struggled over the weekend in Adelaide,\u201d said Reeves, who estimated she had eight three-putts across the weekend at Kooyonga.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe putter was a bit cold, but I spent a couple of days with my coach up here, so definitely feeling much better now and my game\u2019s feeling nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast local Momo Sugiyama was poised to join the logjam at five-under but made an untimely double-bogey on her final hole after finding the water with her approach shot to shoot 68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Monica Marchesani] Hannah Green\u2019s winning run shows no signs of slowing down after the world No.7 posted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,272193,755,29527,178132,272194,28635,234506,85,271237,178135],"class_list":["post-550145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charlotte-heath","tag-golf","tag-hannah-green","tag-hannah-reeves","tag-kelsey-macdonald","tag-ladies-european-tour","tag-sanctuary-cove-golf-country-club","tag-sports","tag-wpga-championship-of-australia","tag-wpga-tour-of-australasia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550145","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=550145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}