{"id":552540,"date":"2026-03-20T09:51:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T09:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T09:51:22","slug":"april-2026-australian-golf-digest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/552540\/","title":{"rendered":"April 2026 \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aussie of the month: Hannah Green<\/p>\n

West Australian Hannah Green claimed an emotion-charged victory at the HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship in Singapore, firing a brilliant three-under 69 to secure a one-stroke triumph with husband Jarryd Felton on the bag.<\/p>\n

It was Green\u2019s seventh LPGA Tour title and took her career earnings past $US8 million. A second HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship in three years puts her in the illustrious company of major champions Inbee Park and Jin Young Ko, who are the only other multiple winners of the Singapore tournament.<\/p>\n

Green won the 2024 Singapore title just weeks after she married Felton, a four-time winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia. On that occasion the couple delayed their honeymoon to pursue their individual playing careers. This victory was extra special given Felton had never previously caddied for Green on the LPGA Tour until the previous week\u2019s Honda LPGA Thailand where she finished seventh.<\/p>\n

At the presentation ceremony Green admitted that having Felton on the bag was a big help around a tricky Sentosa layout compounded by extreme humidity.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was probably the most nervous I\u2019ve been on a golf course. So he was really helpful being by my side. But it was also nice playing with Minjee [Lee], obviously a friend of mine. Yeah, he did really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felton gave an emotional greenside interview where he conceded how proud he was of his wife: \u201cUnbelievable. She obviously dug deep there towards the end\u2026 She\u2019s so good under pressure. It\u2019s everything that I wish I could be as a player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great couple of weeks. I\u2019ve never had the chance to caddie for her on the LPGA. Just to watch her go about her craft, and do what she does, it\u2019s just great.\u201d \u2013 Rohan Clarke<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Birdie of the month: Rip-roaring start<\/p>\n

Three more LIV Golf events have come and gone since, but it\u2019s easy to forget that Ripper GC went two-from-two to begin the 2026 season. After parlaying Elvis Smylie\u2019s epic season-opening individual title into a team victory at LIV Golf Riyadh, the all-Aussie quartet backed it up at LIV Golf Adelaide. Cam Smith, Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert and Smylie couldn\u2019t fend off Anthony Kim for the individual prize, but on home soil they did repel Jon Rahm\u2019s Legion XIII outfit to take the team trophy at LIV\u2019s final appearance at the Grange Golf Club.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bogey of the month: Less should not be Moore<\/p>\n

Chris Minns\u2019 New South Wales Government appears to have condemned Sydney\u2019s Moore Park Golf Course to its long-touted reduction to nine holes, effective from mid-year. Multiple sources familiar with the process told Australian Golf Digest that fencing is expected to go up around sections of the course on June 30, effectively splitting the layout in half and beginning the transition to a nine-hole configuration. The move stems from the Minns Government\u2019s plan to convert about 20 hectares of the existing golf course into a new public park designed to serve rapidly growing inner-city suburbs including Green Square, Zetland and Waterloo. The government has allocated $50 million for the project, arguing that additional green space is needed in one of Sydney\u2019s fastest-densifying urban corridors. Why can\u2019t they just leave Moore Park alone?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Golfers in the news<\/p>\n

Marathon MAN: New South Welshman Travis Smyth[above] put in plenty of overtime in becoming the first winner of the new ISPS Handa Japan-Australasia Championship in Auckland. The 31-year-old needed six playoff holes to see off South Australian Jack Thompson in fading daylight at Royal Auckland & Grange Golf Club. The see-sawing, sudden-death playoff was a fitting crescendo for the co-sanctioned tournament\u2019s first staging.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bennett\u2019s stepping stone: Kelsey Bennett [above] created a tremendous opportunity for career advancement when she claimed the Australian Women\u2019s Classic at Magenta Shores Golf & Country Club, north of Sydney. With a four-shot victory in the tournament co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour, 26-year-old Bennett earned exempt status on the European circuit until the end of 2028, plus a guaranteed start in this year\u2019s AIG Women\u2019s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes.<\/p>\n

Open start booked: Self-confessed Queenstown fan Lucas Herbert converted a runner-up finish at the New Zealand Open held in the adventure town into a sixth career start at the Open Championship. Herbert couldn\u2019t catch Kiwi winner Daniel Hillier at Millbrook Resort but did snare the lone available spot in golf\u2019s oldest championship on offer via the Open Qualifying Series, as Hillier had already qualified for this year\u2019s event at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n

The ultimate chip-in: While on the New Zealand Open, the pro-am format of our neighbour\u2019s national championship yielded a novel story about simply getting into the amateur portion of the field. According to the Otago Daily Times, about 25 friends from Queenstown collectively put up $NZ25,000 for a single place in the field then used a game of golf to determine which one of them would play. The lucky winner was Steve Brownlie, who advanced via a matchplay competition featuring the top eight players. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely got Happy Gilmore vibes to it,\u201d the 10-handicapper said.<\/p>\n

Jazy tones: Victorian Jazy Roberts finished as the leading Australian for the second straight year at the Women\u2019s Amateur Asia-Pacific at Royal Welington Golf Club in New Zealand. Roberts, who won the Australian Amateur in early February, shapes as one of our best hopes from within the unpaid ranks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They did what?<\/p>\n

Hats off to Ash Humphreys, Jack Downard and Brandon Wright \u2013 three mates from Rockingham, south of Perth, who decided that if you\u2019re going to do LIV Golf Adelaide, you may as well really do it. Undaunted by the prospect of a 27-hour drive each way across the Nullarbor, the intrepid travellers set about being part of LIV\u2019s most popular stop in unique fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a goat track on the way and a bit of a two-hour detour,\u201d Downard said. \u201cBut we got there eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed they did. And upon hearing about their chosen travel methods and route, the powers-that-be at LIV Golf gifted the trio passes into the raucous Watering Hole for the second day\u2019s action.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photographs by getty images\/George Chan, Mark Brake, Ross Kinnaird<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussie of the month: Hannah Green West Australian Hannah Green claimed an emotion-charged victory at the HSBC Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[273117,64,63,755,171848,85],"class_list":["post-552540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-april-2026","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-news-you-may-have-missed","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552540","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=552540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}