Greeted by fellow Australian Open champion Karrie Webb on the practice range prior to teeing off, Green looked like laying an early claim to the Karrie Webb Cup, pushing out to a five-stroke lead midway through the front nine on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old endured a couple of body shots on the way in with bogeys at 13 and 17 to shoot 4-under 67 and hold a two-stroke lead at 14-under par.<\/p>\n
For the second straight week, the world No.7 will have the second-highest ranked player in the field for company on Sunday in South African Casandra Alexander; the world No.43 defying a problematic putter to post 6-under 65 for 12-under par, level with Swiss unknown Vanessa Knecht (65).<\/p>\n
Finland\u2019s Noora Komulainen made eight birdies in her final 12 holes to set a new course record at 8-under 63, level with three-time Ladies European Tour winner Meghan MacLaren in a share of fourth at 10-under par.<\/p>\n
No Australian golfer has ever won three tournaments in succession on major international tours; a milestone now within Green\u2019s reach following her LPGA Tour win in Singapore and last week\u2019s emotional Australian Open triumph co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour.<\/p>\n
Green is fully expecting the likes of Alexander to come out swinging on Sunday, but hopes the physical punishment of eight two-minute rounds in the ring will help her be the last one standing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something I can always do throughout the season, just because I will get a little bit sore, but I\u2019ve probably got eight to 10 sessions in this off-season,\u201d said Green.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really helped with my stamina, at least early in the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, I wanted to just punch as hard as possible, instead of actually having the stamina to go eight rounds, but it\u2019s been a lot of fun. I\u2019ve really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The back nine of The Palms Course at Sanctuary Cove has landed some blows of its own over the first three days.<\/p>\n
Green has played the last six holes in even par the past two rounds, acknowledging it\u2019s a stretch of the golf course she will need to cope with better to write her name into the history books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s hard to manage,\u201d she added. \u201cI feel like 10, 11, 12 are great because they\u2019re all down wind and then 13, the par 3, it comes straight back into your face.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing whether to be aggressive and have the club go right near the hole or whether to just leave yourself a 20-footer up the hill is kind of tricky.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bogeyed that hole today, but I think the bogey on 17 was probably more annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Displaying her aggressive style of play to full effect at the par-5 seventh, Alexander has the firepower to put Green on the ropes; grateful that the deficit is half what it was after 54 holes at Kooyonga.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the final group; that gets me going,\u201d said Alexander.<\/p>\n
\u201cHannah\u2019s not as far ahead as last week, so at least we stand half a chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll try to give her a run for her money, but she\u2019s top 10 in the world, so it\u2019s going to be a big feat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although unfamiliar to its pressures, Knecht is also excited at the prospect of a final-group pairing with a major champion.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old had one top-10 finish in her LET rookie season in 2023 and arrived in Australia three weeks ago ranked outside the top 1500 in the world.<\/p>\n
A top-30 finish at the Australian Open resulted in her ranking climbing 336 spots and inside the top 1000; that ranking sure to receive another boost with a strong Sunday finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, she\u2019s a major winner and she\u2019s done amazing things, but in the end, she\u2019s also just a person,\u201d said Knecht, who has been exposed to a few boxing kangaroos on the golf course in her first visit to Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am super-excited to meet her, get to talk to her, maybe learn a few things and yeah, do my own thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 6-under par and outright 13th, South Australian amateur Raegan Denton (68) is the next best Australian, just two days out from flying to the United States to prepare for the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur.<\/p>\n
Entry for spectators is free for Sunday’s final round, which will also be broadcast live on Nine and 9Now and Kayo Sports and Fox Sports, available on Foxtel from 11pm-4pm AEST.<\/p>\n
\n \u00a9 Golf Australia. All rights reserved.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greeted by fellow Australian Open champion Karrie Webb on the practice range prior to teeing off, Green looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-554531","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\/554531","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=554531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}