A third win in a stellar LPGA Tour season by Hannah Green has put the Australian within touching distance of a No. 1 world ranking for the first time.
Green, the 27-year-old Mt Lawley product won the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea by a shot to become the first Australian since Karrie Webb in 2006 to win three times in a season on the LPGA Tour.
She joins Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko as three-time winners in 2024.
Green started the week ranked No. 8 in the world but she will likely jump to a new career-high inside the top five when this week’s rankings are released.
“I did not know that about Webby’s statistics,” she said after closing out the victory with rounds of 64-64-70-71. “But yeah, I’ve playing really solid this year. Obviously having two wins and a runner-up and things like that. But I just felt really different this off-season. I felt much more motivated.
“I got married in January. So this has been a very special year. But it helps that I’ve been hitting the ball well, and when the putter goes well, it does go well. So just making sure that I can stay consistent. But I still have four or five more tournaments for the rest of the year, so I want to continue to work hard and have myself in these type of positions.”
France’s Celine Boutier made a determined final-day run with a 66 but Green’s birdie at the 17th hole proved to be the difference.
“It was a crazy finish, I guess,” Green said. “I think I had 127 metres to the pin, and so I hit my 8-iron. The wind was a little bit swirly. It was sometimes into the wind, sometimes from the right. So I wasn’t sure if it was 8-iron but I got lucky with the timing of when I hit my shot.
“I left myself a very difficult putt down the hill, and I guess I was fortunate enough to see Ashleigh Buhai’s putt and she didn’t hit a great putt. So I knew that it was going to be very quick and felt confident even though I was very nervous, and yeah, it went into the middle. So that was really nice, and I knew that gave me the one-shot lead.”
The LPGA Tour has five more events for the season concluding with the tour championship in Florida after which Green will jump on a plane to Melbourne to take her place in the field for the ISPS HANDA Australian Open at Kingston Heath and The Victoria Golf Club.
Meanwhile nine Australians and Kiwis have made it through to the next round of the PGA Champions playoffs, with David Bransdon (third) and Rod Pampling (tied-fifth) showing strong form in Richmond, Virginia over the weekend. The top 54 players advanced, with Michael Wright grabbing the 54th and final place.
Results
PGA TOUR
Shriners Children’s Open
TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas, Nevada
1 JT Poston 64-65-66-67 – 262 $US 1.26 million
T34 Ryan Fox (NZ) 70-69-65-69 – 273 $36,470
MC Aaron Baddeley 70-76 – 144
MC Cam Davis 75-78 – 153
LPGA Tour
BMW Ladies Championship
Seowon Valley Country Club, Seowon Hills, Republic of Korea
1 Hannah Green 64-64-70-71—269 $US330,000
T12 Lydia Ko (NZ) 67-66-71-71—275 $37,438
T33 Minjee Lee 67-73-66-77—283 $13,901
T46 Gabriela Ruffels 72-69-70-74—285 $8,559
T57 Grace Kim 67-71-75-74—287 $6,405
T67 Hira Naveed 70-72-70-78—290 $4,804
DP World Tour
Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters
Real Club de Golf Sotogrande, Andalucía, Spain
1 Julien Guerrier 62-72-63-70—267 €509,516.60
Won on ninth hole of sudden-death playoff
T43 Daniel Hillier (NZ) 68-69-72-72—281 €15,285.50
WD David Micheluzzi
Asian Tour
Black Mountain Championship
Black Mountain Golf Club, Thailand
1 Michael Maguire 68-64-68-65—265 $US360,000
T4 Ben Campbell (NZ) 68-70-66-64—268 $82,866.67
T7 Nick Voke (NZ) 68-67-69-65—269 $53,000
T33 Aaron Wilkin 66-71-69-69—275 $14,000
T44 Todd Sinnott 64-72-72-69—277 $10,600
T59 Kevin Yuan 65-68-76-71—280 $6,300
MC Douglas Klein 67-72—139
MC Jack Thompson 69-70—139
MC Kazuma Kobori (NZ) 73-67—140
MC Andrew Dodt 70-70—140
MC Justin Warren 70-71—141
MC Jed Morgan 73-69—142
MC Travis Smyth 70-72—142
MC Jordan Zunic 68-74—142
MC Sam Brazel 71-72—143
MC Wade Ormsby 71-74—145
MC Marcus Fraser 73-72—145
MC Deyen Lawson 77-68—145
MC Zach Murray 72-74—146
MC Lachlan Barker 73-74—147
MC Maverick Antcliff 74-75—149
MC Taewook Koh (NZ) 72-80—152
WD Brendan Jones
WD Harrison Crowe
PGA TOUR Champions
Dominion Energy Charity Classic
The Country Club of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
1 Tim O’Neal 71-67-65—203 $US350,000
3 David Bransdon 70-69-67—206 $165,000
T5 Rod Pampling 74-67-68—209 $80,650
T20 Mark Hensby 72-73-67—212 $26,333
T26 Cameron Percy 71-75-67—213 $19,122
T26 Stuart Appleby 71-71-71—213 $19,122
T37 Steven Alker (NZ) 71-75-69—215 $12,190
T37 Greg Chalmers 67-72-76—215 $12,190
T51 Richard Green 73-76-69—218 $6213
T54 John Senden 72-74-73—219 $6213
T61 Steve Allan 73-78-70—221 $3565
T65 Michael Wright 78-67-77—222 $2875
Challenge Tour
Hangzhou Open
Hangzhou West Lake Golf Club, Hangzhou, China
1 Conor Purcell 63-69-67-67—266 €73,776.16
T54 Hayden Hopewell 67-73-68-75—283 €1,683.02
MC George Worrall 77-68—145
Korean PGA Tour
The Charity Classic 2024
Sulhaewon CC, Republic of Korea
1 Wooyoung Cho 69-67-64—200
T38 Scott Hend 71-67-74—212
MC Sungjin Yeo (NZ) 68-76—144
MC Kevin Chun (NZ) 75-75—150
MC Junseok Lee 76-75—151
MC Wonjoon Lee 76-75—151
Sunshine Tour
Fortress Invitational
Glendower Golf Club, Edenvale, South Africa
1 Robin Williams 64-65-70-67—266
T48 Austin Bautista 70-68-72-76—286