With a three-win season on the LPGA Tour – a feat not achieved by an Australian since Karrie Webb in 2006 – there were times this year when Green could lay claims to being the best player in the women’s game.

Granted, everyone played second fiddle to Nelly Korda’s seven-win season and Lydia Ko’s Paris gold medal at AIG Women’s Open title was a remarkable run in its own right but there was no question that Green was part of the conversation.

It took just two starts for the West Australian to record her first win of the year at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, storming home to edge France’s Celine Boutier.

Champion's final putt!@hannahgreengolf wins the 2024 @HWWCGolf in style! ✨ pic.twitter.com/FBbTF5JFr0

— LPGA (@LPGA) March 3, 2024

She missed the cut unexpectedly at the Chevron Championship – the year’s first major – but bounced back a week later where she successfully defended her JM Eagle LA Championship title at Wilshire Country Club.

West Aussie golfer Hannah Green has firmed for Olympic selection – defending her JM Eagle Championship title. The 27-year-old with a dream to fend off her closest rival by three strokes | @GolfWestAust @GolfAust @ashnelson08 pic.twitter.com/qLjOuDm2d4

— 10 News First Perth (@10NewsFirstPER) April 29, 2024

A head-to-head with Nelly Korda at the Mizuho Americas Open led to a playoff defeat at the hands of the world No.1, Green climbing to a career high of No.5 in the world and full of confidence headed to her second Olympic Games.

A slight stumble out of the blocks put the now 28-year-old on the back foot but she clawed her way back into medal contention over the following three days.

Hannah Green you did not 😲

↳ Olympic Games Paris 2024. Every Event. Ad-free. Live & On Demand. Biggest Moments in 4K on Stan Sport.#StanSportAU #Paris2024 #Olympics #AllezAUS @GolfAust @AUSOlympicTeam pic.twitter.com/ibvIgNPgJ2

— Stan Sport (@StanSportAU) August 9, 2024

A hole-out for eagle at the par-4 17th in a back nine of 6-under in Round 3 put Green within four strokes of the medals heading into the final day. By the time she began the back nine in Round 4, she was in a tie for third and charging towards Australian Olympic history.

A wayward tee shot on 10 would lead to a double-bogey that would ultimately prove fatal, Green making par at the 72nd hole to finish one shot out of a medal playoff.

Green’s third win for the year came at the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, making it successive Aussie wins after Minjee Lee’s victory in 2023, and was tied for sixth a week later at the Maybank Championship.

The third winning putt of the year for @hannahgreengolf! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/POJ8G98cTh

— LPGA (@LPGA) October 20, 2024

A second Greg Norman Medal at the PGA Awards was fitting reward for a season in which she finished sixth in the world ranking, seventh on the LPGA Tour Race to CME Globe standings and asserted her place as one of the dominant forces in women’s golf.

Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

In the professional golf of today, such an ascension is almost unheard of.

You are supposed to bide your time, pay your dues, do the hard yards on secondary tours and establish your own path to the highest echelons of the sport.

If you make it there at all.

The fact that Vilips was able to convert status on the PGA TOUR of Americas earned through the PGA TOUR U program into a PGA TOUR card inside five months is one of the more remarkable accomplishments of 2024.

That he was a child prodigy who has been seemingly on this path from the days he could first start walking makes Vilips’ story even more compelling.

With father Paul documenting his golfing development in Melbourne, Vilips came to public awareness with two US Kids Junior Golf Championship wins and a Callaway World Junior title.

After spending time in Perth, Vilips made the move to Florida to complete high school where his impressive golf credentials continued to build.

It made him a sought-after commodity by college golf programs, Vilips choosing to join Tiger Woods as a Stanford alumni where he closed out his college career with victory at the Pac-12 Championship.

That result saw Vilips finish 10th on the PGA TOUR U standings to begin his professional life with status on the PGA TOUR Americas.

After two starts on that tour he received a sponsor’s exemption to play on the Korn Ferry Tour.

He finished second in his second start there and won the Utah Championship in just his fifth tournament as a professional.

Those two results alone went a long way to Vilips’ finishing 19th on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Points List and earning Rookie of the Year honours.

Vilips returned home to Australia in November to play the ISPS HANDA Australian Open and will likely complete the whirlwind with his maiden start as a member of the PGA TOUR at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

As swimming coach Dean Boxall guided the fortunes of 10 athletes in the 44-person Australian swim team, Smith (pictured far left with Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Min Woo Lee and physiotherapist Marty McInnes) had three of the four golfers who wore the green and gold at Le Golf National under his stewardship.

In the men’s competition, Min Woo Lee fought back after a 76 on day one to finish tied for 22nd, Minjee Lee was also tied for 22nd in her third Olympic appearance while Hannah Green finished one shot shy of a playoff for an Olympic medal.

The 27-year-old from Perth was outright third by the time she walked off the ninth green at 7-under par but hit her tee shot on 10 into the water left of the fairway and made double-bogey.

Green thought at that point that her medal hopes had vanished, yet as players around her rose and fell, she fought to stay in touch with the top three, ultimately finishing one shot shy of Australia’s first Olympic golf medal.

Green’s Olympic campaign was just part of a stellar season in 2024 that she and Smith plotted back in January.

Part of that process involved a putter change that turned good ball-striking weeks into victories.

There were three in total on the LPGA Tour in 2024, the last of which came on the same day that Smith was watching another of his players, Elvis Smylie, win the WA Open for his first professional victory.

As Green was named Greg Norman Medal winner for a second time at the PGA Awards in November, Smith was honoured as PGA National Coach of the Year – High Performance for a fourth time.

Five days later he was celebrating again as Smylie showed remarkable composure on the back nine at Royal Queensland Golf Club to win the BMW Australian PGA Championship.

On the back of Smith’s playoff defeat in the individual event, Ripper GC registered their first podium finish of the year in Hong Kong but it was on home turf where their season burst into life.

Individually, all four team members finished inside the top 20 at the completion of 54 holes, enough to force the first ever LIV Golf team playoff against the South African Stinger GC team.

Smith and Leishman represented the Rippers while Louis Oosthuizen and Dean Burmester squared off for the Stingers, scores counting for all four players on each hole.

After dodging a bullet on the first playoff hole, Leishman’s par and Smith’s bogey on the second extra hole sent the home crowd into a state of delirium.

Despite the extensive celebrations that followed, they backed that up by winning the team event at Singapore a week later and arrived at the season-ending team event in Dallas in the hunt to be crowned team champions.

Third in the standings entering the Team Championship Dallas, Ripper GC defeated Fireballs GC in the semi-finals thanks to individual wins by Herbert and Leishman and then won the final thanks to rounds of 4-under 68 from Smith, 3-under 69 from Herbert and rounds of 2-under 70 from both Jones and Leishman.

What happened after that remains a closely guarded secret within the four walls of Ripper GC.

Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images

He’d won the Genesis Invitational less than 12 months earlier and a swing that makes grown men drool looked as fluid as ever, but time remains undefeated.

Yes, Jack Nicklaus won the 1986 Masters at 46 years of age and Vijay Singh rose to No.1 in the world for the first time at age 41 professional golf in the 21st century is very much a young man’s game.

You don’t get better after 40; it’s more a matter of who can delay the inevitable slide the longest.

Adam Scott playing his way back into the top 20 in the world at the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club deserved more fanfare.

As the golf year draws to its close, Scott remains embedded in the top 20; you have to go down to Justin Rose at No.46 in the world to find another 40-something inside the top 50.

To quote Ron Burgundy of ‘Anchorman’ fame, Scott’s season escalated quickly.

Top 10s at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic and WM Phoenix Open were a solid foundation yet in the lead-up to the US Open Scott’s streak of 91 consecutive majors was in danger as he hovered around 60th in the world.

He lost a playoff to Cam Davis at the US Open qualifier but was given a special exemption on the Monday to tee it up at Pinehurst No.2.

But it was a runner-up finish at the Genesis Scottish Open that sent Scott’s season into overdrive.

A tie for 10th at The Open Championship a week later was his first top-10 in a major since the 2019 US Open and then he played his way into the Tour Championship with a tie for 18th at the FedEx St Jude Championship and tie for second at the BMW Championship.

Having done enough to play his way into the DP World Tour Playoffs, Scott ended his year at the DP World Tour Championship where he finished third, his major streak set to reach 94 at the 2025 Masters.

Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

Paired with three-time champion Cameron Smith – whose scholarship he won just five years earlier – Smylie played like a seasoned campaigner and not the 22-year-old who has already seen the struggle that professional golf can be.

Having burst onto the scene as an 18-year-old who very nearly won in his first professional start in Sydney, Smylie saw the golf world open up to the promise of his potential.

Sponsor invites to play a dozen DP World Tour events didn’t yield a single dollar won, quests at Qualifying School also coming up agonisingly short.

But when he turned up to play the WA PGA Championship at Kalgoorlie in October, there was a confident air about Smylie.

Almost 12 months into working with WA-based coach Ritchie Smith, strength and conditioning coach Luke Mackey, physiotherapist Martin McInnes and mental coach Michael Lloyd, the Smylie puzzle suddenly looked completely assembled,

If not for a wayward tee shot on 18 he’d have had the outright lead through 54 holes at the WA PGA; a week later he tamed cyclonic winds at Mandurah Country Club to edge Jak Carter in a playoff to win the WA Open.

It was tangible proof to everyone – including himself – that he has what it takes to win, his composure under immense pressure at RQ a month later an exclamation point that has propelled him instantly onto the DP World Tour with what is effectively a two-year exemption.

Taking out all Australian state titles and then the Australian Senior Amateur title last year, the Victoria Golf Club member was the first Australian to win the R&A Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in July and then continued her trailblazing ways when she became the first Australian to claim the US Senior Women’s Amateur at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle.

Read: https://www.golf.org.au/gole-claims-randa-womens-senior-amateur-and-slice-of-history/

Facing 2022 champion Shelly Stouffer of Canada in the final, it was Gole who jumped out to a small early lead, taking a 1-up advantage with a par on the second hole.

Stouffer quickly levelled the match with a par on the third, but Gole responded by notching the first birdie of the day on the par-4 fourth to reclaim her advantage. A bogey from Stouffer on the seventh allowed Gole to stretch her lead to 2-up.

The match was all tied after ten holes, but after a birdie on the 12th hole to regain the lead, momentum would officially shift back to the Australian on the 13th, who followed up a tap-in par by Stouffer by pouring in an 18-foot slider for par to halve the hole.

Read: https://www.golf.org.au/gole-creates-history-at-the-us-senior-womens-amateur/

Hole wins on 14 and 15 would extend the lead to 3 up, the largest of the match, and one that would not be relinquished.