MODERATOR:  What a pleasure it is to introduce the 2019 Greg Norman Medalist, Hannah Green.  What a remarkable year it’s been, a standout Australian on one of the fiercest tournaments going around.  Hannah, a huge thrill last night to be awarded the highest honor in golf.

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, absolutely.  It’s really cool to be recognized by so many past players.  I guess  obviously the standout would be Karrie, but to have Greg and and Rodger  and then Pete and all those guys to then vote on me to win, it’s pretty cool because it’s tough competition among the nominees.

MODERATOR:  How big an impact has Karrie had on your career?  I know growing up she was an idol of yours.

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah.

MODERATOR:  And obviously working closely with her as your professional career took flight.  How significant of a role did she play? 

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, huge.  She took me to my first LPGA tournament to watch and to go to a U.S. Open when I knew I wanted to turn pro.  It was just perfect.  It was even better that week because she finished in the top‑10, so got to see the stuff like media.  This was the first time really knowing how much there is to do when you’re in contention and I think that really helped me at the KPMG. 

Yeah, she’s been a huge factor to my career and probably a lot of other girls on Tour at the moment, so I really have to thank her for opening everyone’s eyes.  

MODERATOR:  What was your goal‑setting like heading into this season?  You would have been fiercely determined to make your mark on the Tour.  Did you envision at all the success that would await this year?

HANNAH GREEN:  No, not at all.  I didn’t have any plans to win any tournaments.  So yes, you go out there trying to do your best, but on my goal list, none of them was to say win a major, win a tournament.  It was pretty much just trying to stay as consistent throughout the season. 

Last year I missed 10 cuts and I just wanted to make sure that I was making the cuts, but also finishing better on the results side when I did make the cuts.  So obviously besides the two wins I did achieve that, so I’m really happy.  It wasn’t too up and down a year this year.  There was some really poor results, I think I shot in the 80s the first major of the year, so there was some low points this year, but obviously some real high points, too.

Q.  Speaking of goals, what are your goals for the upcoming season? 

HANNAH GREEN:  I haven’t actually sat down and thought about it.  So once I came home from CME, then came to the Aussie Open to watch my partner Jarryd play and then visit Presidents Cup and now here this week, so I really haven’t had much time to relax and soak it all in as such. 

So when I get back home, I’m going to be home for two days and then I go to Bali, so I’ll probably (inaudible) and that’s when I’ll go and see my coach and starting setting goals and start getting a plan for January to get me ready for the season.

Q.  Have you played with Adam Scott before and what do two major winners talk about?

HANNAH GREEN:  It was my first time actually meeting him this morning, so it was really cool to be interacting with him and watching him obviously come off some good form from last week.  It’s great that he’s, I guess, in his hometown playing here.  Just to even see how he interacts with all the kids and everyone coming up and asking for signatures, it’s time consuming.  I give it to him, and he’s done a really great job of handling it all. 

But yeah, we were just talking about last week, talking about the course this week and just scheduling.  Just, you know, normal stuff, nothing too different.  Yeah, he’s really approachable and easy to talk to.

Q.  I guess you mentioned the word “scheduling” there.  I know you’re committed always to play as much as you can on the ALPG Tour, but any little tweaks you can see for the local women’s tour that would be beneficial?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, so this year I was lucky enough, I got to play four events on the ALPG, but two events clashed this year when the LPGA moved the schedule, so I’ll only get to play two this year, which is a shame.  I’ve actually never been to his country before, so I would love to go and see it. 

But I heard with the PGA and the ALPG merging that if we can get some more events on the schedule and then I can play more at home, it’s definitely ‑‑ I think my stats would show that I played really well when I’m behind the crowd.  I’ve had good results the last few Australian Opens, so I would love to play at home and I wish the LPGA could have some more tournaments, more co‑sanctioned events.  Hopefully, that can happen in the future.

Q.  You mentioned earlier about what you learned from Karrie when she took you over there about practice and media.  How much have you put that into practice I guess in six months since you won, in terms of balance, practice, et cetera?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, it’s huge.  I guess once I won KPMG and I signed my scorecard, I was there for four hours after the round completed doing all the media, getting ready for next year with all the commercial stuff, so that was a huge eye opener to me.  I had no idea.  I just thought you go home and celebrate pretty much, so that was a little bit delayed. 

But even just coming back to my next event, it was another major so obviously a bigger tournament but when I got to Evian, I had only one request that I had known about, but by the time I got there I had to do six or seven things. 

Now that I’ve signed with IMG, they can help me schedule my week, and it’s great that they’ve jumped on board and I’m really happy to have them. 

Yeah, it’s definitely different.  I didn’t realize how time consuming.  Obviously KPMG, leading wire to wire, I had to do press conferences and I didn’t practice just because I was so exhausted.  It takes a lot of time out of you, but I really respect all the world top‑10 players, male and female.  It’s a lot to juggle.

Q.  I guess winning in Portland must have been very special because there was the potential for a letdown after the KPMG.  Was that a particularly satisfying week for you to be able to go on and win again?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, definitely.  It was just as important as the first win.  Obviously to myself it was kind of out of the blue to win KPMG, but I think to come back to another event and be able to take another title just proves that it wasn’t just a fluke and I’m not going to be a player that just wins once. 

Yeah, I think I actually missed the cut the week before Portland and even before KPMG, so wasn’t really thinking too much.  I think it was really good for me to have kind of a clear mind.  Yeah, played some of my best golf at Portland, so it was great to be in contention and fight against (inaudible) at the time.  Yeah, gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.

Q.  Just what are you going to do between now and the Vic Open?  Is there an event somewhere else before the Vic Open on the LPGA Tour?  Will you play that?

HANNAH GREEN:  No, I won’t be.  So we have the Tournament of Champions, which is I think the second week of January, and then following that the second week in Boca, so both in Florida.  But I’ve decided to not play them. 

I haven’t really had much time to switch off from golf.  Even though I have been outside the ropes most of the time these three weeks, I still have played some golf and haven’t really been in a nongolf environment.  So when I get back to Perth on Sunday, I’ll probably put the clubs away, not go to the golf course and actually have some time off.  Then I think I’ll be ready to get ready for next year.

Q.  And how’s it been working with ‑‑ you’re working with Ritchie Smith, are you? 

HANNAH GREEN:  Um‑hmm.

Q.  In terms of how often you deal with him during the course of the year when you’re away?  He comes over, no doubt, occasionally, doesn’t he? 

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, so this year I actually did things different.  I came to Perth, I think I returned maybe four or five times during the season for two‑ to three‑week spans.  So the first week I would generally take the week off just to get my jet lag and everything all sorted and then my trainer came for a couple weeks. 

I think he actually only came over to the U.S. once and that was actually to see Minjee because I was at home at the time.  It’s worked well in that sense because there’s only really so much you can do during a tournament week and I don’t have too many weeks off in the U.S.  So he would generally be coming to tournaments. 

But next year with the Olympics with Minjee being on the team and me being in the second position there, he’ll definitely come there and perhaps some other events as well.  I think it’s important for him to come and watch some tournament play because sometimes he can say you had a great day and it’s not, and then vice versa, so it would be good for him to see in person.

Q.  You mentioned a couple of times missing 10 cuts, you were not expecting to win this year.  When did you believe that you belonged on the LPGA Tour?  When did you feel comfortable?  Was there a tournament where you felt within yourself that you were in a good place?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, I probably would say last year’s Australian Open, I was in contention in the final group and ended up coming in third that week.  It was pretty early to say that, it was only my second tournament as a rookie, but I think self belief is the biggest thing with this sport.  You see so many people that are so talented but they just don’t have the self belief and that’s why they don’t make it. 

By that stage I probably felt that I did deserve to be out there, but by no means did I think it was easy.  I know you’ve got to work hard.  With the Asian influence on Tour, all those girls are practicing all the time and that’s not how I would approach it, but I think mentally it’s probably just as hard.

Q.  Which of the four days at KPMG was the toughest?  I mean, I guess it gets gradually tougher.

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, I think Saturday, to be honest, because you’ve held the lead for a few days and then you’ve got one more round and that’s it. 

It was great, I had a really good Saturday night.  I was really lucky that by the time I had gotten to the golf course ‑‑ home from the golf course, the food was ready.  I was staying with Karrie and a few others in a house and we prepared an Aussie barbecue.  There was about a dozen of us at our place, so at least I was in my own house that I’m familiar with.  Even just to have Aussie banter and chatting.  No one was avoiding the situation, they all knew obviously the stakes, but it didn’t feel like ‑‑ they didn’t feel like they were putting pressure on me. 

Yeah, I think that was really nice to be amongst so many close people in my life that Saturday night and that’s when I felt the most nerves, but I managed to get some good rest for Sunday.

Q.  Did Karrie run the barbecue?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah.  Everyone else contributed in the house, which was cool, but yeah, Karrie cooked that night.  She’s a pretty good cook.

Q.  Is she a good cook?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, she is.  We had (inaudible,) we had sausages, I think we had potato bake and then some veggies.  It was great.  Obviously it was really fun.

Q.  I just wanted to touch on the medal.  Can you just describe for me the emotions and what you were thinking when you heard your name?

HANNAH GREEN:  Yeah, it’s pretty cool.  I guess it was obviously Scotty, Minjee and Leish, it’s a pretty hard competition.  So even to see Karrie presenting the medal to me, I was like gosh, this gives me chills.  Someone who’s been a big influence on my career and influence to Australian golf. 

Yeah, it was definitely really exciting.  Now that I have it, it’s really cool.  Even saying (inaudible) on the last green, we were both trying to fight (inaudible,) so yeah, it was really cool.

MODERATOR:  Thanks, guys.