Hannah Green fell one shot short of an historic medal for Australia at the Women’s Olympic Golf competition at Le Golf National.
After an indifferent start to the event, Green surged into medal contention during her third round with a six-under-par 66 moving her to three under for the tournament and giving her an outside chance of a grandstand finale.
During a thrilling final day, Green gave herself every opportunity to mix it up amongst the medals and she moved up to outright third on -7 after three consecutive birdies from the sixth hole.
Agonisingly, an errant tee shot into water on the 10th cost Green a double bogey and put an abrupt stop to her forward momentum. Although she clawed back one of those shots at the par-five 14th, further birdie chances slipped by – including a testing 20-footer on the 18th.
It left Green at six-under for the tournament – just one outside the bronze medal score posted by China’s Janet Lin, who did succeed in birdieing the last to claim outright third.
Germany’s Esther Henseleit closed with a 66 to win the silver medal behind New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, whose final-round 71 gave her a two-stroke victory and completed her trifecta of Olympic medals after taking silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020.
Green’s tie for fourth alongside Amy Yang (Korea), Bianca Pagdanganan (Philippines) and Miyu Yamashita (Japan) is the best finish by an Australian in Olympic golf competition, bettering hers and Marcus Fraser’s previous best of a tie for fifth.
But for her uncharacteristically slow start, when a five-over 77 saw her near the foot of the leaderboard, Green could well have returned home with a coveted medal.
“Coming fourth after such a bad start to the Games on Wednesday, I have to be pretty proud of myself,” said Green at the conclusion of her round.
“Would be nice if I got off to a better start in tournaments because I feel like when I’m playing my best on the first day, that’s when I really can be in contention.”
Minjee and Hannah have ambitions of representing Australia at the 2028 Olympics in LA
Fellow Perthite Minjee Lee finished her third Olympic competition in a tie for 22nd with a final round of 71. Eagles at nine and 18 and a brilliant tee shot to just three feet on 16 were the highlights, but six bogeys meant she made little impression on the leaderboard.
Both Green and Lee are now setting their sights on another Olympic campaign at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
“LA will definitely be on my radar. It’s on my mind and hopefully I can make it to Riviera for a third Olympics,” said Green.
“That would be a big goal of mine to be there, but I will be four years older,” added Lee. “I feel like I still have a lot to show for the Olympics, so hopefully I’m there.”
View the final Women’s Olympic Golf leaderboard here.
Image: Getty Images
