by Golf Australia
Call it a premonition or a dream come true but Hannah Green got a sneak peek of what the celebrations of her TPS Murray River victory might look like on the eve of her history-making win.
Green created a world-first slice of history with a commanding four-stroke victory at Cobram Barooga Golf Club on Sunday, a chip-in eagle at the par-5 10th turning a one-shot advantage at the turn into a Sunday stroll to the title.
Part of a four-way tie for the lead through 54 holes, Green oozed class in the final round to compile a five-under par round of 66 for a four-round total of 20-under, the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion creating a new place for herself within golf’s history books.
Female golfers have won mixed-gender pro-am events over one and two rounds previously but until today there had been no female winners of a Webex Players Series event or any four-round mixed gender tournament on any major world tour. (The 2019 Jordan Mixed Open and 2021 Scandinavian Mixed in Europe were won by Daan Huizing and Jonathan Caldwell respectively.)
The global nature of her accomplishment was not something that the 25-year-old had considered but sleeping on the tournament lead for the third night in a row elicited a visual that she brought to life some 12 hours later.
“It’s weird. I don’t normally have golf dreams – very, very rarely – but I actually had one last night of me after winning,” Green revealed following her second win in as many weeks.
“I didn’t know how many I won by but for it to come true is really cool.
“It was just me holding the trophy and people spraying me with champagne. And then I woke hoping it wasn’t just a dream.”
The significance of her victory was not lost on Green, who played with juniors Sheridan Clancy and Jazy Roberts across the weekend while Grace Kim, Momoka Kobori and Cassie Porter also finished inside the top 10.
“It was great playing with Jazy, I think she had a really great time, and it was a lot of fun playing with Sheridan yesterday too,” said Green.
“Hopefully it’s inspiring the rest of the girls not only in the juniors but in the field to try and get their name on a trophy.
“We need to get as much exposure as possible and it’s great that we have events on in the summer when the peak of sport is on. Hopefully this can get some traction and people will see it.
“Hopefully each state can have these events. It’s not only good for the women’s game but also the men and having the juniors on the weekend is a great thing too.
“I don’t think this will be the last time these events keep happening. I can easily see 20 on the schedule coming soon hopefully.”
Playing alongside Green in the second-to-last group, Sydney’s Andrew Evans (70) held on for a share of second with amateur Hayden Hopewell (65) at 16-under, one clear of Kim (68) and Kobori (69), who herself won a two-day mixed New Zealand PGA-sanctioned pro-am last year.
As her three overnight co-leaders were slow out of the blocks, Green leant on her major championship qualities to strike an early blow at the first to edge one in front.
Evans (even), Matt Millar (one over) and Blake Collyer (two over) all stalled through the first five holes but it would be just after the halfway mark that Green took a final stranglehold of the tournament she had lead since Thursday’s opening round.
A superb approach shot just short of the par-5 10th set up a chip-in eagle for Green to move three clear of Evans and when she backed it up with birdie from 20 feet at the par-4 11th extended her lead to four with seven holes to play.
The world No.30 made birdie at the par-5 15th for the fourth day in a row, dropped a shot at the long par-3 16th but then cruised home with two closing pars to follow up last week’s Vic Open triumph with a win for the record books.
“I feel amazing. I’m just so grateful that I came. It actually wasn’t my plan to play; I was hoping to go back to Perth. Things happen for a reason so I’m really glad that I made it,” added Green.
“I wanted to win these two events as soon as I said that I’d enter them. I didn’t think it was a ridiculous goal to try and get my name on these trophies so now that that’s done hopefully I can continue this momentum.
“I want to be in the top-10 in the world. I think I can achieve it. If I keep playing the golf that I am now hopefully I can get there.”
In a dominant week for the women, the top three spots in the TPS Junior Murray River also went to the girls with Clancy shooting two-under 69 on Sunday to win by four strokes from Jazy Roberts (73) and Chloe Wilson (75).
Playing with Green on Saturday, Clancy upstaged her fellow West Australian to be four-under through nine holes before posting 72 on day one, showing no sign of nerves on Sunday with four birdies and just the two bogeys.
“Yesterday I knew I was hitting the shots that I needed to hit, just had a few rough holes,” Clancy said post-round.
“It was really good fun and Hannah’s an amazing player and I had so much fun to play against another West Aussie, it was really great.
“We talked a lot about socks and bucket hats, it was really good.”
