Hannah and Min Woo boost Olympic Games hopes

5th Mar 2024

Olympic golf

Hannah Green and Min Woo Lee have one foot on the plane to the Paris Olympics after recent heroics on the LPGA and PGA Tours.

Green’s stunning victory at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore – her fourth career LPGA Tour title – holds a lot more weight than just the trophy and US$270,000 pay-day as it all-but secures her ticket to August’s Olympic Games.

With Olympic qualification based on the Olympic World Rankings, Green’s win moves her well clear of Grace Kim in the standings, making it highly likely that she and world number 5 Minjee Lee will fly the flag for Australia in the women’s golf competition, as was the case in 2020.

Her HSBC win also means that Green joins an illustrious group that includes Karrie Webb, Jan Stephenson, Minjee Lee and Rachel Hetherington as Aussies with at least four wins on the LPGA Tour. She achieved it in sensational style, birdieing her final three holes to win by one stroke from Celine Boutier.

Hannah Green is now a four-time LPGA Tour champion

Min Woo Lee can also start dreaming of Olympic gold after achieving his best finish on the PGA Tour with a T2nd position in the rain-delayed Cognizant Classic in Florida.

After horrible weather in Florida forced the event into a Monday finish, Lee closed with a four-under round of 67 to finish three strokes adrift of champion Austin Eckroat.

As well as earnings of US$800,000, Lee jumped to a career-high of 31 in the OWGR, with only Jason Day (19) ahead of him in the Australian Olympic rankings. However, with Day rumoured to be opting out of the Games, Lee is in pole position to don the Green and Gold this August. His high finish also earned Lee an exemption into his first PGA Tour Signature Event at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Elsewhere on tour, Haydn Barron continued his positive start to his DP World Tour career, with a T20 at the SDC Championship in South Africa. The 27-year-old WAGC member has now made the cut in all four DP events he has played in 2024 with a highest finish of T9th in February’s Qatar Masters.

Another WA golfer with reason for cheer is Hayden Hopewell, who finished outright 3rd at the NMB Championship in South Africa on the European Challenge Tour at the end of February.