Hannah Green today – photo Australian Golf Media
Australian, Hannah Green, leads the Australian Women’s Open, putting together a second round of 66 at the Victoria Golf Club to be at 11 under par to lead the event by two over one of women golf’s most prolific winner of titles including this one, Jiyai Shin of Korea.
Green leads a stellar line-up of high class women golfers, with two time major winner, So Yeon Ryu, in a share of third place two behind Shin along with this year’s AIG Women’s Open Champion, Ashleigh Buhai, and Australia’s newest LPGA Tour player, Grace Kim.
US Women’s Open Champion, Minjee Lee, is another two shots back and alone in third position.
With four top tens in her last six starts on the LPGA Tour, Green brought some good form to the event and as a winner of a major on the LPGA Tour and a two time winner in Australia earlier this year she began the week as one to watch.
Shin won this event at Royal Canberra in 2013 and she has been twice a winner of the Australian Ladies Masters so she is no stranger to Australian golf fans or courses. That she has won two AIG Open Championships, one of them at St Andrews tells the story of a remarkably accomplished golfer who arrived in Australia with little fanfare.
The Korean has played most of her golf in Japan and Korea in recent years after making the decision to focus her attention in that region following several years on the LPGA Tour. Make no mistake, however, she is a golfer of the highest class.
Shin could well be the holder of the Australian Open Championship for the third time this Sunday.
Green was delighted with the manner in which she finished off her round, playing her final four holes in 4 under par to open up a gap on the field but is aware that the weekend’s changing weather conditions where hot winds are expected to sweep across the Victoria Golf Club are going to provide a strong test.
“Yeah, it’s going to be difficult, because again, the conditions are going to change,” she said. “It’s going to get warm, the wind direction will change and I’m not really sure if anyone’s played it in that direction. I’ve never played it like that. So yeah, I feel like I’ve just got to stay patient and probably not get too worried about what everyone else is doing.
Green also acknowledged the strength in the leaderboard and that the quality of the courses were always going to play a big role in that outcome.
“Yeah, it’s great. I kind of expected it, all of the good players to come out on top, especially playing here at Victoria. Even though I shot a lower score than Kingston, I thought this was a difficult golf course. So yeah, we’ll just see how the conditions pan out come the weekend.”
