Hannah Green well placed for three in a row
Hannah Green – in action today – image WPGA
It would be easy to suggest that Hannah Green should be leading the Australian Women’s PGA Championship given that she is the highest-ranked player in the field by some margin, but golf workes in strange ways and the expected is not always the eventual outcome.
Green does, however, lead the $600,000 event at the Palms Course at Sanctuary Cove Golf Club on the Gold Coast, the world number 9 moving two clear of the field as the event enters the weekend.
Green, who just a few days ago won her first Women’s Australian Open in a classy exhibition against a stronger field in Adelaide, and two weeks earlier a win on the LPGA Tour in Singapore, followed up her opening round of 65 with an afternoon round of 67 to lead England’s Meghan Maclaren with another shot back to Germany’s Alexandra Fosterling.
Green quickly took over from the overnight leader, Kelsey MacDonald of Scotland, with an outward nine of 4 under 33, which included a double bogey at her 6th hole, and despite a closing nine of just even par 34 she takes the lead into the weekend and appears as the logical winner of the event.
“Yeah, it was definitely a roller-coaster that’s for sure,” said Green, referring to her round of contrast.
“I don’t really think I have many pars in the front nine. It was nice to get the eagle on the par 5 after making a double on the par 3. I didn’t really hit that bad a shot, but it obviously went into the hazard and then didn’t make up and down from there.
“But it probably helps that there are a lot of opportunities to make birdies on this golf course, but it is easy to slip up and make a couple of bogeys. So hopefully I can go back to playing a bit more boring golf. Bogey-free was nice yesterday, so that’s what I’m going to try and do this weekend.
“I feel like it’s kind of different to last week in Adelaide. You kind of had to pick your moments where you could be aggressive at certain pins and things like that. But here, because we do have the grain, generally, it’s a little bit softer to land the ball, I think you can actually hit it towards the pins.
“So I haven’t actually looked at the forecast to see what we have this weekend. Hopefully, we’ve got nice conditions, but yeah, I just want to stay patient this weekend because I know there will be birdies and people coming from behind.
“I definitely feel like I’m probably putting more pressure on myself as I am obviously on such a hot run. Perhaps if I didn’t win the last two events, I would maybe fly under the radar a little bit more than I have obviously winning my last two tournaments that I’ve participated in. But yeah, it’s great. I think we still have a really strong LET field, so it’s not like I have it easy this weekend.
The cut fell at 2 over par with 68 players making it through to the weekend, with perhaps the biggest surprise, the missed cut of Stephanie Kyriacou, who missed the cut by five shots, her second missed cut in a row.
