Hannah Green becomes third Australian to win Women’s PGA Championship

Hannah Green of Perth, Australia becomes the third Australian to win the Women’s PGA Championship. On Sunday, Green had a final round score of 72 at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, MN to maintain her overall score of -9. In the process she defeated Sung Hyun Park of South Korea, who had a 72 hole score of -8, by a stroke.

In the final 18 holes on Sunday, Green birdied the second, seventh and 16th holes and bogeyed the ninth, 11th and 12th holes. The other two golfers in contention were Melissa Reid of England and Nelly Korda of the United States, who were in a tie for third at -6 and three strokes back of Green.

The other two Australians to have won a Women’s PGA Championship were Jan Stephenson in 1982 at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Center in Cincinnati, OH and Karrie Webb in 2001 at the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, DE. At the time Stephenson and Webb were victorious, the Women’s PGA Championship was known as the LPGA Championship.

In an interesting note, Webb was among the golfers in the field who drenched Green with champagne on the 18th hole on Sunday after becoming the champion. This was not only Green’s first major title in women’s golf, but her first victory on the LPGA Tour as well.

Green also becomes the sixth women’s golfer in the last two years to have a major title as her first ever win on the LPGA Tour. She follows Jeong-eun Lee of South Korea who won the 2019 United States Women’s Open from Charleston, SC; Georgia Hall of England, who won the 2018 Women’s British Open from Lytham St. Annes in Lancashire, England; Pernilla Lindberg of Sweden, who won the 2018 ANA Inspiration from Rancho Mirage, CA; Danielle Kang of the United States, who won the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship from Chicago, IL; and Park, who won the 2017 United States Women’s Open from Bedminster, NJ.

The final two majors on the LPGA Tour this season are both in Europe on back-to-back weekends. The Evian Championship in France will take place July 25-28 and the AIG Women’s British Open will be at Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England from August 1-4. This is the first time as a major that the Evian Championship will be in July. Since the event became a major in 2013, the tournament has been held annually in September.