West Australian Hannah Green has created a world-first slice of history with a commanding four-stroke victory at the TPS Murray River at Cobram Barooga Golf Club on Sunday.
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 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.)
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 rookie Grace Kim (68) and New Zealand’s Momoka 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 with a birdie.
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 25-year-old 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.
– More to come
