Aussie of the Month: Hannah Green
Hannah Green loves to win in bursts. The West Australian was not content with winning the LPGA Tour’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, so she parlayed that into twin victories at home at the Women’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA Championship.
The 29-year-old became the first Australian since 2014 to hoist the Patricia Bridges Bowl as our national champion then a week later duly raised the Karrie Webb Cup as our WPGA titleholder. Each win happened with husband, and fellow tour professional, Jarryd Felton as her caddie.
“In the past when I have won, I haven’t come into tournaments with much form,” Green said after the WPGA Championship. “I’ve kind of flown under the radar if anything, and it’s hard to back up a win – especially at home after the Aussie Open.
“It was such a big week. I think when I knew that I was going to win was when I actually hit it on the green on 18. That’s when I probably started to think about it more.
“It feels really amazing. Hasn’t really sunk in, but it’s been a really crazy month.”
Green has been here before. In 2024, she also won in Singapore and quickly again at the LPGA’s stop in Los Angeles, going on to record three victories for the season. If her start to this year is any indication, it could be a career campaign for the world No.8.
Birdie of the month: In Webb we trust
There are easy choices and there are wise choices. This one represents both.
That Karrie Webb should return as captain of the Australian Olympic golf team in 2028 at the Los Angeles Games was an absolute no-brainer. The seven-time major winner held the same position at the Paris Games in 2024, so reprising her role when the Aussies tackle Riviera Country Club in two years’ time makes perfect sense.
“I have loved the Olympic Games since I was a young girl growing up in North Queensland, so it was a wonderful honour to captain our team in Paris,” Webb said. “There is already a wonderful camaraderie within Australian golf, but it goes to another level when you come together in a team environment wearing the green and gold of your country at an Olympic Games. I hope the four athletes who represented Australian golf in Paris had an experience they will hold dear for the rest of their lives and I look forward to welcoming those who qualify for LA28 into the Australian Olympic family.”
Bogey of the month: 3 vs 1 doesn’t add up
Sometimes “the maths doesn’t math”, as the modern saying goes, and that was the case as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia drew to a conclusion for its 2025-2026 season.
How three-time tournament winner Cameron John [above] didn’t finish atop the final Order of Merit remains staggering, with all due respect to Travis Smyth, who did top the list and now earns a raft of exemptions as a result.
Smyth played in four tournaments (the minimum number to qualify), winning the new ISPS Handa Japan–Australasia Championship in Auckland. John won the Queensland PGA, Vic Open and season-ending National Tournament, while also losing the Webex Series Victoria event in a playoff. After 17 starts, he fell a mere six points shy of Smyth under a system that will surely now come under close review.
Golfers in the news
Best ’til last: You’re not going to want to turn your back on Amelia Harris [above] anytime soon. The 17-year-old finally captured the Australian Junior Amateur – at her sixth attempt and in her last year of eligibility. Harris carded a closing two-under 70 at Ballarat Golf Club to turn a four-stroke deficit into a two-shot victory.
Trav on a high: Newly crowned PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner Travis Smyth maintained his winning ways by claiming the Asian Tour’s International Series Japan event. Smyth won in style, sinking a 20-foot eagle putt on the final green to win by a shot. The victory earned the 31-year-old status on the Japan Golf Tour and saw his world ranking rise to a career-high No.134.
Lifting the bar: South Australian amateur Raegan Denton improved our national record at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, comfortably making the 36-hole cut and recording a final-round 69 at Augusta National Golf Club to share fourth place. It’s our best result since Kirsten Rudgeley’s tie for eighth in 2022.
Right Mann for the job: Veteran course superintendent John Mann will soon become just the sixth person to hold the director of courses role at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Mann will depart nearby Metropolitan Golf Club to take over from Richard Forsyth, who finishes at “RM” on June 30.
Quite the union: You might not have heard of either Matthew Stenson or the Dorset PGA Open Match, but the pair intertwined in dramatic fashion in late March. The Melburnian carded an incredible 13-under 56 on the 5,131-metre, par-69 Dorset course in Melbourne’s east to win the event by nine shots. Stenson’s round featured 10 birdies, two eagles… and a bogey.
Winter rules: Age was no barrier for Vic Winter [above] at the Over-80 Australian Golf Championships. The 97-year-old scored a hole-in-one on the sixth hole at Harrington Waters Golf Club during the annual event that celebrates players aged older than 80.
Speed merchant: Australian long driver Thomas Fliniks now owns the Guinness World Record for the fastest drive in golf. With a blow clocked at 378.36km/h, Fliniks broke a record (349.38km/h) that had stood since 2013.
Vale Bruce Nairn: The domain of Australian golf administration lost an icon with the passing of Bruce Nairn. One of the longest serving and most respected volunteers in Australian golf, Nairn’s service extended well beyond the fairways. A decorated amateur golfer himself, he later held many of the game’s most senior administrative roles, including president of the New South Wales Golf Association (1996-2003) and president of the Australian Golf Union (2000), after a long tenure as vice-president and committee chair across both organisations.
They did what?
Melbourne’s magnificent Commonwealth Golf Club is still basking in the glow of a successful redesign project completed two years ago. Now, four of its members are basking in a piece of history, authored on March 28. Andrew Spitty, Ben Blaich, Ty Murray and Brent Cowell all recorded holes-in-one in the Saturday competition. Three of the four aces came on the club’s cheeky uphill ninth hole, with Spitty’s landing at the 15th.
Photos by getty images/Mark Brake, toru hanai, Daniel Pockett
