Five-time champion Karrie Webb has urged Australia’s modern stars to ride the wave of home crowd support in their quest to end a more-than-decade-long drought at the Women’s Australian Open starting today at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide.
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Not counting Minjee Lee and Cameron Smith playing the concurrent Australian Opens in 2022, this week marks the first time that two reigning Australian major winners have teed off in the same tournament.
Lee’s third major – the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – and Grace Kim’s stunning Amundi Evian Championship triumph last July gives the women’s Australian Open a gravitas that few events on home soil have ever enjoyed.
Lee and Hannah Green – another major winner – are both currently inside the top 10 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking which has created an expectation that an Aussie will win their home Open for the first time since 2014.
All of Australia’s leading hopes have acknowledged that they feel the pressure building, the last Aussie to win in 2014 encouraging them to tap into the energy of the Australian golf fans rather than feel weighed down by it.
“When I won a few events in Australia, I guess that eased the pressure a little bit and then I started to really embrace having the home crowd advantage and really enjoyed playing in front of the Australian fans,” said Webb, the Women’s Australian Open champion in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2014.
“I didn’t see it as much of a pressure or a burden as I did when I first was trying to win and show the Australian public some of the golf that I’d been playing overseas. Once that sort of pressure had been lifted, I really embraced coming home to play.
“It’s the only time during the year that if you’ve got a chance to win on Sunday against an international contingent, they’re going to cheer for the Aussie, and there’s nothing better than that.”
‘Pressure’ has been a common catchphrase among Australia’s leading women this week.
Her last-start win in Singapore two weeks ago has made Green conscious of expectation growing that she can end the drought.
Lee admits that there is additional pressure associated with trying to perform in front of the Aussie fans, Kim spoke of the hunger among the Aussie girls to get their name on the Patricia Bridges Bowl, a trophy that two-time Ladies European Tour winner Steph Kyriacou is aware holds the names of only a select group of Australian women.
Webb, Australia’s greatest major champion and a key figure in the current strength of Australian women’s golf through the Karrie Webb Scholarship, believes the greatest sense of pressure will be coming from within.
“I think most of the pressure is from their own expectations and their own want to win the Australian Open,” Webb added. “I think there is an external pressure from the fans, Australian fans and the Australian media, but I think that’s secondary to wanting to be that next Australian to put their name on the trophy.
“They’ve got to work out how to navigate that early in the week and on the first tee on Thursday and then just go in and do what they know what they do best and just get out there and play golf.”
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History may also be on their side.
Having not been played from 1978-1994, the scheduling of the Women’s Australian Open switched from November in 1998 to February in 2000. There has been a similar time gap between the 2024 women’s Australian Open held concurrently with the men and the first stand-alone women’s Australian Open since Inbee Park’s victory at Royal Adelaide in 2020.
“When it moved to February, it was a much better time of the year,” said Webb, winner at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in February 2000.
“For me, the tournament became bigger as the years went on because there was a period where you didn’t know if it was going to be there the next year. But it was the Australian Open. There were already great names on the trophy.
“It was definitely a trophy you wanted to add your name to.”
The Women’s Australian Open is live on Fox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo and the Nine Network.
Round 1: Thursday 12.30-5.30pm
Round 2: Friday 12.30-5.30pm
Round 3: Saturday 12-5pm
Final Round: Sunday 12-5pm
*All times AEDT
