The BMW Ladies Championship remains in Australian hands. After Minjee Lee won the LPGA’s lone tournament in South Korea last year, Hannah Green went wire-to-wire at Seowon Hills Country Club for her third win of 2024, closing with a 71 to hang on for a one-stroke victory for her sixth career title.
Leaderboard
Win: Hannah Green, -19
2: Celine Boutier, -18
3: Chanettee Wannasaen, -17
T-4: Hye-Jin Choi, -16
T-4: Yu Jin Sung, -16
How it happened
Green opened with a pair of eight-under 64s to take a two stroke lead through 36 holes. But her momentum cooled on the weekend—no thanks to bad weather forcing delays mid-tournament. Green had to play 45 holes on Saturday and Sunday, which appeared to catch up with her at the end of the tournament. Starting the final round at 18 under, she played the front nine in a pedestrian one under, allowing two-time LPGA winner Chanettee Wannasaen to grab a share of the lead at the turn.
Slow play among the final groups over the closing holes—they would clock a six-hour round—didn’t do much for scoring, turning the finish into a war of attrition. There was a 20-plus minute wait on the par-3 14th as players managed gusting winds on the downhill hole. Green and Wannasaen were each one over through the first seven holes of the back nine, which allowed Celine Boutier, playing four groups in front of Green, to set the clubhouse lead at 18 under when she made five birdies on the last seven holes for a closing 66.
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After Boutier finished her round, her co-leaders played what proved to be the pivotal par-4 17th. Wannasaen, two groups ahead of Green, missed a two-footer for par to drop to 17 under. Green tucked her 139-yard 8-iron approach to five feet, making her first birdie in eight holes to break a tie with Boutier for a one-stroke lead.
“The putt on 17, I was very nervous,” Green said. “I was just very happy to see that one go in.”
🎯🎯🎯@hannahgreengolf with a beautiful approach to birdie 17 and take the lead by one with one hole remaining! pic.twitter.com/tZIMnYB2oD
— LPGA (@LPGA) October 20, 2024
A two-putt par on the 18th earned Green her second one-stroke victory over Boutier in southeast Asia this season, as Green beat the Frenchwoman by a shot in March at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore by birdieing the last three holes.
What it means
Green, 27, continues etching her place in Australian women’s golf history. She is the first to win three times in one season since Karrie Webb won five events in 2006 and one of three Aussies ever to accomplish the feat, joining Jan Stephenson’s three-win 1981 campaign. Green has put together arguably the third-best season on tour this year, joining Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko as the third person with three or more victories. Green won the HSBC Women’s Championship in March and the JM Eagle LA Championship in April.
In her winner’s press conference, Green shared that the difference-maker this season has been tying the knot with long-time boyfriend and fellow professional golfer Jarryd Felton in January.
“I just felt really different this off-season,” Green said. “I felt much more motivated. I got married in January. So this has been a very special year.”
Han Myung-Gu
Quotable
“It was a crazy finish, I guess,” Green said. “My caddie [Nate Blasko] said to me at the start of the day, “Let’s try and get a lead and have a bit of a cushion coming in.” I did not do that and made it very interesting.”
Best of the rest
Ashleigh Buhai, 35, continues to regain her footing after a challenging season. Her T-6 in South Korea is her second top-10 of 2024, both of which have happened over her last three starts. The long-time journeywoman won for the first time on the LPGA in her 16th season at the 2022 AIG Women’s Open Champion and won again at the Shoprite LPGA Classic last year. However, Buhai has struggled to contend most of this season after accidentally breaking the pinky toe on her
left foot during the morning of the first round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June and playing through the injury to a T-52. She continued to ignore her doctor’s orders and played the Evian in July, lasting two holes before withdrawing. The South African played with a hole in her shoe during the Olympics to give the toe room to breathe in Paris. Buhai did not play back-to-back weeks on tour until the LPGA was in the United Kingdom in August.
Buhai’s late-season resurgence has her 59th on the CME points list, one spot inside the top 60 cutoff to be eligible for the CME Group Tour Championship.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
