Hannah Green is a celebrated major winner yet still the ISPS HANDA Women’s Australian Open title is a burning ambition she is yet to fulfil.
Her latest quest begins on Thursday in Sydney when The Australian and The Lakes Golf Clubs host the world’s most inclusive national Open. For a second time, the Australian Open will bring together men, women and all-abilities golfers to duel for three crowns at the one tournament.
Green finished third last year just two shots behind South African winner Ashleigh Buhai. She laps up any chance to perform on her home fairways but admits it comes with a different kind of expectation.
“I think it’s a different kind of pressure playing at home. I feel like we probably put more pressure on ourselves, more than there being outside pressure,” Green said.
“The Australian crowd that comes out just wants to see us play really good golf. Our toughest challenge is probably ourselves trying to chase that trophy but not get too far ahead of ourselves.
“It’s one (title) you want on your resume.”
Golfing great Karrie Webb (five times) is the only Australian woman to win her national Open this century. Jan Stephenson and Jane Crafter are the only other Aussies to conquer the overseas raiders from the USA, Japan, Sweden, Scotland, New Zealand, England, Taiwan, Korea and South Africa who have claimed the trophy over the 49 years since its first staging in 1974.
World No.5 Minjee Lee is another Australian chasing hard this week as the top-ranked woman in the field.
Green, 26, hasn’t played at The Australian since she was a teenage amateur in 2015 so the course’s super-slick greens may take some getting used to. The world No.28 broke through for her third title on the LPGA tour in April. Those good, positive vibes were important for Green, who is an ISPS HANDA ambassador.
She conquered a mental hump in winning that event, her first trophy in the US in nearly four years. Remembering how to win, a change to a negative post-shot habit, visiting a sports psychologist and “shaking like crazy” over her winning putt were all positives she wants to keep drawing on.
A rare visit to one of the LPGA’s sports psychologists in April broke a bad habit and improved her mindset.
“We kind of made a plan for a post-shot routine which paid off,” she said in April.
“When I’m not playing well, I tend to carry my golf club, whatever club that may be, off the tee, second shot, third shot, and I’ll almost walk with it in my hand to the green. Straight away, I have to give it to my caddie because I don’t do that (habit) when I hit a good shot, I give it to him straight away.
“It’s just training your brain to think differently.”
Like Minjee Lee, Green wants to keep playing good golf so she can earn a spot on Australia’s two-woman team for next year’s Paris Olympics.
“I definitely want to get back on the team. The experience in Tokyo (in 2021) was amazing but it was still through COVID so it was a tough time. We didn’t have spectators and I didn’t get to go to the Olympic Village. Little things like that I’d like to experience,” Green said.
This week’s Australian Open is a fitting showcase of golf as a sport for all under the sponsorship of ISPS HANDA.
“ISPS HANDA has been a long-term partner with Golf Australia having been the naming rights partner of the Women’s Australian Open since 2010. We are very pleased to continue this relationship,” Dr Haruhisa Handa said.
“ISPS HANDA is passionately committed to increasing opportunities for people with disabilities to play sport. Therefore, we are immensely proud to have been the title sponsor of the Australian All Abilities Championship every year it has been held since its inception in 2018.”
