Hannah Green Riding High Heading Into KPMG Women's PGA Championship

BETHESDA, Md. - Hannah Green returns to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship playing some of the best golf of her career. She started the year with back-to-back wins in her home country of Australia and has notched four top 10s midway through the season on the LPGA Tour. She arrives at Congressional Country Club fresh off a top 15 finish at last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic.

“I feel like I’ve been playing well,” Green said on Wednesday. “I feel like this course really rewards ball-striking, especially mishits, so I hope that will help to my advantage and hopefully I will see a few putts go in.”

Green says that Congressional is a course that will force players to get creative, especially around the undulating green complexes. She added that players leaving themselves the best chip shot possible is key to minimizing mistakes in and round the putting surfaces.

“The greens are quite slow, but I don't think they can make them any quicker because of the severity of the slope, so I think getting used to that is going to be one of the challenges. I wouldn't be surprised if you see girls miss putts short,” Green said. “Leaving yourself the easiest chip shot. I think you'll see the best players do that, and that's probably who will come out on top this week.”

In 2019, Green earned her breakthrough major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club where she pulled out a narrow one-stroke victory ahead of Sung Hyun Park. With her victory, Green became the first Australian since Karrie Webb in 2006 to win a major championship. Fellow Aussie, Minjee Lee, won two of her own majors over the past two seasons on the LPGA Tour including the U.S. Women’s Open three weeks ago.

“I hope that number keeps increasing and there are more out here,” Green said about the growing number of Aussies on the LPGA Tour. “I think this is a good golf course because ball-striking is important, and I feel like most of us Australians are pretty good at that. I would love to see any Australian lift the trophy this week, but hopefully I can.”

Green got her hands on another big prize on the LPGA Tour when she ended the 2021 season as the winner of the AON Risk Reward Challenge which awarded her $1 million. After capturing that prize she said she hoped to buy a house in Australia. While she hasn’t done so yet due to the challenging housing market she did admit to buying herself a Dior handbag for her consistent play throughout the season. With the announcement on Tuesday that the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship has doubled the major’s purse to $9 million, Green could take home $1.35 million with a win on Sunday.

“It's amazing,” said Green about the purse increase. “I think everyone is just really excited to be here at such an iconic venue. We're all just ready to go.”