Hannah Green remembers the shots and the putts she made around Wilshire a year ago – and through 18 holes of her title defense, she’s found herself in a familiar spot on the leaderboard.
Green, who won the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro in a playoff in 2023, opened this year’s championship with a 4-under 67 and is just three back of the lead after Thursday.
With a win, Green would be the first person on the LPGA Tour to successfully go back-to-back since Jin Young Ko at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in 2022-23.
“It's nice that I have fond memories of this place,” Green said. “Still very solid round considering I'm, yeah, defending champion.”
Green opened with four birdies on her opening nine, including on the par-3 18th. She made birdie on three of the four par-3s at Wilshire Thursday – and said par-3 scoring was the key to her day.
Green, who is tied for eighth alongside Bianca Pagdanganan and Amy Yang, is chasing fellow Aussie Grace Kim who is leading after 18 holes in L.A.
Kim shot a 7-under 64 and played with Green on Tuesday in a nine-hole practice round.
“I just kept giving it to her,” Kim said, explaining with a smile that she kept calling Green ‘DC’ for ‘defending champion.’
Kim admitted she “overthought” a lot of things last week at The Chevron Championship en route to a missed cut and “struggled a bit mentally.” This week she’s come in just trusting her muscle memory and getting back to basics with her swing – and so far, so good. She even chunked her tee ball on No. 18 but ended up chipping in for birdie.
With Green as the defending champion and with Kim leading, there seems to be plenty of Australian excitement at Wilshire.
“I think (Green) enjoys embracing that pressure (as defending champion). We’ll see which Aussie comes out on top,” Kim continued.
Minjee Lee won at Wilshire in 2019 and with Green winning in 2023, there’s something about the Australians at this venue – although Green can’t quite put her finger on why they’ve had so much success, including Kim’s opener.
“We get poa annua in Australia, but I think you just have to hit the ball really solid and there are some demanding shots and some shorter holes where you have to capitalize. I don’t know why the Aussies play well here. Obviously Minjee won here and, yeah, just trying to do our best,” Green said.
Green said she didn’t give Kim any advice in their practice round earlier in the week but noticed Kim’s putting was the big difference Thursday. Kim sits 112th in putting average on the LPGA Tour so far in 2024, but she needed just 27 putts in the first round – which was T7 out of the 144-person field.
“I feel like she’s been maybe struggling a little bit with the putter so it’s probably nice for her to have some putts go in,” Green said of her countrywoman. “I’m assuming if she shot 7-under she also hit it very well. Gracie – I think she’s a really talented player. Really nice to see other Aussies doing well.
“Obviously only round one, but I hope that her form continues for the rest of the week.”
Green missed the cut last week at The Chevron Championship but has a win already this season at the HSBC Women’s World Championship – her fourth career LPGA Tour title.
She’ll head into Friday just three back of her fellow Australian, as they look to keep the names from down under on top of the leaderboard at Wilshire.
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