West Australian Hannah Green has fallen just short of her quest to win for a third time this season in an epic showdown with world No.1 Nelly Korda at the Mizuho Americas Open.

Seeking to join Jan Stephenson and Karrie Webb as the only Australians to win three times in a single LPGA Tour season, Green began the final round two shot back at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.

Green’s birdie at the opening hole and Korda’s bogey on two brought the two together at the top of the leaderboard and it quickly turned into a two-horse race.

The 27-year-old took the outright lead when Korda dropped a shot at the par-4 seventh but joined Korda again at 11-under when she made bogey at the par-5 eighth.

The pair made a trio of matching birdies at 10, 13 and 15 to move out to 14-under and four strokes clear of the field.

Each hole was a separate round of a heavyweight title fight.

Every time that Green landed a body blow, Korda countered with one of her own.

In a possible precursor to the US Women’s Open in two weeks’ time, two players with seven wins between them this season battled until the 72nd hole when Green’s fourth missed fairway of the day would prove costly.

The deep rough left of the fairway grabbed hold of her club as she played her second shot, the ball diving left and short of the putting surface.

The 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion showed great touch to give herself a par putt of some 10 feet but it missed on the low side as Korda clinched her sixth win in her past seven starts.

Although disappointed to come up agonisingly short, Green was proud of how she stood up against one of the greatest stretches by anyone in golf history.

“To lose to Nelly… it’s sad, but then it’s also Nelly Korda,” Green reflected.

“She’s obviously so dominant right now. To feel like second behind her is quite nice.”

Green is looking toward the US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club where she attended as a spectator in 2015 as a Karrie Webb scholarship holder.

“I’m super excited for the next stretch of events,” Green added.

“To go back to somewhere that I haven’t actually played but been outside the ropes, that was the thing that made me want to become a professional golfer, watching Karrie there.

“I’m really excited for Lancaster.”

Green wasn’t the only outstanding performance from an Australian woman this week.

Gabriela Ruffels continued her outstanding rookie season on the LPGA Tour with a third third-place finish to will propel her inside the top 50 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings while Kirsten Rudgeley shot 65 in the final round to finish tied for fourth at the Amundi German Masters on the Ladies European Tour.

A final round of 4-under 67 saw Min Woo Lee finish as the leading Australian at the US PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.

Lee’s four-round total of 9-under earned the 25-year-old a tied for 26th as American Xander Schauffele (65) birdied the 72nd hole to win his maiden major championship by a single stroke from Bryson DeChambeau (64).

It was another winning week too for the Kiwis, with Harry Hillier shooting 59 on his way to an eight-shot win on the PGA TOUR Americas and Fiona Xu winning the Copper Rock Championship on the Epson Tour by seven.

Results

US PGA Championship Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Kentucky 1 Xander Schauffele 62-68-68-65—263 $US3.3m T26 Min Woo Lee 72-66-70-67—275 $113,962 T43 Jason Day 71-67-69-71—278 $48,969 T43 Lucas Herbert 69-67-68-74—278 $48,969 T63 Cameron Smith 68-70-70-73—281 $25,202 75 Ryan Fox (NZ) 72-68-72-74—286 $22,350 MC Adam Scott 72-73—145 MC Cam Davis 78-71—149 MC Kazuma Kobori (NZ) 73-77—150 LPGA Tour Mizuho Americas Open Liberty National Golf Club, Jersey City, New Jersey 1 Nelly Korda 70-68-65-71—274 $US450,000 2 Hannah Green 71-71-63-70—275 $277,738 T3 Gabriela Ruffels 68-70-68-72—278 $146,358 T21 Minjee Lee 69-72-71-69—281 $30,238 T51 Karis Davidson 71-70-71-77—289 $10,189 T51 Sarah Kemp 73-67-72-77—289 $10,189 T53 Stephanie Kyriacou 74-69-71-76—290 $9,427 MC Grace Kim 72-72—144 MC Robyn Choi 73-74—147 MC Lydia Ko (NZ) 72-77—149 Japan Golf Tour Kansai Open Golf Championship Meishin Yokaichi Country Club, Shiga 1 Takahiro Hatachi 69-65-65-67—266 ¥16m T14 Michael Hendry 72-67-70-66—275 ¥1.376m MC Brad Kennedy 77-67—144 MC Anthony Quayle 70-76—146 Korn Ferry Tour AdventHealth Championship Blue Hills Country Club, Kansas City, Missouri 1 Harry Higgs 71-67-65-66—269 Won in sudden-death playoff MC Rhein Gibson 72-71—143 MC Dimi Papadatos 75-70—145 MC Brett Drewitt 75-70—145 MC Steven Bowditch 75-78—153 Ladies European Tour Amundi German Masters Golf and Country Club Seddiner See, Berlin, Germany 1 Alexandra Forsterling 70-70-69-67—276 €45,000 Won in sudden-death playoff T4 Kirsten Rudgeley 73-74-68-65—280 €12,150 T24 Momoka Kobori (NZ) 74-73-68-72—287 €3,510 MC Amy Walsh 73-79—152 Korean PGA SK Telecom Open Pinx Golf Club, Seogwipo, South Korea 1 K.J. Choi 71-64-72-74—281 Won in sudden-death playoff MC Wonjoon Lee 77-74—151 MC Junseok Lee 78-73—151 MC Kevin Chun (NZ) 84-73—157 PGA TOUR Americas Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship Club El Rincón de Cajicá, Bogotá, Colombia 1 Harry Hillier (NZ) 68-59-68-67—262 $US40,500 T45 Jason Hong 70-70-76-69—285 Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship Copper Rock Golf Course, Hurricane, Utah 1 Fiona Xu (NZ) 67-63-64—194 $US37,500 T30 Cassie Porter 74-68-71—213 $2,166 MC Su Oh 74-72—146 MC Amelia Garvey (NZ) 77-72—149