18 Feb 2022 | Professional golf |
Green stands alone at TPS Murray River
by Dane Heverin
Vic Open champion Hannah Green’s pursuit of becoming the first woman to win a Webex Players Series event is going according to plan at the TPS Murray River tournament at Cobram Barooga Golf Club.
Green followed up her course record opening round with a six-under round of 65 on Friday afternoon to stand alone at the top of the leaderboard at 13-under par.
The world number 30 sits one stroke clear of overnight co-leader Andrew Evans who carded a round of 66 today and has remained bogey free for the tournament.
Also nipping at the heels of the West Australian are the morning group trio of Whitney Hillier, Cassie Porter and Matthew Millar who entered the clubhouse with the lead but are now three shots off the lead.
In the afternoon, they were joined by New Zealander Momoka Kobori which put four women in the top six and Green was over the moon to see so many of her colleagues performing well.
“I think this is probably the best chance to have a female winner come Sunday,” she said.
“It’s good to see all the girls that had a good week last week continue their form and play well. Hopefully one of us can continue and finish on top of the leaderboard.”
In order to do so, it is going to require two more stellar rounds with Green tipping the winning number to be between 20- and 30-under par.
“That's what I’m striving for. If that doesn’t come out with a win then I can’t really complain,” she said.
“I’ve just got to see what conditions we get this weekend. I’m not really sure if the wind is going to pick up or stay like this. It’ll still be tough to win the tournament.”
The eventual champion will also need to make a charge home on the back nine and Green has already taken a liking to the closing stretch with nine birdies and an eagle across that section of the course in her opening two rounds.
Those low numbers have come off the back of an aggressive approach that has thoroughly impressed the local crowd.
“Obviously I really like this back nine so hopefully this weekend I can keep lighting it up,” Green said.
“I lost my ball on the first so I was really happy to even make bogey from there. I couldn’t quite roll it and read the greens early and then I played some good shots coming in. I saw one go in and the hole seemed a bit bigger so that was nice.
“For that one on the last (a roughly 25 foot putt) was icing on the cake. I had two other putts with the exact same amount of break so I knew if I gave myself more pace that I would have a good chance of holing it.
“It looked like it was going in five feet out so it was really nice to see that one roll in and obviously have the spectators out and give it a bit of a roar.”
Evans is looking forward to joining Green tomorrow and experiencing some of those crowd roars first-hand.
“It’ll be cool the next couple of days. What is she? Top-30 in the world? It’ll be cool to see her up close and there’ll be a fair few people come out to watch her,” he said.
The New South Welshman, who is heading over to Japan after next month’s NSW Open, said yesterday that he entered the tournament with low expectations but finishing the first round with a share of the lead quickly changed things and “the stresses of golf” took hold.
“I didn’t get much sleep last night,” he said.
“I was thinking of all the bad things so I’m pretty happy with the way I played. You want to do well and you’re just not sure if you will. How can you not be trying to push when you’re up near the top?”
Round 3 of TPS Murray River in honour of Jarrod Lyle is Yellow Day at the Cobram Barooga Golf Club with crowds expected to create a sea of yellow and play will be broadcast on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports from 2:30pm (AEDT). Live scoring is available at pga.org.au or via the PGA of Australia app.
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