Hannah Green held her nerve and saved par from the bunker with a 5-foot putt on the final hole to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship on Sunday for her first major championship, and the first by an Australian in 13 years.
Green closed with an even-par 72 at Hazeltine for a one-shot victory over defending champion Sung Hyun Park, whose 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole gave her a 68 and put the pressure on the 22-year-old Australian.
Green pulled a 4-iron into the bunker, blasted out to 5 feet and made the biggest putt of her life.
Among those to celebrate with her was Australia’s most prolific major champion, Karrie Webb, which was meaningful in many ways. Webb was the last Aussie to win an LPGA Tour major in 2006 at the Kraft Nabisco. She also supports junior girls in Australia, bringing two scholarship winners to America each year.
Green was one of those recipients four years ago. Now she’s a major champion.
”I’m speechless,” she said through the tears. ”I was really nervous playing the last five holes.”
She finished at 9-under 279 and won $577,500.
In only her second full year on the LPGA Tour, Green became the first wire-to-wire winner of this major since Yani Tseng in 2011. She is the third player in the last five majors to make it her first LPGA Tour victory.
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