World No. 6 golfer Hannah Green hopes to build on impressive 2024 season

SINGAPORE – A hectic 2024 season took Hannah Green around the world, though there is one trip the world No. 6 golfer has yet to make – her honeymoon.

Since tying the knot with PGA Tour of Australasia golfer Jarryd Felton in January 2024, the couple has had to put their honeymoon plans on hold as they competed on their respective Tours.

They have plans to travel to Bali, Indonesia with friends in December, which Green said may count as their honeymoon. But first they have to get through a busy 2025 season as the Australian golfer looks to build on an impressive year.

She enjoyed her best season on the LPGA since her debut in 2018, making 16 cuts in 20 events and recorded six top-10 finishes, which included three victories.

After winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship at the Sentosa Golf Club in March, Green claimed another two other titles and, in October, rose to a career-high world No. 5.

She narrowly missed out on a medal at the Paris Olympics, coming in tied-fourth for Australia’s best performance at the quadrennial event.

Reflecting on her 2024 season, the 28-year-old said: “I’d never really thought that I would win three times in a year. After the win in Singapore, it gave me a lot of confidence to have the next two wins.

“But I just want to make sure that when I get to these tournaments that I’m defending, that I’m not putting too much pressure on myself. Obviously, I might have a little bit more to do during the week, so I want to make sure that I prepare well for the event.”

Green was speaking with members of the press on Jan 28, ahead of her title defence at the Feb 27-March 2 HSBC event at Sentosa’s Tanjong Course.

The US$2.4 million (S$3.2 million) tournament will feature nine of the world’s top 10 golfers, including New Zealand’s Olympic champion Lydia Ko.

After concluding her season with the Australian Open in early December, Green returned to Perth for a three-week break to spend time with family.

While it was much-needed time away, she admitted that by the end of it, she missed playing and practising, and is now in Orlando, United States, getting ready for the circuit’s first event of 2025, the Jan 30-Feb 2 Tournament of Champions in Florida.

One area she is hoping to improve on in the upcoming season is her performance at the Majors – her sole triumph was at the 2019 Women’s PGA Championship. In 2024, she made the cut in three of the five Majors, with her best performance coming at the US Women’s Open where she placed tied-16th.

She said: “With the ranking that I am in the world, I expect better things of myself and everyone wants to try and peak for those Majors and perhaps I’ve put too much pressure on myself.

“This year, with the scheduling, I’ve tried to give myself the best chance for feeling fresh for those weeks, as they are a bit more draining than typical. But nothing much has changed, I haven’t really had to work on too many things in my swing.”

Encouraged by the growth of golf that was driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, Green hopes that the new formats of the game such as the Tomorrow’s Golf League will include female players in future.

The indoor team golf league, founded by superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in partnership with the PGA Tour, has been a hit since teeing off on Jan 7 in Florida, United States. She said: “I understand the concept of trying to get something different, to attract more people into the game.

“Maybe at the start not many people may know what the format is, but it would be nice to be more involved as a female, with more matches where there’s LPGA players and things so that we can get involved and also grow our own brand and women’s golf.”

• Kimberly Kwek joined The Straits Times in 2019 as a sports journalist and has since covered a wide array of sports, including golf and sailing.