Australia’s Hannah Green doesn’t want to think about what her score at Congressional, a long and damp course on Thursday, might have been a few years ago, before she decided to work to add speed to her swing and distance to her game.
“I don't think I would have shot under par,” said Green, one of only a handful of players to finish the day in red numbers. She shot 1-under 71. “Yeah. The ninth hole (a 585-yard par 5, into the wind), I had to hit a 5-wood in for my third shot. I hit a couple of hybrids into par 4s, hybrids into par 3s.
“I think if I played my best with that (former) length, I probably would have shot a couple over par. Maybe 3-over par. It has made a big difference.”
Green figures she probably added about 20 yards to her tee shots over the past couple of seasons, which makes a difference this week as the women play a course that stretches to nearly 6,900 yards. Green won the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at brawny Hazeltine National and sees similarities between the length and demands of that course and Congressional on Thursday.
“A little bit,” she said. “I feel like also the daunting tee shot on 18. It's quite a wide fairway, but when you are over the ball, it kind of looks a little bit narrower. I feel like the grass type, the green complexes, is very similar, and hopefully I can feed off those vibes.”
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