After a four-week hiatus from the LPGA Tour, Australian Hannah Green is off to a good start through two rounds at the BMW Ladies Championship in Wonju, Republic of Korea. The 25-year-old followed up an opening 2-under, 70 with a 5-under 67 on day two at Oak Valley Country Club, a round that was highlighted by five birdies and an eagle on the par-5, 15th. Sitting five back of leader Andrea Lee at -7 overall, Green said the rest at home did wonders for her energy levels as the end of the season looms large and she’s pleased with how she’s played thus far this week considering the length of her break.
“I felt like I played good yesterday but after having four weeks off was a little bit rusty. But today I had more bogeys on the scorecard. Just holed two really good putts which had been a while since I've done that back-to-back,” said Green, who hit 9 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens on day two. “I was planning on playing the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship but only had ten days at home and I decided to withdraw because I felt like that wasn't enough. I decided to take two weeks completely away from the golf course and then two weeks to get ready for this event, so yeah, mentally and physically feeling refreshed.”
The Aussie has had a solid 2022 season with two worldwide wins - Green was victorious at the Vic Open and TPS Murray River on the ALPG Tour - and has earned four top-fives on the LPGA Tour as well as three additional top-10s. Her best finish of the year was a solo second at the DIO Implant LA Open in April and Green’s most recent top-five came in her last Tour start before her hiatus at the AmazingCre Portland Classic where she finished in a tie for third. With some ground to make up as she looks forward to the weekend, Green is planning to avoid mistakes with steady, stress-free, fairways-and-greens golf over the course of the next 36 holes.
“I feel like you can definitely make some big numbers but so long as you keep hitting fairways, you've got pretty good opportunities to go at the pin,” said Green, who is hitting 83.3% of her greens in regulation. “(The wind) does get quite swirly here at Oak Valley, so hopefully it's not too bad over the next coming days. But this is a beautiful temperature to play golf in and it's great to have spectators out here so I just want to enjoy the weekend and try to play as well as possible.”
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