Australia’s No.1-ranked golfer, Hannah Green, is embracing the expectation that comes with her status as one of the hottest players in the women’s game, revealing her ambition to claim her country’s first Olympic golf gold medal.
Currently home in Perth for a short break before playing the fourth women’s major of the year, the Amundi Evian Championship in France, Green spoke with Australian media of her Paris Olympic ambition.
Green’s tie for fifth in Tokyo matched Marcus Fraser’s performance in Rio in 2016 as Australia’s best result in Olympic golf competition, but the 27-year-old West Australian wants more. A two-time winner on the LPGA Tour this season and currently ranked No.1 world in the women’s world golf rankings, Green did not shy away from her desire to turn strong form into Olympic glory.]
“I have been playing well this year, so I do have expectations and I want to get a gold medal,” said Green, who will play alongside fellow West Australian Minjee Lee for a second straight Olympic Games.
“I want to have a podium finish, so I want to do everything that I can from Saturday through to Wednesday to get myself ready and hopefully play as well as I can.”
Having never been to Paris nor to the host course, Le Golf National, Green intends to study vision of the most recent Ryder Cup played at the venue and arrive early to watch the men’s competition. It is all designed to give her the best chance to achieve what Green says would be the highlight of her career.
“I never really imagined when I first started playing golf that I would ever become a professional golfer, let alone an Olympian,” admitted Green, the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion.
“Watching it on TV as a kid, regardless if I wasn’t playing golf at the time, to imagine me on the TV now competing for Australia, it really is a big honour. All of us, as much as we want to do well for ourselves, realistically, we just want to bring back a medal for Australia.
“Because it’s more rare, I think it would have to be probably higher than a major. I’ve always considered the Aussie Open like a major championship in that sense, but I think an Olympic gold would be bigger than a major.”
The Olympic golf competition will be held from Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, 10 August at Le Golf National venue in Guyancourt.