In an exciting day of golf in Singapore, Aussie Hannah Green was victorious and won the 16th edition of the HSBC Women’s World Championship. The now four-time LPGA Tour winner made a 27-foot putt on her final hole to slide one stroke ahead of Frenchwoman Celine Boutier.
The champion had a steady start to her round, making four pars out of the gate. Her first birdie of the round came on the par-5 5th hole, and a second birdie came on the par-4, No. 9. With her birdie on the 9th, she made the turn at 10-under par. Green’s tract to first place was slowed with a bogey on the 10th hole, but she quickly made up for it with a birdie on hole 12. She turned silent on the next three holes, making pars from Nos. 13 to 15. To earn the title by one shot, Green made a lunge up to the top of the leaderboard, birdieing each of her last three holes to become the winner of the 2024 HSBC Women’s World Championship.
“I didn’t hole many putts from long range today until obviously the last couple holes. But I made a really good birdie on 16 and was able to 2-putt there. Kind of gave the first putt a little too much and then made a 5-footer for birdie. That was nice. I could then see the leaderboard on 17, and made a putt there,” said Green, who now joins Karrie Webb as the second Aussie to win the event. “I knew I needed to at least birdie the last to win by one. So as soon as that putt went in, I was like, oh, my God, I’ve won.”
The runner-up, Boutier made a birdie on the first hole of the day, before making a string of pars on the front nine. She picked up another birdie on No. 8 and made the turn at nine-under par for the tournament. She proceeded to pick up two birdies in her next three holes on the back nine. To reach 12-under par, she made a final birdie on the par-3 15th hole and parred her last three holes of the event. One group ahead of Green, Furue and Lee, Boutier signed her scorecard and turned to the practice putting green, currently tied for the lead with Green who was coming up the 18th. Should Green had not drained her last putt, the duo would have headed to a playoff with the history that neither had lost a playoff on the LPGA Tour.
“I actually, yeah, it (the ending of today’s round) kind of reminded me a little bit (of the Maybank Championship), here again in another playoff. But I think it was really good for me to be in that position after today, starting the round, I didn’t even know if I had a shot,” said Boutier, who survived a nine-hole playoff in her last win, the 2023 Maybank Championship. “So I was just trying to put myself up there, and it was great to even have a thought of making it a playoff.”
Four players finished in a tie for third place after the final round on Sunday. Yuna Nishimura tied for the lowest final round, making six birdies that included a streak from holes 4 to 6 and back-to-back birdies on Nos. 13 and 14. Mi Hyang Lee shot a final-round 67 that included an eagle, birdie, bogey finish to move from a tie in 12th to within the top five. Lee’s finish at the 2024 HSBC Women’s World Championship is her best finish on the LPGA Tour since the 2019 Chevron Championship. With their finishes this week, both Nishimura and Lee claimed their first top-10 finishes of the 2024 LPGA Tour season.
Canadian Brooke Henderson and six-time LPGA Tour winner Nasa Hataoka also tied for third place. Henderson, earning her third top-10 finish in her first four starts of the 2024 season, shot a final-round 68 that included birdies on three of her last four holes. This is now her fifth time placing in the top-10 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. Hataoka earned her second top-10 finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, shooting a bogey-free 69 in her last round. The LPGA Tour’s next stop is the Blue Bay LPGA for the fifth event of the 2024 season.
Source: LPGA.com
