The lowest of the low scores was assembled by Hannah Green, who admitted to feeling under the weather before her second round.
“I wasn’t really feeling that great overnight,” she said. “Kind of have a bit of a runny nose and sore throat, so wasn’t expecting that much which is maybe a good thing.”
Birdies cure a lot of ailments, though, and her 11 birdies are the second-most ever on the LPGA, bested only by the 13 Annika Sorenstam collected in Phoenix in 2001 during her magical round of 59.
On Friday, Green was 4 under at the turn, made another birdie on No. 10 and put the hammer down starting on No. 13, closing with six straight birdies for a bogey-free 61. She credits the confidence she had in her putting.
“I holed a really good putt on 17. It was probably 25 feet up the hill, and that was the one that hit quite firm, so luckily it was kind of dead center otherwise I probably would’ve been motoring past,” she said, joking that another putt she hit was so firm it “maybe even moved the hole.”
Making long putts was just as important as making timely ones.
“I just made some good momentum putts. Made a really good par on 9. Holed maybe a six-footer there,” she said. “I think making those little putts is just as good as making the 20-,. 25-footers.”
She admitted she’s never had six straight circles on a scorecard before, nor has she ever shot 61, not even in a casual round.
“I missed a short putt on the first and I was like, oh, okay, that’s fine,” she said, then later added, “The putt that I had on the last, it hit the lip.”
So hold on. She missed a short one on 1 and had a lip out in 18. That’s a 59, right?
“When you think of it like that, yes,” she said, smiling. “I did hole a lot of good putts and had a couple that just hang on the edge and fell in. So I’m very pleased with my round.”
Green, 27, won her fourth LPGA tournament just 26 days ago and would be the first two-time winner in 2024.
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Spanish