– Hannah Green (-9) is already in the lead at the Women’s Australian Open. Improving steadily. A little better every day. The Australian carded a 68 on Saturday, her best score of the week, and is now alone at the top with 18 holes to play. She is the clear favourite and has shown it on this again windy moving day.
Green made six birdies and two bogeys and moved a little closer to ending an odd run. No Australian has won their national Open since 2014. This drought sits oddly against a period in which Australia has produced as many as three different Major winners. In fact, just last year Minjee Lee and Grace Kim took two of the season’s five
Hannah is the clear favourite to win, not least because she has already won this year on the LPGA Tour and has often shown a special ability to close out tournaments when leading. That said, we’ll see how she handles a very different situation on Sunday — winning at home, with both the support and the pressure of the crowd. Somehow, even when Green won her Women’s PGA Championship in 2019, she tended to fly under the radar rather than be the main favourite on Sundays. There was always a name with more weight than hers in the final rounds. Not tomorrow. It’s her, her or her.
Also, Green has a fairly comfortable road ahead. One shot back is Argentine Magdalena Simmermacher (-8), a golfer who still hasn’t experienced a professional win. The 29-year-old from Buenos Aires has lost the two playoffs she has played in her career, one on the LET and another on the LETAS. She has finished runner-up three times in the top tier.
Beyond Simmermacher, third place is already four shots off Green, at -5. It is shared by South African Casandra Alexander and French Agathe Laisné. One shot further back are Australians Karis Davidson and Kirsten Rdugeley and French Celina Herbin, who led after the second round but stumbled with a 74 today.
Playing conditions were again very difficult on Saturday. Strong wind is a constant. Blanca Fernández (+1) remains the best-placed Spaniard, one step from the top 25. The Madrid native lost some ground on Saturday with a 74. The key was a poor start. She began with five bogeys in seven holes. From there, all credit to the grit and belief of the elder Fernández sister, as she posted a three-under return on the back nine to keep the top 10 within reach. She is four shots off that tempting target.
Further back are Marta Sanz (+7) and Marta Martín (+7), tied in 52nd after carding rounds of 74 and 76, respectively.
Speaking of bad golf days, we must point to Minjee Lee (+4), the big negative surprise of this third round. She was expected to be one of the main movers in the third round coming from behind, but it was quite the opposite. She shot a 77 and has fallen to the bottom of the leaderboard.
