Australia’s main hopefuls Hannah Green and Minjee Lee to come in blind to home championships

Australia’s two main national championships hopefuls Hannah Green and Minjee Lee will come in to the Open blind and jet-lagged after a tight turnaround between tournaments.

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Hannah Green and Minjee Lee - Australia’s two main hopefuls to break a decade-long drought spanning back to Karrie Webb – will go into their national championship “blind” as they try to fight off jet lag in Melbourne.

World No.6 Green, named the Greg Norman Medal winner as Australia’s best golfer in 2024, and Lee didn’t have a chance for a practice round at either Kingston Heath or Victoria Golf Club after only landing back in the country on Wednesday.

Lee expressed her reservation about contesting the Australian Open in its current window, where men and women play alongside each other, after the world’s best female golfers only finished their last LPGA event on Monday morning (AEDT).

It’s a rarity a professional golfer doesn’t spend at least some time familiarising themselves with the course set-up before a major tournament, but Green and Lee had little time to do anything but conduct short pre-event press conferences on event eve.

Minjee Lee says the tight turnaround is not ideal. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“I’m pretty tired, but it’s always nice to be here,” Lee said. “I definitely think the beginning of the year works better [for the women’s Australian Open], personally.

“It’s nice to come in fresh rather than at the end of the year where it’s the end of the LPGA season and you have one more event to finish the year.”

Green enjoyed a stellar season in which she won three times on the LPGA circuit, but is still chasing an elusive maiden Australian Open title. She will begin her tournament in the afternoon wave at Kingston Heath on Thursday.

Since Webb won the last of her five Open crowns in 2014, the Patricia Bridges Bowl has returned to New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, the United States and South Africa, whose two-time defending champion Ashleigh Buhai is back on the sandbelt.

“I’m a little bit out of it right now to be honest,” Green said as she tried to shake jet lag on Wednesday. “I have asked a few of the players who have been here since Sunday what the course is like.

“I think my form coming into an Australian Open is the best it’s ever been.

Hannah Green feels as good as she ever has. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“Webby has won so many tournaments in her career, and both Minjee and I look up to her and want to have as many tournament wins as we can. The last few years has probably been our best bet to win one, but we’ve probably put more pressure on ourselves because we want it more.

“Arriving on a Wednesday is not ideal, but hopefully [Thursday] morning we’ll have our best stuff and lift that trophy on Sunday.”

Betting markets have listed Green and Lee as equal favourites from South Korea’s former winner Jiyai Shin and Australia’s Grace Kim, already a winner on the LPGA Tour.

Asked about the responsibility of trying to break the drought, Lee said: “I’ve always had a little bit of that mentality for quite a few years playing the Australian Open.

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“Because it’s my national title, I think I put a little more added pressure on myself to perform and have a good result. Sometimes it works in my favour, sometimes it doesn’t. Moreso, it has not worked in my favour.

“The last few years I’ve come in with a little lower expectation and tried to have fun and really embraced every moment on the golf course.”

Said Buhai: “I know how hard it is to win your home Open. For any player, it’s the closest thing to a major.

“When I went back and played the South African Open after winning the women’s British [Open], it was the most pressure I felt. You’re expected to win. When Webby used to come down here, she was just expected to do it.

“It makes it very difficult.”