As the sun set at Wilshire Country Club, it was Australia’s Hannah Green hoisting the trophy in the shadow of the Hollywood Sign, once again a winner on the LPGA Tour after surviving a gritty three-hole playoff. Green began the day at -7 and two back of 54-hole leader Cheyenne Knight and made 14 consecutive pars to open the final round. She finally broke through on the par-5 15th with a birdie to move to -8, two back of then-leader Ruoning Yin, who had blitzed her way to the top with six birdies on the card. Yin ultimately faltered, bogeying the last two holes to post at -8 alongside Ayaka Furue, and all of a sudden Green was in a five-way tie for the lead with Yin, Furue, 36-hole leader Aditi Ashok and Xiyu Lin. Lin and Ashok came to the 18th both needing a birdie to post the new clubhouse benchmark, and both came up clutch, sticking their tee shots inside 10 feet and burying their birdie putts to finish tied at -9 overall.
| LEADERBOARD | |||
| Player | To par | Score | |
| 1 | Hannah Green | -9 | 68-69-69-69—275 |
| T2 | Xiyu Lin | -9 | 68-74-66-67—275 |
| T2 | Aditi Ashok | -9 | 66-70-72-67—275 |
As the penultimate group made their way to the last, Green needed a birdie to get to -9 and into the playoff, and after a ho-hum tee shot, the 26-year-old drained a lengthy birdie putt, sending herself, Lin and Ashok back to the 18th tee. Ashok bowed out early, hitting it to approximately 15ft and missing the birdie putt while Green and Lin stuck their tee shots inside 10ft, both making their short birdie putts. On the second playoff hole, Lin’s tee shot found the bunker and she splashed it out to nearly the same spot Green putted from in regulation. Advantage to Green, whose tee shot comfortably found the putting surface. Green cozied her birdie putt to within two feet, and after Lin missed her putt for par, it was an easy cleanup for the Aussie, who earned her third career LPGA Tour title and first since the 2019 Portland Classic.
“I said the first one was important, obviously a major championship. I said the second one was nearly just as big because then I proved to everyone and myself that I could back it up. But I think honestly this one is really important because I feel like this is just going to kick start remembering learning to win,” said Green, who captured her major title at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. “It’s tough to win golf tournaments. Sometimes you can play your best golf and it not be good enough. You’ve just got to hang in there. I think this is honestly just as big as the first two.”
Green has finished inside the top five in her previous two appearances at Wilshire Country Club, coming up just short here last year to 2022 DIO Implant LA Open champion Nasa Hataoka. While winning is sweet, finally getting it done at this venue made it even more so for Green. “The members have been amazing to me here,” said Green, who was the only player to post all four rounds in the 60s. “It’s such a special place, to play here in LA and have so many people come out. I’m really excited to come back and defend and hopefully keep putting my name on the trophy.”
Ashok and Lin both earned their best results of the 2023 season with their runner-up finishes, with Lin taking home her fourth second place in her last 26 starts. Furue and Yin ended up in a tie for fourth at -8 with Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, rookie Hae Ran Ryu and LPGA Tour winner Knight tied for seventh at -7. Thailand’s Jaravee Boonchant and UCLA alum Alison Lee round out the top 10, tied for ninth at -6 overall.
A LOOK AT THE CHAMPION
| CATEGORY | Hannah Green |
| 2023 Race to CME Globe Points List (projected) | 10 |
| 2023 LPGA Tour Wins | 1 |
| 2023 LPGA Tour Top 10s | 0 |
| 2023 Season Earnings | $497,745 |
| Career LPGA Tour Wins | 3 |
| Career Ladies European Tour Wins | 0 |
| Career Epson Tour Wins | 3 |
| Career LPGA Tour Top 10s (excludes wins) | 17 |
| Career Money | $3,533,874 |
ABOUT THE CHAMPION
Rolex Rankings No. 27 Hannah Green
- Sunday’s playoff was Green’s first appearance in a playoff on the LPGA Tour
- She made birdie-par in two playoff holes to win
- She hit 14 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens with 32 putts during the final round
- She hit 2 of 2 greens in her playoff holes with 3 putts
- Green made two birdies in a bogey-free round on Sunday to finish -9 overall
- Green, along with Aditi Ashok and Xiyu Lin, set the 72-hole tournament scoring record with a four-day score of 275
- Her 275 is her lowest 72-hole score of the season
- Green is the only player in the field to post all four rounds in the 60s
- She is one of just four players to go bogey-free during the fourth round
- She is one of eight players to hit every fairway on Sunday
- Green is tied for first in total fairways hit (53 of 56, 94.6%) along with four other players
- Green is the seventh Australian in the Tour’s history to earn at least three wins
- Green is the second player from Australia to win on the LPGA Tour this season, joining Grace Kim (LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei)
- This is her sixth start of the 2023 LPGA Tour season
- She has made the cut in five of six starts with one win and one other top-20 finish
- This is her first appearance at the JM Eagle LA Championship
- She finished runner-up and T3 in her last two starts at Wilshire Country Club at the 2022 and 2021 DIO Implant LA Opens
- This is her sixth season on the LPGA Tour
- She has three wins and 17 additional top-10 finishes in her LPGA Tour career
- She became a Rolex First Time Winner and major champion at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championhship
- She earned her second win at the 2019 Portland Classic
- She finished second in the Epson Tour Race for the Card in 2017 to earn LPGA Tour membership for the 2018 season
THINGS TO KNOW
- Aditi Ashok and Xiyu Lin finished runner-up after losing to Green in the playoff
- Ashok lost on the first playoff hole with a par to Green’s and Lin’s birdies
- Lin lost on the second playoff hole
- She hit her first shot in the bunker and had a bogey putt when Green made par
- Ashok was the 36-hole leader; it was the first overnight lead she has ever held in her LPGA Tour career
- Lin’s 19 total birdies is tied for second most in the field this week
- Stacy Lewis had the most sub-par holes in the field this week with 20
- Gina Kim and Alison Lee had the least amount of bogeys in the field with just 6 in four rounds
- Nasa Hataoka and Minjee Lee, two of the past four winners at Wilshire Country Club, finished T11 (-5) and T44 (+1) respectively
- Brooke Henderson (+2) and Moriya Jutanugarn (+11) missed the cut
- Hole 6, a par-4, played the hardest this week
- No. 6 has a scoring average of 4.385 overall
- There have been just 28 birdies made there this week
- 160 bogeys or worse were made on No. 6 in four rounds
- Alison Lee is the highest UCLA alum on the leaderboard
- She finished 9-under overall and T9
- Ryann O’Toole and Patty Tavatanakit, the only other UCLA alums to make the cut, finished T27 (-1) and 64th(+5) respectively
- Lilia Vu, who won last week’s Chevron Championship and is the winningest golfer in UCLA history, missed the cut
- Lizette Salas and Jennifer Chang, the only USC alumni to make the cut, finished T44 (+1) and T33 (-2) respectively
- Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda finished T6 (-7), her sixth top-6 finish in seven starts this season
- A total of 67 players made the cut at +1
- Korea’s In Kyung Kim made a hole-in-one during the second round
- She aced the par-3, 12th from 175 yards using a 5-iron
- It is the fourth hole-in-one of the 2023 LPGA Tour season; the three others were recorded by Gina Kim (LPGA Drive On Championship), Bailey Tardy (DIO Implant LA Open) and In Gee Chun (The Chevron Championship)
- With every hole-in-one made this season, CME Group will donate $20,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as part of the CME Group Cares Challenge – Score 1 for St. Jude; the 2023 donation total is now at $80,000
- Kim finished T33 (E)
- Bailey Tardy withdrew during the second round, citing illness
- This is the first playing of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro
QUOTABLE
Hannah Green on her nerves during the final playoff hole: “I said to my team and my caddie, I feel like once I get over the hurdle of having my third win that that will just open doors because I was really nervous today. I hadn’t been in that position for quite some time to be especially in a playoff to win a tournament. So when I holed that four-footer, I felt like I was literally shaking like crazy and you could see it visually. But I don’t really know. Maybe I’ll have a look at the footage.”
Xiyu Lin on her finishing holes to force a playoff: “Yeah, I’ve been chasing pretty hard today, but I didn’t get a lot going…. I’ve been struggling a little bit. But I felt like I kept telling myself, this course, anything could happen. To be honest with you, I’m making three birdies out of the last four holes was pretty phenomenal for me. Even in the first playoff I made another birdie. I would say I did pretty good. Definitely after nine holes, I definitely don’t think I really have a chance back then, and I put myself here, had another try, so it was pretty good.”
Aditi Ashok on being in contention this week: “I think I played good today, kind of the first day no mistakes, just the bogey on 17 feels like that’s the shot I left out there. But I think overall it’s a good week. I’ve never played in this position on the LPGA, so to be near the lead on the first day, kind of stay there the whole tournament. The competition is just so deep out here. 10 people have a good tournament but only one can win. I’m happy with the way I played.”
The Next Tee (TNT) 