KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

October 6, 2020

Hannah Green

Aronimink Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're back with Rolex Rankings No. 21, Hannah Green. Most importantly, Hannah is our defending KPMG Women's PGA Championship winner. She took the win last year at Hazeltine National in her third appearance in the championship, making her ninth start of the 2020 season. Hannah, this is your first time defending a major title. How did winning last year's KPMG Women's PGA Championship change your game? Did it change your game and where you stand in the golf world?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, it definitely, I guess, gave me more recognition in the GOLFING WORLD. As soon as I won, I was actually supposed to play in Arkansas the week after, but I had so much media going on here in the U.S. and back in Australia, so I decided to take the week off and go home. Yeah, it was a whirlwind of events, obviously, but because of COVID it's kind of been a little bit different with my title defense. It's actually been not as hectic as I imagined it would be, but it's been really nice. I'm just super excited to get the week started.

THE MODERATOR: You defended your title at the Portland Cambia Classic a couple weeks ago, so you do have an opportunity to defend under your belt. Do you feel that helped you? I mean, yes, it's the change of the year, but now you have a little more idea what to expect.

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, definitely. I think I kind of was happy when Portland was the first event, even though this year it was, again, quite strange, especially dealing with all the fires and the delays and practice rounds and even just reducing it to 54 holes. Yeah, it at least gave me a bit of a taste of what this week would be. Obviously being a major and being by run by the PGA, I expected it to be bigger, and yeah, so far I've felt that way.

THE MODERATOR: Thinking back last year to Hazeltine, outside of raising the trophy, what are some of the moments that stand out in your mind as some of your biggest most memorable experiences from that win?

HANNAH GREEN: I guess just looking back at the footage of when I holed the final putt, to see friends come on to the green, especially with COVID we're not allowed as many guests if any guests, so it's kind of strange being in a hotel versus last year being in a house full of seven people.

It's been a few adjustments, not just with the golf, with the mental side of things with golf. But yeah, I'm just super excited. It's obviously a great position to be in, defending a title, so I hope that I can, yeah, have this opportunity more often.

THE MODERATOR: You mentioned the mental side. I know it's strange to be out here under such different conditions. What have you had to focus on mentally to get back to play and get back to playing well?

HANNAH GREEN: I think because we had such a long time off it was hard to get your competitive drive back. It was especially hard starting in Scotland where it's such tough conditions. I was in a winter weather when I was back at home, so I at least kind of knew to expect some cold and windy weather, but the British Open this year was really brutal, so that was a bit of a shock to the system. So yeah, just being competitive again, and as much as you try and practice to put pressure on yourself, it's really hard until you actually get in that moment.

That's probably been the biggest thing, but then also not going back to Australia; I won't be back home until maybe after Christmas, which is probably the longest I've ever been away from home, so I'm hoping that I can have a win in the next few events and just book any ticket back.

THE MODERATOR: Being back home in Australia really does mean so much to you; you get so much support from Australia, from your home. What does it mean to you to have that support from afar?

HANNAH GREEN: Oh, yeah, it's huge. Mom and dad are definitely my biggest fans, even my boyfriend and pretty much all my friends and family, they definitely always send me messages of good luck, and I've had a few more than normal probably for this week. Everyone knows it's a big week for me. Yeah, I'm such a homebody, so that's probably going to be the biggest struggle of the year, so hopefully I can get home earlier than Christmas.

THE MODERATOR: Speaking of Australia, there's a great core group of you out here on Tour; Minjee, who was here before you, Sue, Catherine, and also Gabi Ruffels, Steph Kyriacou coming up on the pro side, Becky and Grace. Is it Becky who turned pro or Grace turned pro? One of them turned pro. What does that speak to the Golf Australia program and where you've come up that has, to use the hashtag, inspired the greatness coming out of Australia?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, it's been huge. I think we're really fortunate to have Golf Australia in general. Obviously it's a little bit different here in the U.S.; it is so populated and there are so many golfers, but we are fortunate enough that we can get, I guess, some financial help from a young age, and it definitely made a huge difference to when I was making the transition from amateur to professional golf. They don't just let you go as soon as you're finished as an amateur; they still have a program for us when we turn professional, so that helped me when I was out on Symetra, and so far I've stayed on LPGA so it's been really nice.

Yeah, to see Steph doing so well over in Europe, she's had a little bit of a change in her schedule she would say, so it's really nice to see, and yeah, it's nice we have a few of us out here to, I guess, see when we do get homesick and hang out with.

Q. If you may not get home until after Christmas, how do you bide your time here in the United States?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, so I guess that's another thing Golf Australia has done. I think about 12 months ago they decided to rent a house in Orlando, Florida, so there is a couple that lives there full-time but there's three or four other beds that we can stay in, so myself and Sue have been using that this year. I've been there once this year, but with the little breaks in the schedule I'll be returning, and I'll be going there next week.

Q. Where do you play out of when you're there?

HANNAH GREEN: So we can go to Orange County National, but then a couple of Korn Ferry players, Curtis Luck and Ryan Ruffels, they're at Isleworth and we live in Windermere, so it's like five minutes, so we've been very fortunate to get on to there.

Q. What's the biggest thing you learned about yourself in winning your first major last year?

HANNAH GREEN: I think just the mental toughness. I didn't really think I was capable to go wire-to-wire in an event, let alone a major championship, just hanging in there, and even though I was kind of crashing a little bit on the back nine, at the start of the back nine in the last round, I was trying to give myself as much positive thoughts as possible and worked really well with my caddie to make sure that I knew that I was still in it.

Q. I think if I've done my math right, eight of the last nine major champions were first-time major winners --

HANNAH GREEN: Oh, wow.

Q. Why do you think that is?

HANNAH GREEN: Honestly, I have no idea. Maybe because we haven't had that type of pressure before. It's completely new to us. We don't have any bad memories from possibly having a lead or not, I guess, having the outcome at the end of the day and winning. But yeah, that's an incredible stat. I didn't realize that, and I'm sure that is correct.

Q. It made me wonder if it speaks to the depth at all.

HANNAH GREEN: Oh, definitely. We're such an international tour. I think we're pretty lucky that we do get to play these championship golf courses and we have so much variety in the golf that we play, going over to Europe, going over to Asia, playing in Australia. I think our games are all very diverse, and that's why anyone can win each week.

Q. I wanted to ask you, too, and you touched on this a little bit with the mental toughness. What gave you the belief going into the week at Hazeltine that you could win that week?

HANNAH GREEN: To be honest, at the start of the week, I did not think I would win because the week before I had played at Meijer and missed the cut by a few. I really had no expectation. I honestly just wanted to make the cut, and then after shooting 4-under the first round, I was really kind of gob-smacked. I think the most important round was actually the second one, putting another good score up.

But I guess once I put myself in contention and put myself with the lead, that's when I kind of said to myself, I can win this; there's no reason why I can't. Yes, I hadn't been in that position many a time before, but because it's a major championship, everyone is feeling the pressure just as much as I was.

Q. Golf Australia, how long have you been involved with them?

HANNAH GREEN: Oh, gosh. I want to say at least the last 10 years I've been involved with them.

Q. Are they the Olympic side for you, as well?

HANNAH GREEN: So I guess the AIS contact Golf Australia and then we get all our information through them. So yeah, they are technically our contact.

Q. So if you had been an Olympics this year that's who you would have been working with?

HANNAH GREEN: Yes.

Q. The other question is you said you talk to your parents a lot and your boyfriend a lot; do they ever at some point ask you, because obviously Australia, where they are in the pandemic, is a lot different than the United States. Do they ever ask you what the hell is going on in the U.S.?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I guess we had a lot of news -- I want to say through April, May about what was happening here in the U.S., but because we've done so well in Australia, COVID is not a big talking point as much I would say. Melbourne -- I'm not from Melbourne, I'm from Perth, but Melbourne has kind of made a difference to how every other state has to go with their regulations and stuff, but I want to say that the talk about COVID in the U.S. is definitely settled down, and I want to say even in August when I was getting ready to go over to Scotland I wasn't really hearing it too much in the news. We had a lot of other things going on.

My parents do ask how it is, obviously being in a bubble every week and staying by yourself and not dining out. It's definitely something different, and I don't think you really understand what it's like until you do it.

Q. Are they concerned -- were they ever concerned about you being here?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, so I think my parents were really concerned when I still had my flight booked in March to go to Phoenix because the Tour was still not sure what was happening. Obviously it was very early. And I don't think my parents wanted me to travel, but I still had my ticket booked. Sure enough, the day before I was due to fly, everything got postponed and canceled. I think my parents had a huge relief about that and kind of even myself. I just felt like I wanted to go play. I guess it's a year where I get to go defend championships, and meant to be one of the best starts to the decade really, but a little different this year.

THE MODERATOR: I just had a couple questions for you about KPMG and being a KPMG ambassador and a champion now. KPMG has really helped elevate this event, bringing it to some of the best courses in the country. What does it mean to you and your fellow LPGA Tour players to get to play places like Aronimink which has such a tradition on the men's side and now to start a tradition on the women's side?

HANNAH GREEN: Oh, it's great. We're so lucky; I think even last year playing Hazeltine was huge for us with them hosting Ryder Cups. We're very fortunate to be here at Aronimink. I went out before Atlantic City to come and play the golf course because I knew this week was going to be busy, so I really enjoyed it. I know the members were super excited to have us here, which is sometimes a thing that is quite tough, but they were really upset that they couldn't sneak on and watch us, so it feels like we're very welcome to be here, but yeah, KPMG do a great job with looking after not only players but also the caddies and all the tournament staff. Yeah, I would say a lot of girls would say this is their favorite event of the year, and I would definitely say it is mine.

THE MODERATOR: How does this golf course line up for your game? You said you've had your practice round here, you're going out after this. We're hearing it's wet but long out there. What are your thoughts on this golf course?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, you're going to have to be very patient. There's a lot of long golf holes on this course, especially in the back nine, especially with the wind today, it's going to be a lot of hybrids, a lot of 3-woods, and the greens are tricky. It's not exactly -- they're quite big greens, but there's some room to miss it and some room where you really don't want to miss it. It's going to be quite interesting really. I'm not sure what the scoring will be like. I guess it depends how cold it is in the morning and how much breeze there is. But yeah, I'm super excited. I'm already getting good vibes from this course.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. We loved having you with us as a champion last year, and I'm sure you'll do great this week.