Lada with Boa six fighting.
Hannah Green etched her name into the Wiltshire Country Club History book by successfully defending her title at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plaispro and earning her fourth straight top three finish at the historic course. Will twenty twenty five be the trifecta? We'll soon find out, as Green returns as the number five ranked golfer in the world.
The twenty twenty five JM Eagle LA Championship is set to take place April seventeenth through twentieth at El Cabayerro country Club in Tarzana and will also assist with LA fire relief and recovery efforts, meaning anyone affected by the Eton and Palisades fires and first responders will receive complementary admission. It's my pleasure to now welcome Hannah Green to the show. Miss Green, A pleasure to have you on the show tonight.
How are you, Yeah, I'm good, Thank you, Thank you for having me.
Growing up in Perth, Australia, was there a moment, Was there an incident, something which might have happened in which told you early on that golf was going to be your life's work.
I'll be honest with you.
I feel like I kind of started golf later and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do it for a profession. It wasn't like a calling in a sense. Or I've heard players say, you know, when they were five years old, they knew that that's what they wanted to do, and I don't think I was like that at all. I feel like I'm kind of like a
late bloomer in a sense. I went to the twenty fifteen US Women's Open, and that was kind of when I was like, Okay, I need to become a better player if I want to do this for a living. And I guess that's kind of the moment that I remember where I was like, yep, I want to do it. I really want to become a professional golfer.
Did you have a personal role model or a person who's who took you aside and said, okay, kind of I see some talent in you, let's see if we can develop this. Was there a person who was real integral to your development.
I guess I've been fortunate that I've worked with my swing coach since I was about thirteen years old, So gosh, fifteen years now, and I think he was kind of someone that I saw as guidance and whether he thought that I would be able to make it on the LPGA tour. And you know, my parents were a huge supporter of that as well's I decided to go with the professional route and not actually do any university study, so I guess a little bit of a risk in a sense in that way. But I also had Carie
Webber as a mentor as well. She was really helpful with, you know, just telling me what tool life is like, because you know, that's a whole nother battle in its sense. Trying to play golf is hard, but you know, traveling, you know, thirty weeks of the year is also difficult. So I had a lot of people that really helped me early in my career as well.
Someone like me, I can understand when you say the term like swing coach. We can, in an abstract since understand the travel and the grind. But what about the mental aspect of the game itself. Yes, you train your for the physical, you trained yourself for different situations and different lies, but what about the mental aspect?
Yeah, I think it's the toughest thing about it. I think, you know, we played a tournament in Arizona last week and think the winner was at twenty two under par, and I shot ten under par and it came about fortieth, But it was just because I didn't really part very well, and I think I was just getting frustrated that the parts weren't dropping like perhaps they work for other players. So it's definitely a mental game for sure. And you know, all of the players on the LPGA are so talented.
You know, they hit it dead straight, they hit lots of greens, and at the end of the day, putting is the last thing that gets the ball into the hole. And so it's such a mentally draining sport and I don't think people understand it until they try and play golf for themselves.
I understand people will have an off day on their jobs. You were talking about having an off day putting or maybe an off day driving, But what are some of the factors which may go into that, other than your mind wandering or you're not feeling your best or is it just random?
It's sometimes it can be random.
Sometimes you can go into a you know, your pre round warm up, hitting it great, putting it really well, and then you go out there and you get the complete opposite or the vice versa.
You warm up and you're.
Hitting it not really that great, not really feeling that good with your body, and then you go out and play some of the best golf of your life. And I think that's what makes golf so tricky, is you never even when you think everything's going really well, it sometimes isn't. And you know, not only are you trying to beat the course, but you're also trying to beat one hundred and forty four players to win the trophy
at the end of the week. So there's so many different factors that can play into golf, and I think that's why all of us are sometimes crazy enough to do this for a litting is it's every day is a complete different challenge sometimes and I've said to other people before, I don't know if I could just play one golf course for the rest of my life. I like that every week we have a new challenge and a new golf course.
You seem to be pretty adept at beating the challengers and beating the course. When it comes to the jam Eagle LA Championship presented by plath Brow, which is going to be at the El Kaba Yero Country Club in Tarzena coming up on April seventeenth.
You're going for the trifecta.
Why do you think that course has either been so good to you or such a good fit for that course?
Yeah, I guess it's maybe a little bit of both.
California has been really good to me.
I've had some really good results, not only in this Championship but other events we've played in San Francisco and in California. So I feel like I just am in a really good move when I'm here. It sounds really silly. Sometimes it's just harder at other events to switch on like that. But yeah, I'm looking forward to the challenge. But you know, with a new course that we're playing this year, it could be different. But I hope that
I don't put too much pressure on myself. I obviously would love to have a three pet, but I also want to make sure that I don't get too ahead myself and you know, put myself out of contention in the championship.
Please now take me on the course. You may be in a group of four golfers and you may go through your round. Is there any type of talk is there any chat or either respectful or even trying to get in your head. Is there any type of very quiet trash talking maybe in the clubhouse where they're trying to get you off your game?
Is there a game inside the game?
Probably not so much at our level. You know, Australian humor is very different. I feel like we kind of take the mickey out of one another. We try and give each other. I feel like if you're friends with someone, you'll also give them a bit of crap every once in a while. So there is some banta, as we call it, off the course, but I wouldn't say there's anything ever on the course. You know, some girls will have maybe some games amongst one another, but I feel
like that's kind of a rarity. Most of us kind of just stick to you know, what we know and try and play the round.
And you know, people will.
Talk to one another on the golf course, but it's just usually friendly chat. You know, where you're staying this week, are you playing next week? Just things like that.
In my introduction I said how anyone affected by the Eaton and Palisedes fires and first responders will receive complimentary admission. I know you had a press conference some days ago, and you made an announcement as well along those lines.
Yeah, I did so.
I guess growing up in Australia, we've faced many fires in I guess my lifetime. I've been very fortunate that it hasn't affected me personally, but you know, seeing or hearing the stories, I guess of the destruction that it still has caused to.
A lot of families.
I think everyone kind of has not really maybe spoken up about it since the fires have obviously been burnt out. But I pledged to, you know, donate five hundred dollars for every birdy that I make throughout the tournament week here at elkab And so I haven't actually seen the golf course and I do hope that I can make one hundred birdies for the week, but yeah, I hope that I can, you know, somehow give back to the California community.
What type of greens do you prefer? What type of fairways do you prefer? Is there anything that you're looking for or hoping for? When can you step on elkaba Ara?
Yeah?
So I heard that they did a renovation about four years ago, and so they've changed to bent greens. This is what I've grown up in Australia, so I'm grateful for that because typically in California there's a lot of polana greens which can prove quite difficult in the afternoon conditions. So I'm just intrigued to see what the course is like. I've heard it's obviously a really difficult course, a very good championship venue.
So we actually played well.
The LPGA played back in two thousand and two to two thousand and four, so we haven't been here for some time, so that obviously there's been some changes. But yeah, I'm looking forward to going out and see the course and yeah, just hopefully put on my best performance.
Last question before I let you go, Hanna Green, I've enjoyed this conversation with you. You've been pro for the better part of I don't know, maybe seven years or so. Do you recognize yourself still getting better beyond just performing better on the course. What are your internal markers that you are improving at your craft?
I would say the average tour player's career would probably be maybe around ten to thirteen years, so I guess I'm coming towards the middle to the end of mine.
So I'm just wanting to.
Make sure that I'm still really motivated to you know, become the best player in the world, and you know, go through all my processes and you know, I've been very fortunate to have some success, but I'm still really hungry for more and hopefully i can have my name et stron Moore trophies. But yeah, it's it's tricky. You know, the level of play has changed so much in the seven years that I've been here. You know, every week
it seems like someone else could win. It's Nelly obviously dominated last year and she won I think seven at tournaments, but I don't really know if that will happen this year. We've had five events so far and we've had five different winners, so it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the year goes. But yeah, it's really challenging and there's a lot of talent coming through.
The twenty twenty five Jam Eagle LA Championship is set to take place April seventeenth through the twentieth that El Cabalero Country Club in Tarzana and also will assist with La fire relief and recovery efforts. As you've heard, anyone affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires and first responders will receive complementary admission.
Hannah Green twice defending champion.
Thank you for coming on the show tonight and we wish you nothing but success.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's Later with mo Kelly. We're live everywhere in the iHeartRadio app. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty