Hannah Green wins breakthrough major to make Aussie golf history

Hannah Green has won the WPGA Championship at Hazeltine, capping off a stellar month for Australian women on the global stage.

The 22-year-old from Perth held off Korea’s Sung Hyun (68) to win the title by one shot.

She is just the third Australian woman to win a major and the first since Karrie Webb in 2006.

Green held the lead heading into the final day and showed nerves of steel to shoot a 72 on Sunday for a nine-under total of 207.

“I mean I'm pretty much speechless. I was really nervous playing the last five holes,” the emotional winner said, with tears streaming down her face.

“I'm just really happy that I made a clutch putt because that was kind of what was struggling through the middle of the round. Just to make the one on the last is really surreal.”

Incredibly, the victory is her first on the LPGA Tour.

“It's awesome,” Green said.

“I've always wanted to win in front of an Aussie crowd, but I felt like even though I'm not in Australia that was what it was like today.

“Even just to be winning a major as my first event, I'm just so over the moon.”

Green’s triumph comes after a champion in her corner – she is staying this week with Webb, Australia's most prolific major winner.

Webb missed the cut but has stayed around with two amateurs who won her scholarship program, and she has been telling Green to embrace the moment.

"She just tells me ... you need to take it while you can," Green had said after the third round.

"And I know, yes, I have thought about the outcome tomorrow come the 18th hole.

"I think I just need to keep my cool and just have fun out there and embrace it.

"If it does come to me winning, I want to make sure I remember and have fun."

The advice paid off.

Green, in only her second full year on the LPGA Tour, is the first wire-to-wire winner of this major since 2011.

She said a missed putt earlier in the final round almost shook her off her game.

The fear of a playoff got her through.

“I actually didn't feel too nervous the first few. I felt pretty good about how I was hitting it but definitely coming on to the back nine, missing the putt on eight or nine, that really hurt,” she said.

“I probably wasn't in the right headspace for that. Just making the putt on 16 obviously relieves everything and I heard Sung Hyun birdied the last so I knew I needed to make par (on 18).

“I really didn't want to play that hole again, so I'm just really happy that I made it.”

with AAP