Olympics 2024: Aussie pair to follow Karrie Webb’s lead – Australian Golf Digest

by Admin
August 6, 2024

[PHOTO: Getty Images]

What would ‘Webby’ do?

That mantra has been a pillar in the careers of both Hannah Green and Minjee Lee who now take centre stage for the Olympic Women’s Golf competition starting today at Le Golf National.

After experiencing the electricity that pulsed through the golf course during the men’s competition as spectators, Green and Lee went to work with a practice round on Monday. And the words of the seven-time major champion and Paris 2024 team captain Karrie Webb were not far from their mind.

They played the dramatic back nine of Le Golf National, the closing holes only slightly less intimidating given the absence of crowds. Those crowds are expected to come flooding back in for the women’s competition, one of whom will be captain Karrie Webb, following every move of her two most successful proteges.

Both Green and Lee are former recipients of the Karrie Webb Scholarship, setting them on a path that has yielded major championships and now the opportunity to compete again for an Olympic gold medal.

Green was a 19-year-old amateur when she attended the 2015 US Women’s Open as Webb’s guest and attributes her level of success since to what she witnessed that week.

“That was the week where I kind of was like, I need to work a lot harder if I want to do this for a living,” said Green, who became a major champion – with Karrie Webb in the crowd – just four years later at the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

“Perhaps if I did not have that opportunity, I may not have had the achievements. I may have still been a professional golfer, but maybe not worked as hard or felt as motivated in that sense.

“In my opinion, she’s the greatest golfer to come out of Australia. It’s really cool to have ‘Webby’ as captain this week.”

Lee was a Karrie Webb Scholarship holder in both 2013 and 2014. A decade later, she is teeing it up in her third Olympics with two major championship victories to her name.

“I played my first Australian Open as an amateur, but I got to play a practice round with ‘Webby’,” Lee said.

“It was just really cool to obviously meet her for the first time but play a practice round with her at such an early age, seeing how a professional golfer with such a decorated résumé goes about her game.

“At that stage, she was still playing a pretty full schedule, so it was just nice to ask her questions and over the years get some advice from her.”

Green and Lee both arrive in Paris with medals on their minds.

Green still rues a weather delay that halted her push for a minor medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but with two LPGA Tour wins this season, enters the 2024 women’s competition in arguably the form of her career.

“We all know what we need to do to get a podium finish,” the 27-year-old said.

“I felt a little bit unlucky in a sense in Tokyo because of the weather delay we had and it kind of killed my momentum. I had to make birdie [on the final hole[ to have any sort of chance, and I perhaps chose a more aggressive approach and didn’t pull it off and made bogey.

“If I was at a major championship, I’m not sure I would have done the same. I was a few shots off a possible podium finish, but it is a different mindset.”

Lee’s best Olympic finish is a tie for seventh at the 2016 Games in Rio and she knows the nerves get ramped up with three Olympic medals on the line.

“Your mindset going into the Olympics, you know that only one, two and three medal,” she said. “I think I’ll feel a bit more pressure coming down the stretch, wherever I am on the leaderboard, if I’m near the medal spots.

“That’s why it’s different, right? With the Olympics, you only get a chance for the top three.”

Green has been drawn to play with Great Britain’s Charley Hull and American Rose Zhang in round one from 5:44pm, AEST, while Lee is paired with Yuka Saso of Japan and Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul at 7:44pm, AEST.