TARZANA, Calif. — Hannah Green has that winning feeling again. Duh, it’s Los Angeles.
The 29-year-old from Australia was six shots off the lead with eight holes to play Sunday and came roaring back to emerge from a three-person playoff and win the JM Eagle LA Championship at El Caballero Country Club. This is her third victory in this event in the last four years and her fourth win this year with two coming on the LPGA and two in Australia.
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Green shot a final-round 68, playing the back nine at five-under, and birdied the first playoff hole. She was tied with Sei Young Kim, who lost an eight-shot lead she built during the third round, and Jin Hee Im. When she drained a 20-foot birdie putt to win, Green pumped her first in celebration. She shot 67-69-67-68 for a 17-under 271 total and hoisted the gargantuan trophy that is packaged in a bigger box than her suitcase.
Good problem to have.
Green also won $712,500 of the $4.75 million purse. On Saturday, JM Eagle chairman and CEO Walter Wang announced that he was raising the purse by $1 million, making it the largest purse on the LPGA aside from major championships and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
When Green was told of the massive increase, she dropped an excited F-bomb. A day later she earned an extra $150,000 from what was originally planned.
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“It’s amazing. Obviously, the start of this year has been kind of crazy for me winning back up in Australia and already have won Singapore,” Green said. “It’s going to be really hard to come back down to Earth next week, so that’s going to be my next challenge.”
Green won the event in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024 at Wilshire Country Club, the usual home of the tournament. Wilshire is undergoing a two-year renovation project, so this was the second consecutive year played at El Caballero. No matter the course, Green plays well in Los Angeles. She’s had top-10 finishes in her last six starts in this event.
Asked where she’d like the tournament next year, Green said: “Anywhere in California seems quite nice to me. Even when we played in San Francisco, I had some results up there. El Cab is a really good venue. The members, the staff, everyone really made us feel like it’s a true championship tournament. I don’t know where it is next year. I guess we’ll hopefully find that out soon, but I think it will stay in LA. So that would be really nice.”
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Harry How
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Green’s fast start to the season is uncharacteristic, but she’ll take it. She usually takes a while to heat up, but 2026 is clearly different—she’s won the HSBC Women’s World Championship, Women’s Australian Open and the Australian WPGA Championship. She has three top-10 finishes in four LPGA events.
Maybe it all adds up to winning a second career major next week as the Chevron Championship is at Memorial Park in Houston.
“I also am coming into our first major of the year, probably the most confident I have been in my own game,” Green said. “I’m really looking forward to it. It is going to be hard, traveling [Sunday night on a redeye], getting in [Monday], my head will probably be quite big still.
“I feel like I kind of need to bring myself back down to Earth and the week after Houston, I’m not playing. So I think maybe I’ll try and celebrate this win then. We all still have to peak for next week.”
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