8 AUGUST 2019 |golfaustralia
BYJIMMYEMANUEL|GOLFAUSTRALIAWRITERTEEING
OFFPHOTO:GETTY IMAGESTHIS IS MAJOR
A MAJOR championship win does amazing
things, for more than just the winner.
You don’t have to go far back to Tiger Woods
claiming this year’s Masters to think of the
fl ow-on of people talking golf around the offi ce,
at social functions both non-golfers and golfers
alike, or the increased mainstream media
coverage of the game.
Similarly, many staff of golf courses and
driving ranges I spoke with in the immediate
aftermath noted an increase in patronage after
Tiger’s 15th major win.
More recently it hit a little closer to home,
with Hannah Green’s drought-breaking major win
ending a 13-year wait for the Aussie girls since
Karrie Webb claimed the 2006 Kraft Nabisco.
Green’s victory again raised the coverage
of golf in her home country, even if the West
Australian had to alert some media that she
was the person they were waiting for at Perth
airport upon arriving home the following week.
The home-grown major win has potential to
do far more for golf in this country though than
just media coverage.
The 22-year-old has said often that
she believes winning an Australian
Open would rank right up there
with winning a major – and
since achieving the latter, hasn’t
changed her tune. The pedestalplacement of our biggest event in the women’s
game is surely set to raise interest amongst
the golfi ng public, who have at times in recent
years become less than enthusiastic about
professional events played in Australia.
Beyond the potential boost for tournament
golf, Green’s win has the potential to help grow
the game with the next generation of players
like Webb did before her and Greg Norman
before that.
Webb has a scholarship in her name that
sees elite female amateur golfers travel to the
States to spend time with the World Golf Hall
of Fame member during a major tournament,
and having received the honour herself in
2015, Green gave 2019 winners Grace Kim and
Becky Kay a week they will never forget at the
Women’s PGA Championship.
To think of the stories the pair will tell on
their return home to their golf and
non-golf friends about being on the 72nd
green celebrating an Australian win in one
of the game’s biggest
events and how they
might inspire more
players or the duo
themselves to
push themselves
harder to reach
the sameheights as Australia’s newest golfi ng hero is
a great thought.
Green herself will play no small part in doing
likewise herself.
Australia’s newest major winner has already
attended an event at her home club of Mount
Lawley celebrating the women’s pennant team,
a small amount of her time to give up that would
have meant an enormous deal to the others in
the room.
Green is regularly seen encouraging the
juniors at Mount Lawley and it is her ability to
understand the importance of young people to
our game that might yield the biggest benefi t
for the game here in the wake of her win.
Green makes an effort with every young fan
she sees on the golf course and the reported
list of times she has lent a helping hand,
whether asked or not, when it comes to juniors
is seemingly endless.
To think of the inspiration for a young golfer
to even just receive a smile from a dyed-in-
the-wool major champion over the next 10 or
more Australian summers that could turn them
into a golfer, no matter what level, for life is
extremely exciting.
And if you think it can’t happen, I remain
a lover of allthingsrelated to the game after
watching theShark up close as a young
boy myself.