Hannah Green goes bonkers at Ford Championship with epic 61 for lead

Hannah Green was perfect on Friday at Seville Golf and Country Club in Gilbert, Ariz., for the second round of the inaugural Ford Championship.

Entering the second round of the Ford Championship, Green sat at 3-under after she recorded a 69 on Day 1. She was six shots off the lead, but she made a complete turnaround.

She fired off a bogey-free 11-under 61, a career low for her. Green exploded 52 spots up the leaderboard to hold a one-shot lead at 14-under. The 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner made six straight birdies to close out her round.

Green didn’t expect much from herself, though, on Friday.

“I wasn’t feeling that great overnight,” Green said. “Have a bit of a runny nose and sore throat, so wasn’t expecting that much which is maybe a good thing...”

“With how the golf course is this week, it’s definitely gettable. It’s nice to see the ball go in, and the reads that I had were correct. Yesterday I actually didn’t feel like I played that much different. I read the greens a little better and hit putts that went in.”

Green made 11 birdies on the day and could have gone lower.

“The putt that I had on the last — it hit the lip, so it could have possibly been a 60,” she said.

There is still a lot of golf left to play. Fourteen women are within four shots of Green as of the time of this writing, so now is not the time to lose focus.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Green said. “The conditions for the weekend are going to be different from what we have had the last two days, so I got to make sure I don’t get too high, bring myself back to earth, and get ready for the next two days.”

The Aussie already has one win this season at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore. She looks to join Nelly Korda as a two-time winner in 2024. Korda is one of the 14 women within four shots of her lead, so this weekend might get interesting for the ladies.

Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, be sure to follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.