Any day that an LPGA player receives a $1 million paycheck is a monumental occurrence. The fact that it will happen twice this week is a headline-grabbing affair.
Hannah Green joins the PGA Tour’s Matthew Wolff as the 2021 Aon Risk Reward Challenge winners. Both received a $1 million prize. In addition, the winner of this week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship will receive $1.5 million.
“I actually wanted to buy a house during the off-season,” said Green, “so this gives me an opportunity to actually play comfortably. It is quite difficult to buy houses in Australia, especially as a sports person with the not-frequent income, and as well as foreign income.
“So in a way for me, it will be life-changing.”
Green didn’t score worse than par on any of the single qualifying challenge holes throughout the season. She had a go-for-green success rate of 68 percent compared to the tour average of 46 percent. She birdied 72 percent and eagled almost 10 percent of the Aon Risk Reward Challenge holes that counted within the 40 minimum rounds necessary to qualify for the challenge.
She credited her increased distance for the season with allowing her to get to spots she previously couldn’t reach before and take on more risk.
Green said she didn’t realize she was leading the Aon race until good friend Alison Whitaker mentioned it on the broadcast of the AIG Women’s Open. At the BMW event in South Korea, she and her caddie ran the scenarios and knew that she needed two birdies to improve her position. Pulling it off, she said, was a big moment.
Her ultimate strategic play, however, came when she skipped last week’s Pelican event to protect her sizable lead.
“Just shows how important it is to us LPGA players for me to, yeah, sacrifice an event,” said Green, “and also make decisions on the golf course.”
One of the goals behind the Aon Risk Reward Challenge was to create a platform where achievements could be equally celebrated across the men’s and women’s game, said Aon North America CEO Jennifer Bell.
Wolff joined Green virtually during a press conference at the CME.
“At the end of the day,” said Wolff, “I’m really happy that Hannah and I are making the same amount, because like I said, it’s the same decisions.”
Green, 24, has won $2,262,361 on the LPGA since joining the tour in 2018. She burst onto the scene in a big way by winning the KPMG Women’s PGA at Hazeltine and followed it with a victory later that year at the Cambia Portland Classic.
“I didn’t feel intimidated,” said Green of her early days on tour, “but I just didn’t feel like I quite belonged when I first started because I didn’t have the results. So backing that up kind of the end of the year made a big difference.
“I probably wouldn’t have thought that I would be in this position four, five years ago when I first turned professional.”