THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the interview area. We are joined by Hannah Green. You're having a great year. Talk a little bit about the shape of your game coming into this major week.
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, it's been good. Obviously the result last event, close neck and neck with Nelly and also a couple wins this year. I feel like this is the best form I've come into a major.
Chevron I didn't make the weekend, so I'm kind of wanting to make sure I perform well this week.
I'm really enjoying this golf course. It's really testing all parts of your game.
Q. Talk a little bit about the golf course. What's been your experience so far this week?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I played the back nine on Monday for my first time inside the ropes, and it was playing long. It was a little bit different and I guess more challenging in the sense you actually are hitting those longer irons versus a couple of wedges in here and there.
I'm looking forward to seeing it all set up the next couple days and especially on the weekend. But yeah, it's difficult. As soon as you hit it on to the green you still have to think about making a two-putt. You're actually not able to be aggressive on a lot of the putts you'll have out there.
Q. You mentioned inside the ropes because you had an experience here in 2015 outside the ropes; talk about that.
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, so I won Karrie Webb's scholarship in 05 for the first time, so myself and Julienne Soo, she's an ex professional golfer from Australia, we were both able to be inside the ropes with her this week.
So this is my first ever LPGA event that I ever watched, and I don't really think I watched that much just because it's so hilly outside the ropes. But I did get to see Webby. She played really well the first round, so got to see her doing all the media and things like that, and didn't really know what a professional golfer came along with.
So that was really cool. Yeah, it's nice to be back inside the ropes, and I can somewhat remember some of the holes, so it's kind of nice.
Q. You spoke a little bit about how well you're playing this year. Do you feel as though you've been a little bit overlooked in light of what Nelly has been doing?
HANNAH GREEN: I mean, it's hard. She's making history this year. I'm kind of happy to be outside the limelight. I just wanted to make sure that my golf is performing and what happens after that I'll take as it comes.
Yeah, it's obviously been a really great season, and to have my name kind of behind Nelly I'm still very happy with.
Q. Is that generally your temperament outside the spotlight? Is that where you're more comfortable?
HANNAH GREEN: I think so. It's hard not to put more pressure on yourself when you are doing media and things like that. Considering how much media Nelly has probably been doing, she's handled herself really well, and I am surprised she's not more tired than what she's showing at least with her golf game.
But yeah, I don't feel bad that I'm in the limelight or that I'm not. I just want to keep trying to get trophies in my hands and play as good as I can.
Q. We all know golf is a game of streaks where something may click along the way. To what do you attribute this latest spate of good play?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I actually feel like I haven't been as aggressive as I have been the last few years. I've played a lot better in these last two years, but not as consistent as I would like. I think I've finally been able to put those rounds together.
Sometimes when I mis-hit a shot it's actually leaving it in the right area versus trying to go for that -- not one in a million, but one of those shots that is quite risky.
I feel like I've actually been hitting the ball better and just making everything work a little bit better. I wouldn't say that my ball-striking or my putting has been significantly better. It's just shaping it all together has been really nice this year.
I think that'll be helpful this week. Yes, it is a long course, but you've got to hit the fairways, you've got to hit the greens, and try and make some putts along the way.
Q. It must be annoying to get a bunch of Nelly questions, so I apologize, but you're somebody who's won. You know how hard it is to win. One thing that is hard for media is understanding from a player's perspective like yourself what it is that she's doing. To whatever degree you can, what is it like to look at that and say, this is supposed to be difficult?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, she's making the game look very easy. I played with her in Palos Verdes and I didn't make the weekend that week, but I don't really know she was in contention all that much. I think on the weekend she did a lot of work, but she didn't even play that well.
Like she didn't make it look like she was a robot. She was hitting some shots that we all hit every once in a while, but she was just making up-and-downs and not making too big a numbers.
So she made it look really easy but not also like she played really well, which is the scarier thing, is that when she's on she's going to be on and she's going to be beating us by probably a lot. I'm not surprised.
Obviously before this year she was obviously a very dominant player and she always has been, even as an amateur. It's not surprising that she's having this season, but Lilia Vu had a great year last year, Celine Boutier. There has always been someone that's kind of crept up the top, so trying to beat Nelly is almost what we are trying to aim for, because if you beat her you're probably going to have the trophy in your hands.
It's great to see she's having such a great season, but I hope that when she does not have a win, a top 5, top 10, whatever it is, people don't slam down on her and think that she's not playing well. It's hard to maintain success, whether it's winning or not winning.
Q. You all had that test at Mizuho and you played some super solid golf with the two victories this season. How confident are you coming into this difficult of a test and this hard of a major?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I would think this is actually the most confident I've come into a major. It feels like I don't have to work on too much coming into a major, which is nice.
My coach was at Chevron and I felt like we had some things to work on and obviously I didn't have a great result that week and then won the next week. It's kind of hard for me especially with my inconsistencies when it comes to winning a golf tournament, but I'm feeling really good, and I'm actually really excited this week.
I don't know what it is. I wish I could have this type of feeling every week that I tee it up, but it just feels really relaxing out here at Lancaster.
Q. I know having perspective off the golf course has really helped you this season. At what point do you feel like you've really hit your stride, married life and other things to think about besides just being a professional athlete?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I just feel really settled this year. I don't know what it comes down to. A lot of people have said it's the wedding, being married, not having to worry about having a wedding to plan and things like that.
But it just feels different this year. I guess I didn't play the first two events in Florida so I just gave myself a little bit of extra time in the off-season to stay away from golf.
I gave myself four weeks to prepare for Asia, and I think that really motivated me more to actually practice harder and see the other girls winning tournaments.
I'm kind of glad that I've been able to do that, and obviously had the opportunity to miss some events earlier in the year, as well.
I think it's definitely one of the reasons why I've been able to be so consistent throughout the start of the year, and we have so many great tournaments coming up, I hope I can continue this form.
Q. I heard an interesting little fact about the course, that there's no two holes in a row that face the same direction, so that makes the wind more of a factor because it kind of makes it feel like the wind is always switching. Do you feel that out there?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, now that you think of it, like there's a lot of crossovers. I feel like it's actually a good spectator course in a sense that you can kind of stay on one hole and kind of view different tee shots and some shots coming into the green.
But yeah, we played a practice round on Monday and it was the complete opposite wind direction to what we played today. I think from what caddie has said, the first two rounds will be different to the weekend. I kind of like that, that what's what happens. It's nice the last couple days we've actually had some breeze in the practice rounds because I feel like often we'll have perfect conditions the first few days in the practice round and then get out there and there's wind from some direction we've never played.
I think U.S. Open it's always going to be a challenge, so just taking the elements as they come and seeing what we face.
Q. How do you and your caddie manage the wind?
HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I mean, it is nice that we've been able to play a couple of different wind directions for sure, but U.S. Opens you're going to try and play as boring a golf as possible, and hitting fairways and maybe not hitting -- especially if you don't have the club in the hand that you're most confident with, making sure you're missing it in the right spots.
Pretty much every hole if you hit it above the hole, it's not really the place that you want to be. So keeping yourself under the hole, whether that is off the green. Sometimes you might have a better chance of making par from that versus being a bit more aggressive and being above the hole.
I played with Maja Stark today, and I said, you almost would rather a 20-footer up the hill than a seven-, eight-footer down the hill because you can't be aggressive and you don't know -- it's harder just to imagine that putt going in.
We'll see what happens, and hopefully I can work with my caddie as best as we can and see what we do.
Q. For people out there who might not be as familiar with your style of play, how would you describe yourself as a competitor?
HANNAH GREEN: I guess I would say that I don't hit a lot of fairways. Statistically that would probably show. But I feel like I am somewhat aggressive, but I feel like my long game is kind of my strength when I'm playing my best golf. I've had a lot of rounds this year where I've hit a lot of greens, a lot of fairways and given myself really good opportunities to make birdie.
I actually changed putters at the start of the season and went from just a normal shaft to a center shaft putter, and that's really made a big difference with me being consistent with the shorter putts.
I think my putter has definitely been behaving more so this year, and that's probably one of the reasons why I have been able to compete the last few weeks.
But I think some players would still say that I'm aggressive.
Q. What makes you tick mentally? What pushes you?
HANNAH GREEN: I don't know. I feel like I've always been competitive. I am an only child, so I don't actually have a sibling that I was trying to beat or anything like that.
But my dad plays golf, so I was always very competitive with all the sports that I played. But I think because my husband plays golf, too, we're very competitive no matter what we're doing, so it's kind of fun playing with him.
He's here this week and we were together last year playing a couple games against each other, so it's just -- I love playing golf, I guess, love competing and trying to be No. 1 in the world and the best player that I possibly can be.
Q. What is your go-to game with your husband?
HANNAH GREEN: So we played Wolf last week, and let's just say he owed me some money. I don't know if he was being nice since it's coming into U.S. Open, but I don't know, we just like to play.
Even if it's a chipping, putting contest, whatever it may be. It's always very competitive. We've already played table tennis a couple times this week. So anything and everything.
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