FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, June 23rd, 2019

NOTABLE QUOTES: KPMG WOMEN’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP – HANNAH GREEN GOES WIRE-TO-WIRE TO WIN 1ST MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP

NBC Sports Notable Quotes
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
Final Round
Hazeltine National Golf Club
Chaska, Minn.
Sunday, June 23, 2019

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Leaderboard
Hannah Green    -9
Sung Hyun Park  -8
Mel Reid              -6
Nelly Korda         -6
Danielle Kang     -5
Lizette Salas        -5

On Hannah Green, 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner at 9-under (even par 72 on Sunday)
Dan Hicks – “One of the most unlikely winners in major championship golf in recent history. What a clutch up and down for Hannah Green from Down Under. She breaks through in a major way.”
Hicks – “The 114th ranked player in the world breaks through at Hazeltine with her mentor, Karrie Webb, cheering her on. She won wire to wire. It doesn’t get much more of a storybook ending than that.”
Hicks – “This is why you watch sports. No one really gave Hannah Green a chance at the beginning of the week and a lot of doubters with the star power behind her coming into this final round. She got it done.”
Karen Stupples – “Hannah Green believed in herself. She trusted in her game coming down the stretch. It was awesome.”
Hicks – “Said she need a little bit of luck, she got that, but boy did she come up big with that up and down to put it away.”
Mark Rolfing – “She has been fortunate and lucky a number of times this week on this golf course.”
Hicks – “All the while amidst this major championship pressure, Hannah Green has been trying to deflect some of it by reacting with the crowd and the younger girls that have come up to her.”
Tom Abbott – “There has been pressure on her shoulders from the beginning this week. No player has gone wire to wire and made this their first LPGA Tour victory.”

Hannah Green speaking with NBC Sports’ Jerry Foltz following her victory
Hannah Green – “I am pretty much speechless. I was really nervous playing the last five holes and I am just really happy that I made a clutch putt because that is what I was struggling through the middle of the round. To make the one at the last really is surreal.”
Green – “It is awesome. I’ve always wanted to win in front of an Aussie crowd but I felt like, even though I’m not in Australia, that is what it was like today. Even to just be winning a major as my first event, I’m just so over the moon.”
Green – “I actually didn’t feel too nervous the first few. I felt pretty good about how I was hitting it, but definitely coming towards the back nine I think missing the putt on 8 and 9 that really hurt and I probably wasn’t in the right headspace for that. I heard Sung Hyun birdied that last so I knew I needed to make par. I really didn’t want to play that hole again so I’m just glad that I made it.”

Karrie Webb speaking with NBC Sports’ Kay Cockerill during the final round
Karrie Webb (on watching Green’s final round) – “It is definitely a different experience. When I’m inside the ropes I have control, and when I’m outside I have no control. She is handling herself great. There is a lot of golf left so there is plenty of Aussies out here supporting her so hopefully she can get it done.”
Webb – “This morning she was pretty quiet. She slept well though because we had a loud clap of thunder in the middle of the night. That shook the house and she never heard it so I felt that was a good sign that she slept really soundly and the nerves hadn’t gotten to her last night. She was quiet this morning, but Hannah’s isn’t a big talker anyway so we were discussing how great our Aussie barbeque was last night and how much fun she had. So that was good that she had a relaxing evening.”

On Sung Hyun Park, 2nd at 8-under par (4-under 68 on Sunday)
Jerry Foltz – “She left no stone unturned today in trying to catch Hannah Green.”
Dan Hicks – She is a huge star back in South Korea and is a rock star back home.
Hicks – “Talking about her putting all week, it is the weakness of her game, it wasn’t this week.”
Gary Koch – “Her putting has not been a liability at all this week.”

On Nelly Korda, T3 at 6-under par (1-under par 71 on Sunday)
Foltz – “She handled her short game really well today, and all weekend long.”
Stupples – “Every time she puts herself in this position she learns something from it.”

On Mel Reid, T3 at 6-under par (6-under 66 on Sunday)
Hicks – “It has not been tough for her today, she recorded her best finish in her LPGA Tour career. What a Sunday for Mel Reid.”

On Lizette Salas, T3 at 6-under par (1-under 71 on Sunday)
Stupples – “What she gives up in length she makes up for in accuracy.”
Rolfing – “It has been a good week for Lizette. She will not win the championship but she will be pretty pleased with the way she played.”

On Ariya Jutanugarn, T10 at 3-under par (5-over 77 on Sunday)
Stupples – “She seemed really out of sorts. Everything seemed to be a little bit out of sync.”
Kay Cockerill – “She needs to listen to her own words that she said yesterday that she needed to be tough and to stay patient.”
Stupples – “What a different a day makes. Yesterday she barely missed a shot.”
Cockerill – “It is an endurance test mentally and physically. Ariya has surved that endurance test twice, winning two majors, but not this week.”

On Sunday’s final round at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
Stupples – “Nobody said this was ever going to be easy. You just have to ride through these waves of stress.”
Hicks – “Hazeltine has been a venue for breakthroughs and surprises over the years.

-NBC Sports Group-