West Australian Hannah Green hopes to have found the right formula for a successful title defence after finishing top 10 in the first of three tournaments where she will be defending champion in 2025.

The 28-year-old wasn’t feeling her best when she woke on championship Sunday but fought through to shoot 1-under 71 and earn a share of seventh at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.

The career resurgence of Kiwi Lydia Ko continues unabated as she completed a four-shot win, Green the best of the Aussies seven shots back.

With further title defences coming up at the JM Eagle LA Championship in April and BMW Ladies Championship in October, Green feels that the way she approached this week will be replicated later in the season.

“All of the tournaments that I will be defending this year, I won’t be playing the week before,” said Green.

“That just kind of works out luckily with the schedule. I think that will be easier in making sure that I’m not too tired come the end of the week.

“I feel like it would be difficult if it were back-to-back, like for Nelly (Korda), playing her tournaments defending.

“It’s good to have experienced Singapore. I think it might be one of the tougher ones to defend. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve got to make sure I enjoy as well sometimes and not put too much pressure on myself.”

Minjee Lee also continued her strong start to the LPGA season with a tie for 11th, younger brother Min Woo Lee also tied for 11th at the PGA TOUR’s Cognizant Classic in Florida.

Twelve strokes off the lead after Round 1, Lee began his northward climb on the leaderboard with a round of 6-under 65 in Round 2.

He started the final round in a share of 35th but ended the day knocking on the door of the top 10 with a closing 4-under 67 including back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 to finish.

Results

PGA TOUR Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches PGA National Resort (The Champion Cse), Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 1 Joe Highsmith 65-72-64-64—265 $US1.656m T11 Min Woo Lee 71-65-68-67—271 $184,986 T39 Karl Vilips 68-67-68-72—275 $41,860 MC Ryan Fox (NZ) 67-71—138

LPGA Tour HSBC Women’s World Championship Sentosa Golf Club (Tanjong Cse), Singapore 1 Lydia Ko (NZ) 71-67-68-69—275 $US360,000 T7 Hannah Green 75-69-67-71—282 $59,183 T11 Minjee Lee 70-72-68-73—283 $43,503 T48 Stephanie Kyriacou 82-71-70-72—295 $9,233 59 Gabriela Ruffels 80-71-76-75—302 $6,446 60 Grace Kim 78-77-72-76—303 $6,197

DP World Tour Investec South African Open Championship Durban CC, Durban, South Africa 1 Dylan Naidoo 70-61-71—202 €245,489.01 T25 Kazuma Kobori (NZ) 67-73-69—209 €13,935.11

Korn Ferry Tour 118 Visa Argentina Open presented by Macro Jockey Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina 1 Justin Suh 64-68-60-65—257 $US180,000 T37 Harry Hillier (NZ) 68-66-71-66—271 $5,193 MC Rhein Gibson 72-67—139