By Tony Webeck

A back-nine birdie blitz earned Hannah Green a top-five finish at the LPGA Tour Pelican Women’s Championship as Minjee Lee won $US1 million without hitting a single shot.

Two of the marquee attractions for the ISPS HANDA Australian Open in Melbourne from December 1, Green and Lee both boosted their bank balances in Florida but in vastly different fashion.

Green’s back nine of five-under 30 propelled her to a tie for fourth – her fourth top-10 finish in her past five starts – while Lee’s windfall came courtesy of the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge, joining Green as successive Australian winners on the LPGA Tour.

The US Women’s Open champion in June, Lee will enter this week’s CME Group Tour Championship third in the standings and the prospect of a third million-dollar-plus pay day before heading home to Perth.

Another player headed Down Under in spectacular form is Kiwi Ryan Fox.

Projected to move up three spots to No.23 on the Official World Golf Ranking, Fox held a share of the lead playing the 72nd hole of the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa.

A tee shot that found the left rough made for a difficult approach shot but it was a missed par putt from just outside three feet – and his first bogey of the day – that handed Englishman Tommy Fleetwood a one-stroke win at Sun City.

Fox’s fourth runner-up finish to go with two wins puts him just 128 points behind No.1 Rory McIlroy in the DP World Tour Rankings to set up an enthralling season finale in Dubai.

“I’ve still got some work to do,” the ever humble Fox said.

“He’s the No.1 player in the world for a reason but I’ll just try to do the same thing – go out and beat the golf course then see what happens. I’m looking forward to it.”

A closing round of three-under 69 earned Min Woo Lee a tie for eighth and a spot in next week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, Lucas Herbert’s season coming to an end with a tie for 25th to finish the year 59th on the Order of Merit.

Travis Smyth’s tie for 12th was the best of the Aussies at the Asian Tour’s International Series Egypt event, Scott Hend, Todd Sinnott and Kevin Yuan one stroke further back in a tie for 13th.

The consistency in Jason Day’s game continued with a tie for 16th at the Cadence Bank Houston Open – his fourth consecutive top-25 finish – and Brendan Jones led the Australians in Japan with a tie for 17th at the VISA Taiheiyo Masters won by Ryo Ishikawa in a playoff.

With three rounds to play Maverick Antcliff is the best-placed Australian at the Final Stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School.

With the top 25 and ties granted DP World Tour cards for the 2023 season, Antcliff is currently in a tie for 37th, Dimitrios Papadatos (T52) and Jarryd Felton (T58) needing to string some scores together to push their way up the leaderboard.

And finally, another Kiwi enjoying a spectacular year was crowned the PGA TOUR Champions Charles Schwab Cup champion.

A four-time winner with a total of 17 top-10 finishes, Steven Alker finished third at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship to edge out three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington in the season-long points race.

Results DP World Tour Nedbank Golf Challenge Gary Player CC, Sun City, South Africa 1            Tommy Fleetwood          70-70-70-67—277           €1,003,226.95 2            Ryan Fox (NZ)    64-74-72-68—278           €650,874.07 T8          Min Woo Lee     68-76-70-69—283           €122,149 T25        Lucas Herbert    69-72-74-71—286           €58,872.29

PGA TOUR Cadence Bank Houston Open Memorial Park Golf Course, Houston, Texas 1            Tony Finau         65-62-68-69—264           $US1.512m T16        Jason Day           69-69-69-68—275           $123,900 MC        Danny Lee (NZ)  69-73—142

Asian Tour International Series Egypt Madinaty Golf Club, Egypt 1            Andy Ogletree   66-64-65-62—257           12          Travis Smyth      65-67-69-67—268           T13        Todd Sinnott      68-69-67-65—269           T13        Kevin Yuan         71-67-66-65—269           T13        Scott Hend         62-74-64-69—269           T21        Brett Rumford   65-71-69-65—270           T61        Sam Brazel         65-70-71-75—281           MC        Jake Higginbottom          72-69—141 MC        Daniel Fox          74-75—149

Japan Golf Tour Sumitomo Mitsui VISA Taiheiyo Masters Taiheiyo Club (Gotemba Cse), Shizuoka 1            Ryo Ishikawa     68-66-69-69—272           ¥40m Won on second hole of sudden death playoff T17        Brendan Jones  69-72-70-68—279           ¥2.94m T28        Brad Kennedy    71-66-69-76—282           ¥1,408,571 T41        Andrew Evans   72-69-70-74—285           ¥820,000 MC        Michael Hendry 77-71—148

Ladies European Tour Aramco Team Series Jeddah Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 1            Chiara Noja        68-70-65—203  €74,438.25 MC        Whitney Hillier  76-71—147

LPGA Tour Pelican Women’s Championship Pelican Golf Club, Belleair, Florida 1            Nelly Korda        66-66-64—196  $US300,000 T4          Hannah Green   67-69-65—201  $85,754 T26        Lydia Ko (NZ)     68-69-70—207  $17,341 MC        Sarah Kemp       73-68—141 MC        Stephanie Kyriacou         73-68—141 MC        Karis Davidson  69-76—145 MC        Su Oh    73-73—146

Champions Tour Charles Schwab Cup Championship Phoenix Country Club, Phoenix, Arizona 1            Padraig Harrington         66-64-62-65—257           $US440,000 3            Steven Alker      65-64-68-68—265           $210,000 25          Rod Pampling    68-71-70-72—281           $22,500

DP World Tour Qualifying School-Final Stage Lakes Course, Infinitum, Tarragona, Spain Through three of six rounds T37        Maverick Antcliff             74-68-68 T52        Dimitrios Papadatos       74-68-69 T58        Jarryd Felton      72-68-72 T78        Hayden Hopewell (a)      70-78-65 T78        Jordan Zunic      69-70-75 T138      Kyle Michel        78-71-70 T144      Louis Dobbelaar              74-70-76 WD        Aaron Pike          84