West Australian Hannah Green has fallen just short of her quest to win for a third time this season in an epic showdown with world No.1 Nelly Korda at the Mizuho Americas Open.

Seeking to join Jan Stephenson and Karrie Webb as the only Australians to win three times in a single LPGA Tour season, Green began the final round two shot back at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.

Green’s birdie at the opening hole and Korda’s bogey on two brought the two together at the top of the leaderboard and it quickly turned into a two-horse race.

The 27-year-old took the outright lead when Korda dropped a shot at the par-4 seventh but joined Korda again at 11-under when she made bogey at the par-5 eighth.

The pair made a trio of matching birdies at 10, 13 and 15 to move out to 14-under and four strokes clear of the field.

Each hole was a separate round of a heavyweight title fight.

Every time that Green landed a body blow, Korda countered with one of her own.

In a possible precursor to the US Women’s Open in two weeks’ time, two players with seven wins between them this season battled until the 72nd hole when Green’s fourth missed fairway of the day would prove costly.

The deep rough left of the fairway grabbed hold of her club as she played her second shot, the ball diving left and short of the putting surface.

The 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA champion showed great touch to give herself a par putt of some 10 feet but it missed on the low side as Korda clinched her sixth win in her past seven starts.

Although disappointed to come up agonisingly short, Green was proud of how she stood up against one of the greatest stretches by anyone in golf history.

“To lose to Nelly… it’s sad, but then it’s also Nelly Korda,” Green reflected.

“She’s obviously so dominant right now. To feel like second behind her is quite nice.”

Green is looking toward the US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club where she attended as a spectator in 2015 as a Karrie Webb scholarship holder.

“I’m super excited for the next stretch of events,” Green added.

“To go back to somewhere that I haven’t actually played but been outside the ropes, that was the thing that made me want to become a professional golfer, watching Karrie there.

“I’m really excited for Lancaster.”

Green wasn’t the only outstanding performance from an Australian woman this week.

Gabriela Ruffels continued her outstanding rookie season on the LPGA Tour with a third third-place finish to will propel her inside the top 50 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings while Kirsten Rudgeley shot 65 in the final round to finish tied for fourth at the Amundi German Masters on the Ladies European Tour.

It was another winning week too for the Kiwis, with Harry Hillier shooting 59 on his way to an eight-shot win on the PGA TOUR Americas and Fiona Xu winning the Copper Rock Championship on the Epson Tour by seven.

Results
LPGA Tour
Mizuho Americas Open
Liberty National Golf Club, Jersey City, New Jersey
1          Nelly Korda                  70-68-65-71—274       $US450,000
2          Hannah Green              71-71-63-70—275       $277,738
T3        Gabriela Ruffels           68-70-68-72—278       $146,358
T21      Minjee Lee                   69-72-71-69—281       $30,238
T51      Karis Davidson             71-70-71-77—289       $10,189
T51      Sarah Kemp                 73-67-72-77—289       $10,189
T53      Stephanie Kyriacou      74-69-71-76—290       $9,427
MC       Grace Kim                    72-72—144
MC       Robyn Choi                  73-74—147
MC       Lydia Ko (NZ)                72-77—149

Ladies European Tour
Amundi German Masters
Golf and Country Club Seddiner See, Berlin, Germany
1          Alexandra Forsterling   70-70-69-67—276       €45,000
Won in sudden-death playoff
T4        Kirsten Rudgeley          73-74-68-65—280       €12,150
T24      Momoka Kobori (NZ)   74-73-68-72—287       €3,510
MC       Amy Walsh                   73-79—152

Epson Tour
Copper Rock Championship
Copper Rock Golf Course, Hurricane, Utah
1          Fiona Xu (NZ)               67-63-64—194             $US37,500
T30      Cassie Porter                74-68-71—213             $2,166
MC       Su Oh                          74-72—146
MC       Amelia Garvey (NZ)      77-72—149