A few good minutes with Melanie Green
Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Melanie Green
Getting a chance to be home for the Christmas holiday with her family, Medina pro golfer Melanie Green took a little time this week to reflect on her summer of very successful international golf tournaments and on her equally successful four years of competition at the University of South Florida.
Green capped off her collegiate career by earning second team All American honors and by being named the American Athletic Conference
Player of the Year and the AAC Women’s Golf Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Grateful for all those honors, however, her fondest remembrances of being on the USF golf team was the strong relationships and bonds her teammates had with each other.
“I loved my college experience. The team we had. The personalities we had, the characters all blended together was quite an experience,” she said. “We all came from different backgrounds and we had to create a family there and I think we did a really good job. You lean on them a lot.”
“I ended on a high note,” she said of her career at USF. “I played good golf and I had good people around me. The experience was phenomenal.”
That collegiate experience set the stage for what was a very busy and very successful summer which saw her win the R&A Women’s Amateur
Championship in Ireland, compete for Team USA in both the Arnold Palmer Cup Tournament in Ireland and the Curtis Cup in England and in the LPGA’s major tourney, the Amundi Evian championship and in the Canadian Open at Calgary. She also reached the match play round of 32 at the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship.
“The summer of 2024 was one for the books,” she said. “It was a lot of fun competing at the level I was. I had a blast.”
She was most pleased by the support she received at the R & A championship. “Everybody welcomed me with open arms, ” she said. “The
fans treated me like I was one of their own. It was really special. I just tried to have fun and it was a lot of fun. The whole tournament was surreal.”
She noted that playing on the European links courses is a challenge. “You have to learn to play the links. You can’t fight it or you lose.”
Her travels have enabled her to play at some very famous courses including Augusta and Pinehurst. “Augusta is pretty phenomenal and I’ve always loved Pinehurst,” she said. “I feel very blessed and fortunate to have been able to play them.”
When asked about what part of her game she needs to work on as she looks forward to playing on the Epson Pro Tour and hopefully qualifying for some LPGA events in 2025 she said “everything could use improvement.”
Having turned professional in November, she made a solid pro debut by finishing second at an event in Maryland.
Her strong faith and golf skills have combined to enable her to make a steady climb up the ladder of golfing success since she captured two state championships during her scholastic days at Medina High.
Anchored by that faith and golfing skill she added that “I’ve got the grace and the gift and a wonderful community around me that pushes me to be the best I can be.”
To view the entire interview, click here. Be sure to watch until the end as Melanie has a message to all of you who have supported her.
