England’s Charley Hull is excited for a week at home after producing another excellent Major performance at last week’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl.
The number 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings recorded rounds of 66-69 over the weekend in Wales to finish the week in a share of second place, two shots behind winner Miyu Yamashita.
This is the final week of a three-week stretch of competitive golf in the United Kingdom for Hull, and she is ready to tee it up at Centurion Club.
“I’m getting ready for this week, playing on home soil, so I’m really looking forward to it,” said Hull. “I feel good coming into this week. I played really well the last two rounds last week. From Friday afternoon, I played very well.
“I find links golf very hard, especially when I didn’t quite come into the event as fit as I wanted to. I was ill and I hurt my back, and links golf is not my comfort zone. When you’re not comfortable and don’t feel quite pure in it, I’m more nervous for a week like that. But my coach Matt, my putting coach Nick, and I worked very hard that week to get me where I am in my game, so big credit to them.
“I was working on getting my hands more forward when putting because they were too far behind the ball. I also had too much wrist in my backswing with my coach on my full shot, so I was eliminating the wrist movement. I was working on staying more grounded through the ball on the way through — just random things like that.
“When I was ill at Evian, I fainted three times, lost my balance, and then pulled my back out the week before. All these things felt like the world was against me, which was really frustrating because I had been looking forward to the AIG Women’s Open all year.
“On Wednesday night, I said to someone that I didn’t think I would make the cut and couldn’t picture it in my head. The next day we warmed up with a much shorter routine than usual, just an hour and a half before tee time instead of my usual longer warmup. I just worked hard to get my feel back, and by Sunday, I didn’t feel like I struck a bad shot.”
Hull returns to the PIF London Championship, which is taking place this week at Centurion Club between 8-10 August.
It’s a happy hunting ground for the four-time LET winner who finished third in the Individual event in 2021, fourth in 2022 and second in 2023.
However, despite being in a rich vein of form, Hull hasn’t had the best preparation in the lead up to the tournament.
She continued: “I was buzzing yesterday coming out of physio after getting my back tape on. I booked a four or five-hour practice session with my coach last Wednesday. I was really excited all week. Coming out of the locker room, I had a skip in my step because I love practicing, but then I fell over a curb in the car park and was lying on the floor.
“The security guard was watching me, and I heard my ankle pop. I thought I broke it, someone picked me up and put me in the car. I started moving my ankle and it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought. I will get an MRI today.
“I’m gutted I couldn’t practice yesterday and took Monday and Tuesday off. I usually feel guilty if I take more than two days off practice. Up until three years ago, I never took more than one or two days off of golf. Over Christmas, I took five or six days, but that was the maximum. I just want to go out and hit some balls to see how it feels. I’m a very clumsy person.
“I was looking forward to this event all year. I will be teeing up tomorrow. I just want to make sure everything is 100%. My luck has been a bit annoying lately — one thing after another – but hitting balls shouldn’t be an issue.”
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