Charley Hull walked away with a two-shot victory at the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday for her first victory since her maiden professional win at the LET’s 2014 Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco.
“It’s pretty cool feeling,” Hull said. “Hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but I last won on the LET, the European Tour, like two years ago. Had that dry like patch for a few years. Feels good now to get a win.”
Hull, the 2013 LET Rookie of the Year and 2014 Order of Merit winner, from Kettering in England, posted a total of 19-under-par after going bogey-free over the weekend at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
Hull added that it felt good to win again after two years, although she is still part of the young generation aged just 20.
“Being four years as a pro, wow, it’s gone by so quick,” she said. “It was a lot of pressure coming from when I played in the Solheim Cup. I was 17 years old and I had five second-place finishes in my first five starts, and took me like over a year to win on the LET. Now this is actually my first full year on the LPGA Tour. Last year I didn’t have full status. To win, it feels good. Feels like I got the chip off my shoulder.
“I feel like I’ve had a great four years, fun four years as well. I love playing golf. Like people in the off-season probably take two months off. I don’t. I go out with my lad mates who play golf and we go out and hit golf balls on the golf course.”
After a shaky start to the final round with her swing, she found her rhythm on the back nine as the pressure mounted and said: “I have this swing called Strawberry Mousse. Like my backswing goes to strawberry, comes down, goes to moose, a bit faster. I’ve had in my head since the Olympics. Feels good.
“’Strawberry mousse.’ My dad used to say it to me when I was like two years old to get my rhythm. Or you say Seve Ballesteros, Severiano Ballesteros. It’s just like a rhythm thing.”
She went through the tournament not thinking about golf and what asked what was on her mind, she said: “Just my friends and stuff at home. Just like stuff that I’ve got planned for the next couple weeks. I don’t know really. Just little things about funny things that my friend Louise or my friend James have done.
“I remember yesterday I had to back off a putt because I was thinking of something silly my mate had done. It was on the 7th hole, so if you see it on TV where I’m laughing, it’s because I have that funny thought in my head. I know how to switch on and switch off. Sometimes when I don’t think, because when I’m over the golf ball sometimes, if I am concentrating too much I can’t really get my rhythm.”
Hull said that she learned to switch on and off at the ANA Inspiration this year. “I used to get too engrossed in my score. Now when I’m on the golf course I don’t know even know what I shot. Like yesterday I had no clue I shot 6-under, and today I didn’t know I shot 6-under either.”
Hull’s next target will be a victory at the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters at Emirates Golf Club from 7-10 December.
