English star Charley Hull completed a second round of one-under-par 70 on Friday morning to move to four-under-par and into the top 10 at the Evian Championship, a month after contracting salmonella poisoning in the United States.
The world number 26 is five-strokes behind the world number one, Sung Hyun Park, who moments later carded a 66 to move into the clubhouse lead on nine-under-par.
Playing in hot conditions for a second day and watched on by her fiancé, Ozzie Smith, Hull’s round began slowly with a pair of bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes but she quickly recovered with birdies on the eighth and ninth to go out in level par. She moved to five-under with birdies on the 14th an 15th holes, but then dropped a shot on the short 16th. A superb shot hit to within four feet of the flag on the 17th resulted in another birdie, but she dropped a shot on the 18th, which has been changed from a par 4 to a par 5 this year.
“I didn’t hit it that well today so I kind of scrambled and it was a shame about the last hole. Because of a burnt bit on the fairway it bounced my ball into the first cut but it was settled down and that’s why I hit it into the water, but it’s not too bad,” said Hull, who won the LET’s season-opening Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi in January.
She has suffered two bouts of illness this year: firstly at the Women’s Australian Open and then a more serious spell of food poisoning, which she contracted during the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine last month.
“I was poorly from Hazeltine. I got salmonella during the tournament so I was ill that week and the week after and I pulled out of the next one and I’ve been in and out of hospital since I’ve been at home so I’m just started to feel a bit better. They were testing me as salmonella can stay for up to a month or more. It can go and come back. I went last week for a check up because I still wasn’t feeling good but I feel better this week.”
Although Friday morning’s play unfolded under sunny skies and in temperatures of 31C, electrical storms are forecast for Saturday and Hull says that she would enjoy the test if the weather forecast stays true.
“I’m still four-under, so I need to go low on the weekend. I hope it gets really windy and rainy, because I prefer this golf course like that. I don’t know why they turned the last into a par 5, because it was a good par 4 and harder, and I feel like I like to dig deep in hard conditions. It usually takes a lot of the field out of it, because they quit.
“My year has been a bit up and down and I’ve been poorly twice and it took a chunk out of the season. I was playing well up to the US Open and from Hazeltine it was annoying because I wanted to play well for those three weeks in America and I didn’t play. Hopefully now I can play everything and be good.”
