AIG Women’s Open
Date: 31 July – 3 August 2018 at Royal Porthcawl, Wales
Twenty years ago, Charley Hull first made golfing news.
The then-newcomer battled through a competition that attracted 24, 000 entries from all over the country to claim the 2005 Ladies Golf Union Championship at Turnberry, defeating a 46-year-old man from Manchester in a play-off for the title.
When asked if she would make the women’s Tiger Woods, she showed remarkable maturity a year later.
In a grainy video, the 10-year-old confidently said, “I want to be my own person really.” “Everyone is calling you the new Tiger Woods,” I remarked, “Well, whatever.” I aspire to be who I am.
And Hull has undoubtedly spent the last 20 years being herself, having discovered an ADHD diagnosis in 2023 to explain why she sometimes finds myself bored on the golf course.
She avoids regular golf because she believes it to be “rubbish,” has raised concerns about smoking on the course, and has “no interest” in her past results because she is “off to the next thing.”
A BBC report noted that you would need to get better odds than 20-1 to win a major by the end of 2025 because of how much people were excited about Hull after that triumph on the west coast of Scotland in 2005.
So there we are, indeed. The final major of 2025.
The AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl is billed as Wales’s biggest women’s sporting event, with a large crowd expected at the coastal venue.
My immune system needs to reappear, I say.
The chances are probably higher now than they were when you were 19 years old, though. Hull was forced to withdraw from the Evian Championship earlier this month, which is primarily due to the erratic preparation she faced.
Hull, who collapsed during the first round of the fourth of the five majors, and returned to the field last week to finish joint 21st, claimed she was only operating at about 80% when she returned from the Scottish Open.
She said while at Dundonald Links, “I haven’t been to the gym in two weeks and I’m not going to the gym for another two weeks.” My immune system needs to recuperate. I’m a complete wreck because I can’t work out at the gym.
With almost daily photos of her workouts uploaded online, Hull’s social media followers will be well aware of her obsession with the gym.
She likes it more than the conventional golf instruction, which she has long called “waste” in the end.
She told BBC Sport, “I don’t train for golf; I do it to keep my body and mind in shape.”
“I’m not interested in doing it for golf,” he said. I just try to beat my own fitness goals by doing it for fun.
When Hull was asked to explain what golf instruction entails, he said, “I’m not talking about training, but chipping and putting.” I can do that all day long.
I’ve been doing this tedious movement ever since I was 14 years old. Simply put, I’m not interested in it.
The training schedule also includes quitting smoking and running 5 km in 20 minutes before the year runs out (last check was 23 minutes 30 seconds, down from the previous check at the beginning of February).
“I hope the wind is up,” you say.
It has been a ludicrous ten years since Hull, who finished fifth overall in the Ladies European Tour (LET) with five success, made its debut.
She has won six LPGA Tour and LET victories overall and played for the previous six European Solheim Cup teams, but only three runners-up finishes are still Hull’s best overall at the biggest championships.
England’s top-ranked player said, “Second to me is first loser.”
“But I’m in a great position because, if you’re not asking [about my chances], I’m not doing something right.
In recent years, Hull has experienced a small boom or bust in the majors. She has made eight exceptions in her previous 24 starts, but she finished top-25 overall, including runner-up in this championship at Surrey course Walton Heath in 2023.
The women’s Open Championship is held at inland courses, in contrast to the men’s Open Championship, which is always played on a coastal links course.
Hull also mentioned that she prefers “parkland” tracks, but she also has positive Porthcawl experiences to draw from.
She referred to playing in the first Junior Vagliano Trophy in 2011 as a Solheim Cup-style amateur contest pitting Great Britain and Ireland against Continental Europe and said, “I won here when I was 14 so I have fond memories.
I hope the wind is up because I enjoy challenging links, and I’m hoping it will be difficult.
In her previous 59 major appearances, she has finished three places behind the winner. Six more top-10s have been released.
She said, “I don’t really look at that kind of stuff.”
I’m not interested, I say. Once I’m done with my life, I move on to the next step.
And when asked what she needed to do to improve her game, Hull simply responded, “I need not put too much pressure on my golf and not be too golf-obsessed.”
“I was never that obsessed,” I said when I was younger.
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Source: BBC
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