Charley Hull returns to St Andrews, more than a decade after making her AIG Women’s Open debut in 2013 and while she wants to create more special memories, her poor links record is reason for trepidation.
Hull burst onto the scene in 2013 and has since gone on to register top-6 finishes in all five majors including three runner-up finishes, one of which was in last year’s AIG Women’s Open.
Walton Heath wasn’t a links golf course so a maiden top-10 in what she describes as one of her two favourite events looks an outlier. Hull, has made no secret of her preference for parkland golf but hopes she can find the recipe for success on links courses.
“Well, a couple of weeks ago, my coach got me working on doing a lot of three-quarter swings because my golf swing got a little bit too long,” said the world number ten.
“But now I kind of understand why he’s got me working on the three-quarters because he’s just kind of introduced me to get a low ball flight for these couple of weeks coming up for the links. So I think you’ve just got to be patient out there.
“I do find St Andrews, actually, a harder links for me, not necessarily because it’s super tough but because there’s not — you can’t really — the lines in the fairways, like, it just looks very open. So it’s quite hard to pick, like, a point in the distance.
“But usually I like them really tight, like, fairways. Like, Sahalee, because you kind of the golf course — like you see the ball shape and, like, where to hit it.
“So I think out here, you’ve got to be very focussed on your point and your target. So that was my caddie, Adam’s, job.”
Hull will tee it up fully recovered from a recent injury as the AIG Women’s Open returns to the Home of Golf for the third time and the Englishwoman feels it should be a regular venue.
“Yeah, a hundred per cent. I think it would be really cool. It’s, like, it would be cool if it was here every, like, five years or I don’t know however long, it would be really cool.”
Hull has plenty of special memories, none more so than her appearance here in the 2013 Open aged just 17 before she was picked for a Solheim Cup debut after the final round.
“So when I was nine years old, we actually had the HSBC Wee Wonders, like, the championship here. But it wasn’t on the Old Course. It was around, like, on one of the nine-hole golf courses, and that was the first time I ever come to St Andrews.
“And then I watched, I think it was the 2010 British Open, Men’s Open Championship here. Come up to watch Tiger.
“And I played here that year as well or the year after in — it was an amateur event here. I actually stayed with Sir Michael Bonallack back then. He was a pretty cool guy. Because I knew his daughter, Glenna, from Woburn. Yeah, just have a lot of good memories.
“And I played here again in March time, April time, and that was fun. I did something with the R&A and got to play 18 holes. But it is a really special place and I really like the pies on the halfway house. But they didn’t have them here yesterday; I was gutted.”
