It’s not often a member of a course gets to play a major at their home club. But this week, that’s exactly what’s happening at the RICOH Women’s British Open with Woburn Golf Club’s own Charley Hull.
Hull, 20, has already acted as the unofficial host of the event this week, even joining LPGA major champions Brittany Lang, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson, and Michelle Wie for a tea party Tuesday.
But Hull said Wednesday it’s not all fun and games this week.
Hull has one victory on the Ladies European Tour (LET), which came in 2014, and appeared in the Solheim Cup in 2013 and 2015. This year is Hull’s second season on the LPGA Tour, and although she confirms her season has been a bit up-and-down, she has three top-10 finishes, including a tie for 2nd at the ANA Inspiration.
“I feel like it’s my strongest season so far, I feel like I’m doing my best, and I think I’ve performed well, my first foray on the LPGA Tour,” she said.
Hull, who was the youngest woman ever to compete in the Solheim Cup when she debuted in 2013, was also named the Rookie of the Year on the LET a year later. So although she may not be a household name in North America yet, her resume and results across the pond speak for themselves.
This is the first time since the Women’s British became a major on the LPGA Tour’s schedule that it will be at Woburn, and the “ladies are going to love it,” according to fellow Woburn member and PGA Tour/European Tour member Ian Poulter, who was on site Wednesday.
As a youngster, Hull watched the Women’s British Open in person – which was contested first at Woburn in 1984, and then again in 1991 for six-straight years before returning in 1999. And now, she’ll get to play in it at her home course, which, she says, is “pretty cool.”
It’s features thick trees and rough and is quite undulating. It’s a typical, non-Links English golf course.
“It’s great to have it here. It will be nice to see all the members come out and have their support because there are a great bunch of people here at Woburn,” she said. “I always feel so welcome. I’ll be looking forward to seeing them out there (Thursday).”
Hull has also fielded questions from her fellow Tour players on Woburn’s uniqueness.
“This course is quite American. You would play this, quite similar to this, on the LPGA Tour,” she said of the Marquess course where the championship will be played this week. Woburn also has two other layouts called the Duke’s and the Duchess’ that Hull said she has played hundreds of times.
Although Hull said the greens would be tricky to read this week, she admitted she “kind of” has an advantage, even though when she has played the Marquess course in the past, she played it in a totally different manor than how she was planning on playing it this week during the Women’s British.
For example, she usually plays off the men’s tees that are between 500-1000 yards further back than the yardage for this week’s championship.
During last week’s UL International Crown, where Hull was part of the upstart England team that went into the final day leading but eventually finished third behind the U.S. and South Korea, Hull was extremely under the weather and had to withdraw from one of her matches.
She said Wednesday being home has already made her feel better.
“It’s always in that area in America that my asthma really suffers with me, I find it really bad. I’m fine now,” she admitted. “When I always come back to England after I have not been feeling very well, the air over here, I’m used to it. I think that was the big thing last week.”
Despite the fact that Hull is at home for the week, she continued to say, with a smile, she was feeling a lot of pressure to perform, which was “a bit annoying.”
Hull has deleted Twitter from her phone this week so then she doesn’t see what other media or the Internet-at-large says about her performance.
“I just switch off from golf. I feel like that’s the big thing for me this week,” she said. “After my rounds, I’ll just go see my mates.”
After Hull’s week at the Women’s British, she’ll represent Great Britain at the Olympics, an opportunity she said she is “absolutely buzzed” for.
“I think it’s going to be great. It’s a big honour,” she said. “I’ve been working really hard in the gym lately, this is my seventh week going at it full blast in the gym. I just want to be really fit by the end of the season. I’m really looking forward to it and I’m excited to see the golf course in Rio.”
But this week, the golf course will be one she’s very familiar with.
So familiar, in fact, she calls it home.
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