Rolex Rankings World No. 10 Charley Hull is focused on securing her first major championship in the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews this week.
The 28-year-old from Kettering in Northamptonshire came close with a runner-up finish behind Lilia Vu in the Championship at Walton Heath last year and she arrives in strong form after a fifth-place finish in the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open on Sunday.
“Obviously, it’s the Home of Golf. It would be a special win. Something that you’ve always dreamed of as, like, a baby. So, yeah, it would be very special,” Hull said. “I teed it up on the back nine yesterday morning, and as you walk down, like, 17 and 18 you get, like, goosebumps. It’s pretty cool.”
Although Hull admits to not generally having a strong record on links courses, she has fond memories of St Andrews, having played in the AIG Women’s Open on the Old Course in 2013, her first year as a professional when she was Rookie of the Year on the LET. She also played on a nearby course in the HSBC Wee Wonders Championship, when she was nine years old.
Speaking about her memories from 2013, she added: “The Solheim Cup announcement was on the Sunday night that year, when I got picked for my first Solheim Cup. It was a pretty special memory.”
“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.”
Hull has been working on shortening her backswing to play controlled shots, which helped her to get around Dundonald Links successfully.
She added: “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.
“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 the lines in the fairways, it just looks very open, so it’s quite hard to pick a point in the distance.
“So I think out here, you’ve got to be very focussed on your point and your target. So that’s my caddie, Adam’s, job.
“I feel pretty positive. Because obviously I haven’t got the best track record on links golf, but I’m learning every time, and I’m just enjoying it.”
Hull will be grouped with Rolex Rankings Nos.1 and 2, Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, in rounds one and two of the AIG Women’s Open.
Defending champion Vu, Korda and Hull are scheduled to tee off at 1:10pm local time (BST) on Thursday, before beginning their second rounds on the 10th at 7:55am on Friday.
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