Saq
If a six-hour, eight-minute round of golf can be described as thrilling and leave spectators wanting more, then Charley Hull somehow achieved that on the first day of the AIG Women’s Open here on Thursday.
The Englishwoman’s 5-under 67 gave her a one-shot advantage and added weight to the belief that the 28-year-old is not only becoming the golfer the game always knew she could be, but that in addition to Mother Nature’s worst intentions, she can also withstand the slow-moving monstrosity of Father Time.
To be clear, until recently Hull was not a fan of windy seaside golf and, as one of the fastest on Tour, he absolutely hates it when the progression over an 18-hole course feels more like the tarmaced M74 from Glasgow to Gretna.
The Hull course started at 1:19pm and finished at 7:27pm. Meanwhile, with winds gusting over 40mph and players tripping over each other as they backed up, the Old Course looked decidedly older. With all its history, the home of golf is used to making time stand still, but not to this extent.
In all fairness, due to the nature of this hallowed course and the harshness of the conditions, the blame cannot be entirely laid at the feet of the overly meticulous modern competitor. And with Hull’s speed, her playmates, Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, are classed as hares rather than tortoises.
Their haste – or at least their desire to be – made the threeball even more appealing to watch and for once the star group delivered. Korda is one shot behind Hull, alongside China’s Ruoning Yin, with Vu in the long-jam a shot further back on three under par.
Consider that Korda is the world number one with six wins this year and Vu, another American, is the world number two and the defending champion and realise how brave Hull was to outscore that pairing, particularly when both looked to be at the top of their game. The crowd certainly appreciated her typically action-packed effort.
When Hull birdied his six-foot putt on the famous 18th hole, with the flashing lights of the R&A clubhouse as a backdrop, a huge cheer echoed all the way to and around the Auld Grey Toon and at that stage anything seemed possible.
Hull is a spectacle-loving person, and she was beaming in front of the media. While she doubted she could survive such a daunting golf and mental challenge not so long ago — before her longtime coach Matt Belsham urged her to perfect the three-quarter swing and the reverse shot — Hull didn’t think that kind of score was possible, even in the minutes before she left.
“I was on the field and I saw the scores, and I thought, ‘How is she doing?’ [Yin] “Four under par is unbelievable,” Hull said. “I thought they were going to cancel at any moment. Would I have taken five under par then? Definitely.”
Hull and the late starters probably benefited from the last hour of play as the wind dropped and at least one member of the morning team thought it had been unfair to keep the early brigade. “We were on 11 and our balls were moving on the green,” said Aberdeen’s Gemma Dryburgh after a 79. “My ball moved twice before I putted. I don’t know how they thought it was playable, to be honest.”
Dryburgh’s Solheim Cup teammate Georgia Hall strongly disagrees. But the 2018 Women’s Open champion is a links sadist and is never happier than when the wind is blowing, as she showed with her 71. In a fiery opening for English golf, Lottie Woad, the 20-year-old who won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April, reaffirmed her comfort on the biggest and most beloved stages with a 72.
But it was Hull who was the last woman standing in the windy marathon. “The worst part was the 30-minute wait on the 11th hole,” Hull said. “But it was okay, I had a pee and chatted with James. [Northern]who is my best friend and brother-in-law. I bet my shopping cart [Adam Woodward] “It would take more than 6 hours. I was right, he was wrong. So a win-win day.”
Saq
