Charley Hull hoping to follow example of England cricket and football teams
Thursday 3 August 2017 11:18, UK
Charley Hull is hoping to ride the wave of recent success in English women's sport as she bids to make her major breakthrough at this week's Ricoh Women's British Open.
Hull's season has been hampered by a niggling wrist injury, and the 21-year-old arrives at Kingsbarns having registered only two top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour since winning the CME Group Tour Championship last November.
But the leading home hope is drawing on inspiration from the World Cup-winning England Women's cricket team as well as their football counterparts, who are through to the semi-finals of the European Championships in the Netherlands and take on the host nation for a place in the final on Thursday.
"Obviously everyone must be playing quite well," said Hull. "For me to win this week would be great. Obviously winning my home event, the British Open, would be awesome and to join in with everyone else in women's sport would be cool."
Hull is also embracing the challenge of taking on a links course in what is expected to be tough conditions on the Fife coast, adding: "I think it's a really fair links golf course. If you hit a good shot you're going to get rewarded.
"I like the greens, they're rolling quite nice. I just like the whole feeling; we're near St Andrews as well so you just feel like you're at the home of golf."
The joint-favourites heading into the fourth major of the season are new world No 1 So Yeon Ryu, who has the same swing coach as Open champion Jordan Spieth, and American Lexi Thompson, who lost out to the South Korean in a play-off amid high controversy at the ANA Inspiration four months ago.
But Thompson believes having Kevin McAlpine on her bag will be a big advantage as the Scot has previous experience as a club caddie at Kingsbarns, and he also has great knowledge of how to handle links golf being a former Scottish Amateur champion.
The world No 2 said: "Having him caddie out here for four or five years has been a huge help. Stepping foot out here the first time on Monday, I was like, 'I have no idea. There could be a bunker over that hill, I don't know'. So he was just telling me every line and what every green does hitting the shots into them, and he knows the greens very well.
"Kevin is like my best friend and he's definitely been a good change. He knows my game very well. He's a player too so it's good to have him on the bag. I'm very grateful.
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"I love the golf course. I get to hit a good number of drivers, which is nice, but I'm putting my three-iron in the bag this week just in case it gets windy. A lot will depend on the conditions. If it gets super windy, it's all about trusting your lines and seeing where it goes."
