www.globalgolfpost.com
JUNE 11, 2012
Charley Hull …The Next Big Something
LEWINE MAIR
E-MAIL LEWINE
NAIRN, SCOTLAND | Charley Hull, at No.
4 in the world the highest-ranked player
on either side in last week’s Curtis Cup,
is at the other end of the spectrum to the
slow players we have been reading about
of late. The 16-year-old Hull smashes
her drive and she’s off, chasing down the
fairway and giving the impression that
she would like to hit her partner’s and her
opponents’ golf balls as well as her own. If
she were behind the wheel of a car (which,
mercifully, she is not), she wouldn’t be
waiting at the red lights.
Though there was the suggestion that
she had been snubbed by Tegwen
Matthews, the GB&I captain, when she
was left out of the opening foursomes
series last Friday, that was manifestly not
the case. It is true that there was trouble
when she pulled out of the final Curtis
Cup trial to play in the Kraft Nabisco, but
Matthews had long ago drawn a line under
that unfortunate set of circumstances.
The last thing she wanted was any lingering ill-feeling when it came to the week of
the match.
The real reason that Matthews saved
Hull till the Friday afternoon fourballs was
because of her relative lack of knowledge
of the foursomes’ format. Where her sister
team members had years of foursomes
experience under their belts from playing in Home International matches, Hull
has been groomed since childhood for the
stroke-play of the professional game.
Throughout her career, she has had a
schedule all her own and, to be fair, one
which has looked very promising for her
purposes. In 2011, she won the English
and Welsh stroke-play championships,
while she had a highly commend-
able third-round 68 on her way
to finishing inside the top 40 in
the aforementioned
Kraft Nabisco.
The two were introduced in the profes-
sional’s shop and agreed that they would
meet on the first tee in ten minutes. There
was a minute or so still to go when Stew-
art arrived on the
tee to find the
youngster launch-
ing into her drive. It
was a great shot – there
is a glorious dollop of excite-
ment in Charley’s every hit
– but Stewart couldn’t help
thinking to herself, “That’s a
bit strange.”
On the other side of the
coin, Stewart was bowled
over by her talent and her
enthusiasm. Indeed, when
she took her to the practice
ground at the end of the round
and showed her a shot which
would work well in the north-
erly winds, Hull could not be
dragged away. “It was wet, windy
and absolutely miserable and, af-
ter a couple of hours, I was saying,
‘Don’t you think you should stop
now?’ ” says Stewart, laughing.
There is no question that Hull
loves her golf and, always assuming
she does not get diverted by boys or
has any injury problems, she should
enjoy the best of golfing futures.
Tony Jacklin, when he played along-
side her in the annual Farmfoods
British Par- 3 championship in the
Midlands when she was a 13-year-
old, had no hesitation in saying that she
had the looks and the golf to win millions
of dollars.
Everyone knew she would attract big
crowds at Nairn and, sure enough, hundreds trailed after her and Pretswell as
they played Amy Anderson and Emily
Tubert. Alas, there was no stopping the
Americans who, having bagged three
points out of three in the morning foursomes, were feeling invincible at the start
of the afternoon. Anderson and Tubert
opened with a couple of birdies and, on
those rare occasions when they were in
trouble, their short games came slickly to
the rescue. Two up at the turn, they went
on to defeat the GB&I pair by 4 and 3 in
a match which took in no fewer than ten
birdies. It was, as Matthews said, great
golf all round.
Hull is perfectly placed for a player in
a hurry in that she is already in touch with
the LPGA Tour. In the days after the Kraft
Nabisco, she received one congratulatory
message from Karen Stupples, the former
Ricoh British Women’s Open champion,
and another from Lexi Thompson, the
American teenager who is in the same
mould – home schooled and richly talented– as she is herself, only a couple of
steps further down the road.
“It’s cool when players like that know
who you are,” said Hull.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that all the Americans know who she
is and are even now saying a collective,
“Watch out, here comes Charley.” l
