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Charley Hull: No Glass Ceiling

By: Nick Bonfield | Wed 17 Dec 2014


Post by Golf Journalist Nick Bonfield


With Lee Westwood winning in Thailand, Branden Grace thumping the field at the Alfred Duhill Championship, Greg Chalmers coming through a three-man play-off at the Australian Masters and Jason Day/Cameron Tringale reigning supreme at the Franklin Templeton Shootout in an incredibly busy golfing week, the most impressive achievement of the lot was somewhat overlooked.

Heading to the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, Charley Hull – one of the most talented English sports stars of the modern generation – stood a great chance of becoming the youngest ever winner of the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit. The only person capable of usurping the 18-year-old was France’s Gwladys Nocera, who required a top-four finish to snatch the title. She made a valiant effort but ultimately finished in a tie for 11th, six places behind Hull. At the age of 18, most people are contemplating A-levels and wondering whether to take a gap year before heading to university. Hull was celebrating being the best Ladies European Tour player in 2014 in just her second year on the circuit – a quite remarkable achievement.

Charley Hull

In truth, no one who’s kept a diligent eye on her progress should be overly surprised, but that mustn’t detract from her unprecedented feat. Since the start of her professional journey, and indeed before, she’s demonstrated immense talent and an amazing ability to keep her cool and look astonishingly unfazed when she’s in the spotlight.

Hull enjoyed a sterling amateur career in which she reached third in the World Amateur Rankings. She helped Great Britain & Ireland to a long-awaited victory in the 2012 Curtis Cup, finished 38th at that year’s Kraft Nabisco Championship – a women’s major – and led the 2012 Ricoh Women’s British Open at one point during the first round. She turned professional in January 2013 and made her professional debut in March that year.

Her first five professional tournaments yielded five successive runner-up finishes. She recorded five additional top-10s throughout the rest of 2013 and ended the season sixth on the European Tour order of Merit, earning the title of Rookie of the Year in the process. That year, she was shortlisted for the Young Sports Personality of the Year and the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards (the less we talk about that, the better. It’s simply astonishing that Rory McIlroy lost out by such a significant margin to Lewis Hamilton).

In August 2013, Hull was chosen as one of Liselotte Neumann’s wildcard picks for the Solheim Cup and became, at 17 years of age, the youngest person to ever take part in the event. And she wasn’t a passenger, either. She contributed two points and defeated Paula Creamer 5&4 in the singles as Europe recorded a first success on American soil. After that match, Hull asked Creamer – one of her idols growing up – for an autograph, something that helped reinforce the sheer absurdity of what had just occurred.

Expectation levels rose hugely in the off-season, but Hull has dealt admirably with increased attention, media scrutiny and having a higher profile. In fact, she’s so good at tuning everything out and giving the impression she’s just playing casual golf with friends that you wonder just how little actually infiltrates her consciousness. Regardless of whether it’s her inherently calm demeanor, unflappable character or exceptional self-belief facilitated by faith in her own game, or a combination of the above, being able to rise above pressure and stay in the moment is the single most important attribute a professional golfer can possess.

This year, Hull went in search of her maiden professional victory, and it didn’t take her long to find it. On 16 March 2014, four days before her 18th birthday, she entered the final round of the Lalla Meyrem Cup five shots behind third-round leader Nocera. She recorded a bogey-free final round of 62 to force a playoff and defeated the Frenchwoman – who must be sick of the sight of her – with a birdie at the first extra hole. Hull was relieved, apparently, because she’d have been disappointed not to win a professional title before her 18th birthday – a very revealing statement and one that makes me convinced she’s sure to win multiple major championship during her career and go down in history as one of England’s best ever sportswomen.

Her form was excellent all season, and she headed into the year-ending Omega Dubai Ladies Masters knowing only Nocera could deprive her of the Order of Merit title. She played good golf en route for a tie for 5th and became the youngest winner of the LET money list after the 38-year-old failed to finish inside the requisite top four. Hull’s response was typically subdued, almost as if she didn’t recognise the magnitude of what she’d achieved.

Of course that’s not the case, but her post-round rhetoric wasn’t full of superlatives or stunted by tears of joy, as you might have expected. “It’s good to win,” was as evocative as it got. Hull just seems to expect so much from herself – even at her age – that such achievements don’t seem to induce much excitement. She’ll be delighted with what she’s achieved but it’s also something she’s taken very much in her stride. Her self-perception isn’t one of an intrepid youngster playing with the big guns, but of someone who is one of the best in the world at what they do. Age simply doesn’t come into it.

The road ahead looks rather fruitful for Hull, who appears to be the rightful air to Laura Davies’ throne. Melissa Reid has won multiple tour events, Karen Stupples is a former major champion and Jody Ewart Shadoff is a consistent performer, but none of those players have as complete a skill set as Hull. The 18-year-old has already made history twice during the nascent stages of her professional career, and you expect that trend to continue as she develops her already exemplary game and grows increasingly accustomed to life as a pro. She’s already reached 38th in world and there simply isn’t a limit to what she could achieve. If she avoids injury, takes advice, works hard and stays motivated, we have a future world number one and the all-time most successful English female golfer on our hands.

 


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