Once again, I had high hopes for Charley Hull last weekend at the Ford Championship in Arizona. She opened with a 9-under 63, her lowest round on the LPGA Tour. That’s what a perfect card looks like – 9 pars and 9 birdies – we can all but dream!
Just two shots off the lead heading into the final round, Charley scored 71 to tie 11th with Yahui Zhang, so it was not the Sunday finish she’d hoped for. Not a bad week’s work though, as she did pick up a cheque for $41,138, while South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim won with a birdie on the first extra play-off hole against Lilia Vu and collected $337,500.
If you remember, in 2023 Charley was a two-time runner up in Majors and had five second place finishes overall on the LPGA Tour. Last year, she achieved 5 top 10s including tied second at The ANNIKA, but she has actually only won twice on the LPGA and this doesn’t seem enough for a player of her ability.
I agree with former LET player and now leading golf analyst Sophie Walker that you can compare Charley almost a little bit in Majors to Rory. She’s not had as many victories like Rory, he’s won many regular tour events including two this year, and this is something Charley needs to do, then hopefully the Majors will more likely follow.
Next stop for Charley is this week’s T-Mobile Matchplay in Las Vegas and one thing is for sure, you won’t find her or any other pro golfer going into a tournament clutching hold of negatives from rounds gone by. There will be zero bitterness and blame, zero fear of failure, but instead a focus to take the positives from every round.
Unfortunately, when it comes to golf, the art of letting go of the past and focusing on the present is something many of us find hard to do. When your scorecard blows up over the first few holes, or you’re playing really nicely and then a 10 comes out of nowhere, that’s when I find it very hard to forget what has happened and move confidently onto the next hole! The thing is, we kick ourselves because we know that if we don’t focus on the present, our game is not going to improve. In fact, it’s probably going to get worse.
Competition season is upon us, we’re back playing qualifiers, so now is a good time to reset your mindset. Katie Dawkins shares some great tips in this article for Golf Monthly to help players get the most out of their game. We all need to learn to take the rough with the smooth and relax into every round. If we can manage to do this, we’ll probably find more enjoyment in the game and achieve better scores. I’m going to give it a go!
Alison Root
Women's Editor Golf Monthly