Charley Hull overcomes freak injuries to set sights on getting better of Nelly Korda
Charley Hull feels confident that she can deny overwhelming favourite Nelly Korda in the Chevron Championship – the first female major of the season, that starts on Thursday – despite a bizarre build-up that included breaking her nose with her own tennis racket.
World No 7 Hull has never been higher in the rankings and, after runner-up finishes in last year’s Women’s Open and Women’s US Open goes into the £6 million event in Houston as one of Korda’s main threats as she attempts to do ‘a Scottie Scheffler’ and add a major title to an astonishing streak.
But nothing ever seems simple for Hull, whose risk-free approach on the fairway is often replicated to dramas off it, and her preparation for the Chevron – formerly famous as The Dinah Shore – has duly followed her chaotic narrative.
After two top 10s on the LPGA Tour in March, she was forced to withdraw with flu during the second round of the Ford Championship, despite standing only a few off the pace. Hull returned to Kettering to recuperate. It was going well until last week when she played padel with friends and duly whacked herself on the nose.
“I’m sure I bust the bridge of my nose,” she said. Then she later injured her ankle in a freak fall. Nevertheless, her self-belief remains high. She has one of her closest confidantes in Anouska Torrance, the daughter of Ryder Cup hero Sam, and thinks she can again star in the competitions that appear to suit her more than any other.
“I’m feeling good going into the week,” she told Telegraph Sport. “I have my friend Anouska out with me and we are just having fun. I’m looking forward to the challenge – it’s going to take some good golf to win around here.”
Korda is clearly a huge obstacle to anyone’s ambitions at The Woodlands, the major’s new venue after so many years at Mission Hills Palm Springs two years ago. The 25-year-old has won four tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour, most recently the T-Mobile Match Play a fortnight ago when she beat Ireland’s Leona Maguire in the final.
In this remarkable streak, the comparisons with Scheffler have been inevitable as her fellow American has won three events and finished second in a four-event odyssey capped at the Masters on Sunday. Like Scheffler, Korda came into April having only one major on her CV and like Scheffler that return seems faintly absurd considering her current dominance.
Hull will not be phased and certainly will not change her gung-ho gameplan, telling Telegraph Sport last year, “I go for the pin as much as I can – golf is supposed to be fun”. But Trish Johnson, the England great who won 29 pro titles in her garlanded career, believes that her aggressive attitude is what is holding her back on the elite stage.
“I love her, but the thing with Charley is that you’re never going to change her,” Johnson said on Sky Sports. “I read something the other day that said how much she loves the game and it’s her love of the game [that costs her].
“In theory that’s great, but it won’t win you golf tournaments, it just won’t because she’s not that much better than anybody else. If you put Charley against Nelly Korda, then I’m picking Nelly every single day of the week.”
