Perhaps it is too easy to venture that Charley Hull’s Olympic hopes went up in smoke after a first-round 81. But after she admitted falling foul of the Paris Games’ ban on cigarettes, it is too tempting not to.
Hull, who has become something of an internet sensation since being pictured earlier this year signing autographs while puffing away, was honest in her assessment – “get that round out of the way and now get a bit of a warm-up for the Open” – but summarily dismissed the notion the “defense de fumer” rules affected her in a nine-over beginning that leaves her 16 shots off the pace.
Hull said on Tuesday she was fearful her chances could be harmed by the removal of her habit. And this 81, the third worst score of the day, signified all was not comfortable. But she was seen vaping and refused to apportion any blame anywhere else than to a bizarre injury she suffered last month.
“I don’t think people realise what happened to me and that I had an MRI and everything,” she said. “That is 100 per cent why I shot this today – and not the no smoking.”
Hull, 28, was in a chipper mood at the start of July when preparing to fly from America to London for the Aramco Series event at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead. She had finished second in the same tournament the year before and since then she had recorded six more top threes, including a second in the Women’s Open at Walton Heath.
Hull was seventh in the world – her highest-ever ranking – and with the two majors in Europe to come, as well as this Olympics and the Solheim Cup in September, everything was coming together very nicely.
But then, she took a shower and suddenly the campaign threatened to disappear down the plughole. “I fell over when I was getting out and tore something in my shoulder,” she revealed. “I wish I’d never had that shower before my flight. It is so frustrating.”
Hull tried to play at Centurion a few days later before retiring after six holes. She also teed it up at the next week’s Evian Championship, the major overlooking Geneva, and missed the cut. “My hip had gone out by then and I shouldn’t have played,” she now concedes.
Hull has only resumed full practice in the last few weeks, although stressed she “bust a gut” to be ready for this Le Golf National challenge.
“I played 10 rounds in six days before getting here,” Hull said, probably knowing there were raised eyebrows that she did not get to the French capital until Monday evening. “And I practised every day from six in the morning till six in the evening.”
The rust was still immediately apparent. Officials decided to use the same yardage on first hole as in last week’s men’s competition, to give the women the full experience with the fans congregated around the teebox. But the crowd was small and there was not much atmosphere to speak of.
Hull duly pulled her drive into the water on the par-four and, from there, took a double bogey. She steadied the ship with four straight pars but then proceeded to make six bogeys in the following eight holes. Hull is a birdie machine and it is very rare that she goes 18 without circling at least one figure on her scorecard. But she was a long way from distraught.
“It’s a very scorable course, but I just didn’t hit it in the right positions, and when I hit good shots today I just missed clubs slightly and that got me into bad positions,” she said. “Hopefully I’ve got the rust off me and I’m looking forward to hopefully shooting f—— nine-under tomorrow.”
Hull will need to if she is going to launch a highly unlikely charge for the podium. In fairness, she was not the only big name to struggle. Ireland’s Leona Maguire shot a 78, as did her countrywoman Stephanie Meadow.
Hull’s fellow Englishwoman and great friend, Georgia Hall, fired a 74 that placed her halfway in the 60-woman field, in which the heavyweights massed on level par. Nelly Korda, the world No 1 and reigning Olympic champion, played her last 10 holes in three-under, to join Lydia Ko with a 72.
They all had to bow to the world No 7 Celine Boutier, whose brilliant 65 handed her a three-shot cushion over Ashleigh Buhai, the 2022 Women’s Open winner from South Africa.
Boutier’s eight-birdied magnificence thrilled the galleries and, of course, the organisers who would love to see the fairways as lined and as passionate as they were for the men. Boutier has the grace and power to lure Paris to the famous 2018 Ryder Cup venue.
