ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Golf balls wobbled on the tees and greens. Gamers wore huge earmuffs and neck heaters and donned oven-style mitts between photographs. American star Rose Zhang stated she misplaced stability merely standing up.
Gusts of as much as 40 mph (64 kph) performed havoc with one of the best feminine golfers on the planet on the Girls’s British Open at St. Andrews on Thursday.
Charley Hull handled it one of the best.
The No. 10-ranked English participant rolled in a 6-foot putt on No. 18 for the final of her six birdies on the house of golf to shoot 5-under 67 and take a one-stroke lead after the primary spherical of the 12 months’s fifth and remaining main.
Hull, looking for her first main title, has loads of high-profile firm on the prime of the leaderboard.
Not least her taking part in accomplice, top-ranked Nelly Korda, who birdied No. 17 — the well-known Highway Gap — and in addition the 18th to affix fellow main champion Ruoning Yin of China on 4 beneath.
Amongst these an additional shot again was defending champion Lilia Vu, who produced two monster birdie putts on the entrance 9 of the Previous Course — internet hosting the Girls’s British Open for the third time — in her spherical of 69.
Some had been simply glad to get by it.
“Undoubtedly among the hardest circumstances I’ve ever performed in, for positive,” stated England’s Georgia Corridor, the 2018 champion who eagled her final gap — No. 9 — for a 71.
Corridor is the final British participant to win her house main. Now her shut buddy is seeking to do the identical.
By the point Hull walked down the final, the wind had dropped and she or he was wanting cool in her sun shades as she waved to the spectators lining the green. She can be a preferred winner, not least due to her method and perspective.
Not forgetting the aggressive means she performs golf, both.
Hull was frequently the longest driver within the marquee group containing Korda and Vu, with one tee shot — on the 14th — going 336 yards.
Stage par after a bogey on No. 8, she made 5 birdies on her final 10 holes. There was a 12-footer on No. 12, an 8-footer at No. 15 to affix Yin in a share of the lead earlier than Hull performed the final — that wonderful gap again into city — completely by driving to the entrance of the inexperienced, hitting the second to six ft and making no mistake with the putt.
Hull was barely involved watching the early starters on TV within the worst of the windy climate.
“I stated to my coach, it appears like they might name it at any minute as a result of I do not understand how the balls are staying on the inexperienced,” stated Hull, who was second by six photographs to Vu on the British Open final 12 months.
“You understand what it’ll be like earlier than the start of the spherical, so that you form of simply mentally put together for that earlier than.”
That was half the battle on a tricky day.
Korda, who gained the Chevron Championship for a second main amid a dominant 2024 for the American, wound up having fun with the grind.
“There’s one thing enjoyable about taking part in in these circumstances,” she stated, including: “Not that I’d do it each single time.”
Yin, ranked No. 6 and the winner of the Girls’s PGA Championship final 12 months, took all of it in her stride.
“The circumstances had been robust nevertheless it’s the identical for everybody,” she stated. “You’ve got simply obtained to attempt to make the wind your buddy.”
Vu was in a six-way tie for fourth place with Jenny Shin and Mi Hyang Lee of South Korea, Andrea Lee of america, Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand and Mao Saigo of Japan.
