Charley Hull has tested positive for COVID-19 at the ANA Inspiration and has withdrawn from the event.
Charley Hull has tested positive for COVID-19 at the ANA Inspiration. Only one player and one caddie are still awaiting results in the 105-player field. Hull has withdrawn from the event and is working with tour and health officials on contact tracing.
“As part of the LPGA TOUR’s COVID-19 testing process, I was informed this morning that I tested positive for COVID-19 and I have withdrawn from the ANA Inspiration,” Hull said in a statement. “I didn’t feel great yesterday but I put it down to jet lag, the heat and my asthma playing up. I now realize I have some mild symptoms which feel similar to having a cold and I am self-isolating and working with Tour on contact tracing. I am very disappointed to have to withdraw from what is one of my favorite events of the year but wish everyone the best of luck at this week’s tournament and look forward to when I can return to playing on Tour.”
Hull will be quarantined for 10 days. She’ll then be reevaluated by the LPGA’s medical team to determine if she’s cleared to return to competition.
The 24-year-old Englishwoman has a strong career at the ANA that dates back to her amateur days. In seven showing at the event, her worst finish was T-38 back in 2012. She has three top 10s, including a tie for second in 2016.
A raging wildfire came barreling toward Hull last week at Wentworth during the Rose Ladies Series finale.
Charley Hull found herself doing laps around the hotel room in Edinburgh. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, she said, players must sign up well in advance, to reserve a time to work out in the gym this week during the Aberdeen Stanford Investments Ladies Scottish Open.
“That’s one thing I like doing a lot,” said Hull. “Makes me feel a lot fresher, but it’s hard because there’s loads of people in the field this week and there’s probably only 16 spots a day for the gym, so it’s a bit crazy.”
So much of 2020 has been upended due to the coronavirus pandemic that players have learned to expect the unexpected. Nothing, however, could’ve prepared Hull for the raging wildfire that came barreling toward her last week at Wentworth during the Rose Ladies Series finale.
“We got caught off on the middle of the eighth fairway and it was behind the ninth green,” said Hull of the flames that broke out over Chobham Common in Surrey.
“It was really terrible and bad behind the 10th tee box. Saw a lot. And seeing this whole like 30-foot tree burning and within like seconds about 30 yards of land just on fire, it was really bad, sad.”
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No one ran around screaming and yelling, she said. It was a shocked but orderly exit from the golf course.
Organizers of the Rose Series couldn’t find a time to reschedule the final round so they reverted back to 36-hole scores. Hull competed in all eight events in the series and won the Order of Merit, which offered a prize of 20,000 pounds. She also competed against the men in several Clutch Pro Tour events during the LPGA’s 166-day break in competition
“I won’t feel too nervous on the first tee tomorrow,” said Hull of her first round back on the LPGA.
Georgia Hall, the 2018 AIG Women’s British Open winner, swings away. (Photo by Paul Severn/Getty Images)
Georgia Hall, the 2018 AIG Women’s British Open winner, was halfway down the seventh hole at Wentworth when she spotted the smoke rolling in.
“Wherever you looked, it was so orange and there was like black ashes just floating all around us,” she said, “which was very strange, and then obviously we had to evacuate. So it was a shame that we couldn’t finish.
“But I think it was about 20 yards from the actual ninth or 10th tee box, which they got extremely close. It was massive. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Charley Hull had a raging wildfire come barreling toward her last week at Wentworth during the Rose Ladies Series finale. (Photo by Paul Severn/Getty Images)
Hall won back-to-back events on the Rose series and said the one-day events boosted her confidence going into this week.
“It’s easy to practice as much as possible,” she said, “but until you have a card in your hand, you can’t really tell how good your game; especially mentally, as well.”
Charley Hull will go down as the first winner on the Rose Ladies Series.
Charley Hull will go down as the first winner on the Rose Ladies Series. Hull, a four-time European Solheim Cupper and winner of the 2016 CME Group Tour championship, fired an even-par 70 at Thursday’s one-day event at Brokenhurst Manor in Brokenhurst, England. In fact, Hull defeated Brokenhurst’s own Liz Young in a playoff for the honor.
Hull was presented with a check for £5,000 (about $6,260) for her efforts. She eventually won by making a 15-footer for birdie on the first extra hole.
Hull, who last competed in January at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in Florida, had birdied Nos. 15 and 16 at Brokenhurst to reach 2 under before a double-bogey at No. 17 brought her back to even par and into a tie with Young, who had fired her number early and waited round the clubhouse on an overcast and windy day.
Note that Young’s role in this event was more than just that of competitor. She has played the Ladies European Tour for 12 years, and had initially planned an event at her home club of Brokenhurst where fellow LET players would pay into a pot and then play for that money.
According to a story in The Telegraph, PGA Tour player Justin Rose and his wife, Kate, helped grow that one-off event into the Rose Ladies Series to help women’s professional golf make the kind of return that men’s professional golf is making.
“Justin’s name is so much more important than the money,” Young told the Telegraph. “It brings in so much more. With his big profile comes all the support, if you are looking at it from a media, social media and fan club point of view, he brings all that with his name.”
Young played the 2016 Women’s British Open while seven months pregnant with her daughter, Isabelle, her only child. Young is No. 503 in the world and has not played a competitive event in six months.
Behind Hull and Young at even par, Gabriella Cowley was third at 1-over 71.
Notably, Alice Hewson, a recent Clemson graduate who played the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and appeared on the GB&I Curtis Cup team, was part of a tie for fifth.
Dame Laura Davies fired a 7-over 77 to wind up in a tie for 18th.
The Rose Ladies Series continues June 25 at Moor Park Golf Club.
