Charley Hull has, unsurprisingly, been involved in a colourful start to Solheim Cup week. After arriving late for her Tuesday practice tee time in the Netherlands, an online clip of her joking about the reason prompted a cascade of online speculation and ended with members of the European team hierarchy forcibly denying any overindulgence on the teetotal Hull’s behalf on Monday night.
In an unusual scene, Hull, who is crucial to Europe’s quest to reclaim the Solheim Cup from the United States this week, drove off alone at Bernardus Golf and caught up with her teammates after arriving on the 1st tee minutes behind them. In a clip that gained traction, Hull appeared to jokingly blame “drinks” from the night before. The English golfer did, however, seem to point towards her caddie at the time.
When asked about Hull’s delayed arrival, the European vice-captain Mel Reid slightly strangely focused firstly on the online speculation. “It is a completely false story,” said Reid. “Charley Hull was the first one to bed last night at eight o’clock and the first one on the bus this morning. She doesn’t even drink. So that is a completely false story that has been misquoted.
“She was late to the tee because I was responsible for her so I will take a little bit of responsibility for that. She just thought her tee time was a little bit later and trying to drag Charley Hull off the range is a feat in any tournament, especially a Solheim Cup.”
When it was pointed out to Reid that many observers were unaware of the “false story” anyway, she added: “I kind of want to shut this down before people start talking about it. She was late because one, I couldn’t drag her off the range and two, she thought her tee time was five minutes later.”
There is rarely a dull moment around Hull. Her participation in the recent Women’s Open was overshadowed by a prank she played out on her caddie. Alongside Lottie Woad, she is one of two members of the world’s top 10 in the European side.
Hull’s individualism is one of her most endearing qualities. Anna Nordqvist, the European captain, denied that was in any way a problem but did concede Hull was given permission to arrive in the Netherlands later than her teammates.
“It has been really nice to see how much Charley has started to embrace the whole Solheim Cup atmosphere,” said Nordqvist. “It is nice to see how excited she is. I flew in on Saturday, some of the girls flew in on Sunday. For Charley, we decided she was going to be better off preparing at home in England so she flew in last night.
“I was on the 1st tee this morning, I told the other three girls to go. It takes a good five or 10 minutes to get out there so I told them Charley would just catch up because we knew she was on her way.”