'I don't train for golf, I train to keep my body and mind fit'

AIG Women's Open

Venue: Royal Porthcawl, Wales Date: 31 July - 3 August

BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary across all four days of the championship

It is 20 years since Charley Hull first hit the golfing headlines.

The then nine-year-old battled through a competition that attracted 24,000 entries from across the country to win the 2005 Ladies Golf Union Championship at a windswept Turnberry, beating a 46-year-old from Manchester in a play-off for the title.

A year later, she showed remarkable maturity when asked if she was going to be the women's Tiger Woods.

"I want to be my own person really," was the 10-year-old's confident reply in a grainy video. "Everyone is saying you're the new Tiger Woods and I think yeah, well, whatever. I want to be myself."

And Hull has certainly spent the past two decades being herself, with an ADHD diagnois in 2023 helping her "understand why sometimes I get bored on the golf course".

She eschews normal golf training because she thinks it's "rubbish", has raised eyebrows for smoking on the course, and has "no interest" in her past results because she's already "off to the next thing".

Such was the excitement around Hull after that triumph on the west coast of Scotland in 2005, a BBC report suggested that you would struggle to get better odds than 20-1 for her to win a major by the end of 2025.

Well, here we are. The final major of 2025.

The AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl is being billed as the biggest women's sporting event held in Wales, with thousands of fans expected to attend the coastal venue.

And 29-year-old Hull will be hoping to break her major duck at the 60th time of asking.

'I need my immune system to catch up'

But despite being world number 19, the odds are probably greater now than they were back then. That is chiefly down to the disrupted preparation Hull has faced, having being forced to pull out of the Evian Championship earlier this month.

Hull, who was "battling a virus", collapsed during the first round of the fourth of the annual five majors, and on her return to competition at last week's Scottish Open - where she went finished joint 21st - said she was only operating at about 80%.

"I've not been (to the) gym in two weeks and I'm not going to go to the gym for another two weeks," she said while at Dundonald Links. "I need my immune system to catch up. It drives me bonkers not being able to go to the gym."

Hull's followers on social media will be well aware of her gym obsession, with almost daily snapshots of workouts posted online.

She prefers it to the usual golf training which she has long called "a load of rubbish".

"I don't train for golf, I train to keep my body and mind fit," she told BBC Sport.

"I've no interest in doing it for golf. I just do it for myself, as a hobby, trying to beat my own fitness goals."

When asked to clarify what golf training entails, Hull replied: "I'm not on about training as in chipping and putting. I can do that for hours all day.

"It's all this boring movement stuff I've been doing since I was 14. It's just not for me."

The training regime also includes trying to run 5km in 20 minutes before the year is out (last check was 23mins 30secs, down from over 26mins at the start of February) and quitting smoking.

"I was on about 40 a day, so I just thought, I don't want to be smoking 40 cigarettes a day, so I just quit straight away," she said. "It's the easiest thing I've ever done."

'I hope the wind is up'

It has been a scarcely believable dozen years since Hull burst on to the professional scene in 2013 with five sucessive runners-up finishes on the Ladies European Tour (LET).

She has gone on to record a combined six victories on the LPGA Tour and LET and become a key member of the past six European Solheim Cup teams, but three runner-up finishes remain the best Hull has achieved in the sport's biggest championships.

"Second to me is first loser," said England's top ranked player.

"But I'm in a great position because if you're not asking [about my chances], I'm not doing something right."

Hull has been a little boom or bust in the majors over recent years. In her past 24 starts, she has missed the cut on eight occassions but finished top-25 in 15, including runner-up in this championship when it was held at Surrey course Walton Heath in 2023.

Unlike the men's Open Championship, which is always held at a coastal links course, the women's equivalent is also played at inland courses.

And while Hull said she "prefers parkland" tracks, she has positive experiences from Porthcawl to draw upon.

"I won here when I was 14, so I have fond memories," she said, referring to playing in the inaugural Junior Vagliano trophy in 2011 - a Solheim Cup-style amateur contest which pits Great Britain and Ireland agaist Continental Europe.

"Links is going to be a challenge and I hope the wind is up because I like finding links hard."

Three times she has finished in the spot behind the winner in her previous 59 major appearances. There have been six other top-10s.

"I don't really look at stuff like that," she said.

"I have no interest. As I am in life, once I'm done I'm off to the next thing."

And when pushed on what she needs to do to take her game to the next level, Hull simply said: "I need to not put too much pressure on my golf, not be too golf obsessed.

"Like when I was younger, I was never that obsessed."

Perhaps a windy Porthcawl will help invoke memories of those more innocent days at blustery Turnberry.