okay good morning everyone we'll uh we'll make a start um Welcome to our first preview press conference for the 2024 AIG Women's Open I'm delighted to welcome England's Charlie Hull in the world number 10 to the interview room um Charlie thank you for joining us this morning uh last year you were runner up at Walton Heath um How much would it mean to you to go one better this week here in St Andrews yeah 100% like obviously it's a home of golf it'll be a pretty special win um something that you've always dreamed of as like a baby so yeah it' be very special and how are you enjoying the S Andrew's experience the old course Factor it is quite a place to come and play and compete in a in a big Championship yeah I teed up on the back line yesterday morning and as you walk down like 17 and 18 you get like geese bumps it's pretty cool and have you is this the first time you played in a championship here this this scale no I played here um as my first year as a professional in 2013 when I was 17 years old and do you have memories of of that week and yeah actually like the solim cup um announcement was the I think the Sunday night that year when I got picked for my first Salam cup so yeah it was pretty special memor that's good okay well we'll take some questions from the floor if you'd like to raise your hand we'll get a a microphone to you Megan we'll start with you Charlie you talk you talk a little bit about in how 2013 was your first experience how much did you play here as as an amate and how much do you remember from kind of that first that 2013 experience as well so when I was 9 years old we actually had the HSBC we wers like the championship here but it wasn't around the old course it was around like one of the nine Hall golf courses and that was the first time I ever come to St Andrews and then I watched I think it was a 2010 British Open men's Open Championship here come up to watch tiger and I played here that year as well or the year after in it was an amateur event here um actually stayed with s Michael B alak back then um he was pretty cool guy um cuz I knew his daughter Glenna from Wen and yeah it just had a lot of good memories and I played here again in March time April time um and that was fun I didn't something for the RNA and got to play 18 holes but it is a really special place and I really like the mint like the pies on the halfway house but they don't have them here yesterday I was good you've traditionally enjoyed parking you played well at the Scottish last week what did you learn late about how to really get around link courses successfully well a couple of weeks ago my coach got me working on doing a lot of three quarter swings because my golf swing got a little bit too long but now I kind of under understand why he got me working on the three quarters because he's just kind of introduced me to get a l ball flight for the these couple of weeks coming up for the links so I think you just got to be patient out there I do find St St Andrew is actually a harder links for me not necessarily cuz it's super tough T but because there's not you can't really the lines on the fairways like it just looks very open um so it's quite hard to pick like a point in the distance but usually I let them really tight like Fairways like sahali because you kind of kind of see the kind of see like the B the the bll shape like and where to hit it so I think out here it's you got to be very focused on your point and your target so that would my C Adam's job okay next question we go Chris on the left here uh Charlie the support you got in this Championship 12 months ago was incredible how cool was that for you and how exciting is it to have the prospect of getting that sort of atmosphere going again yeah it was really cool because obviously last year it was like 20 minutes from my house so I was staying at home and I felt pretty relaxed and it was so nice to see all the fans out there and everything I think it was a very good catchment area near London as well so we got a lot of Spectators but obviously now the home of golf hopefully there'll be good crowds this week and yeah it's just lovely to be out there and people cheering you on okay and Martin at the front Charlie the the amateur event you mentioned would that be the Cal trophy I think it's that one I I was trying to remember it actually the other day the name of it yeah but yeah I think it was that one what was your verdict on last week's performance you got yourself in the mix didn't win obviously but did you take a lot of positives away from that yeah 100% I just didn't quite P how didn't quite um put how I wanted to on the final round but it was quite tricky because of the wind and I puted pretty well all week but you know what it's like on golf when you have like a 4ot putt but the wind's blown it and you've got to allow for like half a cup of break but um no I feel pretty positive cuz obviously I haven't got the best track record on Lynx golf but I'm learning every time and I'm just enjoying it so yeah it's good it was a mix bag weatherwise last week the forecast pretty Grim this week how much an advantage help can that be playing last week coming into this week 100% like it come to the point last week in the final round I think it was on the 16th hole the wind died a little bit and it was probably and my caddy said just hit a normal 79 and I was thinking to myself how do I hit a normal 79 cuz I've been used to hitting it like Punchy and lower week so I set up to it with the ball back in my stance and I hit a rubbish shot to the right and then I just realized to myself oh I need to put it back up my stance now but yeah it was good to be playing in the wind cuz hopefully it's windy this week and it's just a different it's a bit more of a challenge I really enjoy that like the grind out there okay next question the left hand side hi Charlie um in recent years there's been a lot of talk about where people driving it longer and longer that if the conditions are right and it's a big if but the the PA fors becoming a bit easy to Target um I just wondered for your experience 11 years ago in your practice rounds how you think it's going to play um I can't really remember too much from where I was hitting it 11 years ago but um I just remember when I played here in I think it was May the whim was actually a different direction and then yesterday the whim was the opposite direction so holes like I think is it 10 11 12 so 10 I could go on when I played here in April and then for some reason I think I paid off the wrong te when I played here the other like back then I could drive I think it was 12 as well but yesterday it was like a four iron short of the bunkers and then like an eight into the green so it was a lot different it's obviously the third time that it's ever been held here would you like to see it become a bit more of a a regular thing when it's such a prestigious venue yeah 100% I think it would be really cool I think um it's like it' be cool if it was here for like five years or I don't know however long it be really cool any other questions Martin can a microphone to you you mentioned St Michael Bal just how did that all come about and how special was that obviously legend of the game yeah so I was brought up um joined Wen Golf Club when I was 8 years old and his daughter Glenna Beasley she was like the secretary there and I got on well with his granddaughter as well um Harriet and just kind of going down there and she said my mom and dad you can stay with them and I come up here and I and I stayed with him and he actually came out and watched me uh one really horrible windy day when we played and he was like really impressed with my game cuz I used like blades and stuff and I used to like we all used to have dinner at night and everything and it was great and then I stayed with him in the 2013 Bri open and they lovely there was lovely lovely people obviously he passed away not that long ago will that sort of be his memory maybe inspire you a little bit this week yeah 100% he was a lovely man very lovely got next question right hand side here on the right yeah Charlie are are you back to 100% after the injury and how has that progressed over the last couple of weeks yeah definitely I think like the first round of the Olympics was more just cuz of nerves like putting a lot of work but coming back after like five weeks off I just get like a little bit nervous like I have all my like little checkpoints and at home I was playing some great golf but it was just like the first round of the Olympics I don't know why then the last three rounds I was at and Par and I was back to myself and then carried it on last week my shoulders justes get a little bit tight so I have like acupuncture like needles in it every other day I've actually got got it after this um cuz when it's cold it can play up a bit I've got it's a degenerate arthritis in it as well so when it does get cold it gets a bit stiff so you just got to keep it warm apart from that I'm I'm healthy and ready to go