Charley Hull opened with five-under 67.
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Our St. Andrews correspondent Sean Zak is on the AIG Girls’s Open this week. Right here he checks in with stateside colleague Dylan Dethier to dish on 40 mph winds, stars displaying out, the vibe on the town and one terrific quote.
Dylan Dethier, GOLF senior author: Hey there, Sean.
Sean Zak, additionally a GOLF senior author: Hey, Dylan.
DD: Right here’s the deal. I’ve been watching the AIG Girls’s Open from my sofa after which my favourite new Seattle espresso store. You’re there in particular person — feeling the wind in your hair, fescue beneath your ft, haggis in your stomach and so forth. So I’ve received a number of questions for you.
SZ: Hit me.
DD: First, what’s it like being in St. Andrews for you personally? You’re one thing of an American ambassador there, in any case, having lived there for the summer season of 2022 — the summer season of LIV’s arrival and Cam Smith’s again 9, amongst different issues — and wrote a e-book about your life there. How is it being again?
SZ: It’s incredible! One factor about St. Andrews that makes me happiest is the way it principally by no means modifications. The storefronts look similar to they did two summers in the past and one summer season in the past and, presumably, how they’ll look subsequent summer season. The 18th gap of the Outdated Course will all the time look the identical the week of a giant match, with the large blue bleachers in entrance of the large, auburn Hamilton Grand, bordered by that white fence. The one main change for me is I’m staying in one of many scholar dorms this week. I’m hoping to bump right into a caddie or two in there.
DD: Take a chilly plunge within the North Sea for me. Anyway, Day 1 is within the books. I do know you simply completed up a report on the situations. Sum ’em up for me: Simply how blustery was it on Thursday on the Outdated Course? And did one facet of the draw get a noticeable benefit?
SZ: It was as windy as I’ve ever seen St. Andrews. I wasn’t right here in 2015 when the Open was postponed by wind, however in the present day needed to be near that, if not worse. We had a number of women hitting driver, 3-wood into the first gap. And far of the course — holes 3 by 16 — performed with a brutal cross-wind. There’s simply no consolation in that. And also you noticed it with gamers backing off photographs on the tee, within the fairway and on the greens. As for the draw, the afternoon benefitted enormously. By 6 p.m. the wind had laid down a great bit, and the scores confirmed it. We had 4 under-par rounds within the morning and, with a pair gamers nonetheless on track, simply over a dozen within the afternoon.
DD: There have been a number of apparent storylines coming in — World No. 1 Nelly Korda attempting to complete a profitable season in model, Lydia Ko coming off her epic gold medal, Lauren Coughlin constructing on two breakthrough wins, Lexi Thompson taking part in within the ultimate main of her final (ish) season, Charley Hull chasing her first main shut (ish) to residence, Catriona Matthew asserting her retirement, and so forth. By means of one spherical, what storyline’s grabbing your consideration?
SZ: It’s Charley Hull main the golf match. I believe? Or Nelly Korda, one shot again. Or Lilia Vu’s title protection — she’s only one shot again of Korda. The rationale I can’t inform is as a result of the most important group of followers adopted that trio Thursday, and it wasn’t shut. I believe that has a great bit to do with Hull’s recognition launch this summer season, after puffing one fateful cigarette in an autograph line and not apologizing for it. She is unapologetically herself, which attracts us in. Kinda like Brooks Koepka can do at occasions. After taking pictures five-under 67 on Thursday, she might have St. Andrews in a tizzy this weekend. After which she might actually trigger a ruckus by doing what Koepka did and visiting the clubby bar on the town, The Vic.
DD: You might need to hit the Vic Sunday evening it doesn’t matter what, for reporting functions. What was the day’s largest shock?
‘My head’s pounding’: 40-mph winds push Girls’s Open subject to brink
SZ: It needed to be Ruoning Yin. She was six below round midday in the present day, when nobody else was higher than two below. Sure, she backed up, as a result of mainly everybody backed up that point of day. However 68 within the morning was gorgeous. Afterwards she advised us she was “simply attempting to make the wind my buddy,” which I actually favored.
DD: Good. What was the quote of the day from the interview space?
SZ: Georgia Corridor eagled the ninth, her 18th gap of the day, and was in an unsurprisingly talkative temper after. She got here in and shared this magnificence:
“I appeared out my resort room and I can see the vary, the flags on the vary and that’s a great indicator for me. It was 5 a.m. and so they had been blowing a gale. I used to be like, That’s nice. Hope it stays like that.“
She was wide-eyed, excited. It was cool.
“Undecided many gamers would agree with me,” she added. “I hardly get to play like this. I play in America rather a lot, and to me it’s extra of a picket type of golf. That is pure, uncooked golf.”
I had to return and take heed to that quote again and again simply to verify it was correct. I believe she was saying picket golf in a very British means, that means stiff, boring, unimaginative. There’s a unique model of picket over right here. Driftwood picket. Outdated, petrified bushes that wash up on shore. Pure and uncooked. That’s the vibe. So good.
DD: Hell yeah. Lastly, what’s one attention-grabbing, perhaps random little factor you noticed in the present day that made you significantly glad to be again on the Outdated?
SZ: Gabbi Ruffels performed her tee shot on the eleventh to the little gully between the eleventh and seventh greens, however she was on the dance ground. She elected to hit a wedge from there, flopped it into the air and received rejected so onerous by the wind I almost received out of the my seat within the grandstand. I wrote that her ball appeared like a limp paper airplane despatched astray. It ended up in a greenside bunker and he or she made triple bogey, en path to 81. Ouch! Notice to self: use the putter.
DD: Thanks mate. Off to the pubs you go. Perhaps we’ll do that once more tomorrow.
