Charley Hull reveals mental health struggles

In an exclusive interview with Today's Golfer, Charley Hull opened up about her mental health struggles.

In an exclusive interview with Today’s Golfer, the Brit opens up about the confidence and off-the-course issues that impacted her game.

Solheim Cup star Charley Hull has revealed that she was “struggling mentally” earlier this year and was forced to take time off from golf to get her head straight.

Hull came close to landing her maiden major title with an outstanding performance in last week’s US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, where a final-round 66 propelled her into a tie for second place, although she would ultimately finish three strokes adrift of impressive champion, Allisen Corpuz.

But ahead of this week’s Aramco Team Series event at Centurion, Hull admitted that she did not have the confidence to back up her form despite an encouraging start to the season, and she needed a four-week break to “fix my head”. And the results of her time away from competitive golf were evident as she relished the daunting challenge of taking on the historic links at Pebble Beach.

“I had a good start to the season, had a second place and a couple of top-10s, but then I missed a couple of cuts because my swing wasn’t quite there, and I was ill as well, so I had to take four weeks off. But I slowly started to get better and now I feel match-fit again, and last week it all clicked into place.”

And then, Hull elaborated on the extent of her illness.

“I’ve been playing well all season, it’s just confidence,” she added. “I’ve been struggling mentally this year, not on the golf course but off the course, so I had to fix my head to get better and I feel better now. It just shows you that, on the golf course, when you’re healthy you can play good golf.”

The 27-year-old now has a spring in her step as she heads into a stretch of big events, with this week’s Aramco Team Series event followed by the Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath, and Hull will then look forward to making her sixth appearance at the Solheim Cup in September.

“Pebble Beach is an amazing golf course. I really enjoyed it and obviously I played very well, so I feel like my game is in great shape going into a stretch of big tournaments, especially with the Evian and Women’s Open coming up, I feel really good.”

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