By Adam Stanley– LPGA.com
Adam Stanley is an award-winning Canadian golf journalist who’s covered the game for nearly a decade. He has been part of the coverage of the LPGA, PGA, Korn Ferry and Mackenzie tours and more for the extent of his journalism career.
To paraphrase a song from a popular children’s Disney film, for Charley Hull, the heat never bothered her anyway.
Hull, who is returning to the HSBC Women’s World Championship for the first time since 2022 where she was forced to withdraw, opened with a 3-under 69 and sits just one back of the lead.
If 18 holes in the Singapore sun wasn’t enough, she started her day running five kilometers prior to her round.
And Friday she plans to go even further.
“Just a tiny run. A little 5K. Tomorrow will be like 12K,” Hull said with her signature smile.
Hull admits there is a method to her madness, however.
She has long talked about how in-gym training has been great for both her physical and mental health and, with a cheeky laugh, admitted a few weeks ago her biggest goal for 2025 was to get her run time for that five kilometer-distance down to just 20 minutes.
“I’m miserable all day if I don’t train in the morning,” Hull said. “I actually find that I swell more on the golf course if I don’t run. I said to my caddie, yesterday morning I didn’t train before I played and I was really swollen out there, and today I wasn’t.
“Gets my heart pumping and makes me feel loose and like I’m one step ahead of everyone.”
After 18 holes at Sentosa Golf Club, Hull is only one shot behind A Lim Kim, who won the season opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Kim fired a 4-under 68.
Hull is looking for her first win on the LPGA Tour since 2022.
“I just felt like I played pretty solid,” Hull said. “I had a good night sleep, and it was a lot cooler today. It was quite windy, and I felt like I played pretty solid.”
This is Hull’s second start of the season, having notched a top-20 result at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands. She had a nice run of consistency in 2024 as well, having missed just two cuts. Hull had five top-10s a year ago including a season-best tie for second at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
Hull, whose best finish at the HSBC Women’s World Championship came all the way back in 2017 when she finished T12, darted up the leaderboard thanks to her consistency. She was one of just two golfers to go bogey free in the opening round and was one of two – along with Kim – to shoot in the 60s.
Thursday’s scoring average was 74.439, which marked the highest scoring average across the field in a single round this season, and the highest first-round scoring average since the opener of the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.
Hull, however, seemed to embrace the challenge of it all.
“It was good. I quite enjoyed it. It was really fun out there,” she said. “My boyfriend said to me, ‘Try to be inside like the top 5 by the first day’ to make him happy. I was just trying to climb that leaderboard all the way around.”
Per KPMG Performance Insights, Hull was seventh on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained: tee to green a year ago. She said Thursday that, in the windy conditions, judging yardages will be paramount to success. With the greens being so firm, there has to be acceptance that not all shots will end up close.
Staying steady and like with a long run, keeping one foot in front of the other, will be key over the next few days.
“Just dig deep and stay patient with yourself, got a few longer irons in, so that plays in my game. I’m a good long iron player,” Hull said.
“The next three days, go out there and have fun and make birdies and stay cool.”
