Age no big deal for English golf tyro

You wonder how English golfing great Laura Davies deals with it.

The 51-year-old is barely middle-aged but in comparison to most of her competitors in the Australian Ladies Masters, Davies is positively ancient.

Nowhere is that best shown than in the efforts of her compatriot Charley Hull at Royal Pines.

Hull may be 18 and a entering just her third season as a professional but she came into this week’s tournament as the bookies’ favourite after claiming the Ladies European Tour order of merit last year.

So far Hull has justified that tag, scoring back-to-back rounds of three-under-par 70 to be just three shots off leader Rebecca Artis going into the third round.

Alongside her in the draw is another teenager, 19-year-old Korean Eun Woo Choi.

When you add 18-year-old Australian Su Oh, who shared the first round lead with Choi, into the mix, it’s clear women’s golf is increasingly becoming a youngster’s game.

Hull says it’s still more to do with ability than age however.

“Age is just a number … obviously we’re just good young,” Hull said.

“I suppose it’s really good but a lot of my friends are older than me anyway so it doesn’t make much difference.”

Hull does agree however the brashness of youth may help golf’s young guns push the boundaries more than their older opponents.

“At end of the day it’s a game, you should just go out there and have fun,” she said.

“If I hit it in the water it’s just a game, I’m not going to die.

“Because we haven’t experienced so much of the bad stuff yet so we just go out there and play.”

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