Anna Nordqvist has praised Charley Hull's enthusiasm heading into this week's Solheim Cup at Bernardus Golf, highlighting how the English player has grown into her responsibilities within the Team Europe setup.
Though Hull is only 30 years old, her experience in the biennial competition is substantial. This week marks her eighth consecutive appearance for Team Europe, a streak that underscores her importance to the continental side's ambitions.
Hull's record in the competition speaks volumes about her calibre. She was Europe's leading scorer during the 2015 Solheim Cup and remained undefeated when Team Europe triumphed at Gleneagles in 2019. Most recently, she delivered a dominant performance against world number one Nelly Korda, winning 6&4 on the final day of the last contest.
Her tally of 15 matches won represents the most achieved by any player in Solheim Cup history before reaching their 30th birthday. As Team Europe seeks to reclaim the trophy from Angela Stanford's Team USA, Nordqvist is counting on Hull to add further victories to that impressive total.
Speaking at her press conference, Nordqvist reflected on Hull's evolving mindset within the team environment.
I've been part of basically every single team that Charley's been on and I will say it's been really nice to see how much she is starting to embrace the whole Solheim atmosphere. I've had multiple conversations with her and it is just nice to see how excited she is. It's just been really nice to see Charley excited and here buzzing about teeing it up this week.
Hull arrived in the Netherlands later than some of her teammates, having travelled from England on Monday. Nordqvist explained the reasoning behind this scheduling decision, noting that allowing players based in the UK to prepare at home before flying in offered them an advantage in their final preparations.
In the process leading up to the event, I wanted to make sure that every player got the opportunity to prepare as well for the event. I flew in on the Saturday, some of the US-based girls flew in on Sunday. For Charley, we decided that she was going to be better off preparing being in home in England. She flew in yesterday [Monday] but it has been very nice to see her.
Hull's late arrival at Tuesday practice round
Hull was scheduled to begin Tuesday's practice session alongside Lottie Woad, Maja Stark and Linn Grant at 9.30am local time. She arrived at the tee a couple of minutes behind schedule but quickly caught up with her group.
Team Europe vice-captain Mel Reid took responsibility for the minor delay, explaining the circumstances.
She was late to the tee because I was responsible for her, so I'll take a little bit of responsibility to that. She just thought her tee time was a little bit later. Trying to drag Charley Hull off a driving range is a feat in any tournament, especially a Solheim [Cup]. She was literally late because one, I couldn't drive drag her off the driving range, and, two, she thought her tee time was five minutes later than it was.
Nordqvist provided further context about the logistics of the practice schedule.
I was on the first tee this morning and obviously I told the first three girls to go, because there's a little bit of a hike given that we start on the third hole and not the course first hole this week. It takes a good, five, 10 minutes to get out there [from the range]. I told the first tee to go ahead and then Charley would just catch up, because we knew she was on the way.
Earlier in the week, Dame Laura Davies urged Hull to take a leadership role for Team Europe at the Solheim Cup, with Nordqvist having completed her squad selection including captain's picks such as Leona Maguire.
Sky Sports coverage schedule
Sky Sports Golf will broadcast at least 12 hours of live coverage across the opening two days of competition. Coverage begins at 6am on Friday and Saturday, with the first foursomes matches scheduled to tee off at 6.40am, which is 7.40am local time.
The afternoon fourballs are set to commence at 12.05pm, equivalent to 1.05pm local time, on both Friday and Saturday. Live coverage will continue through to the conclusion of play each day.
Sunday's singles matches will receive coverage starting at 9am, ahead of the opening tee shot at 10.10am. The closing ceremony will be broadcast on Sky Sports+ from 5.30pm on Sunday following the announcement of the Solheim Cup winner.
The opening ceremony on Thursday at 4.30pm will reveal the opening-day pairings for both teams. All three days of competition will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports Golf from 11-13 September, with viewers able to access coverage through Sky Sports or stream via NOW without a contract commitment.
