England’s Charley Hull didn’t have a lot of time after Sunday’s final round at Q-School to ponder what winning conditional status to play the LPGA next year will mean. She was too busy racing to catch a plane to the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in a bid to win a big prize over there this week.
Hull, 18, will tee it up in the Ladies European Tour’s final event of the year, attempting to become the youngest Order of Merit winner in the history of that tour.
“It’s something that would mean a lot to her,” said Dave Hull, Charley’s father.
Hull leads the LET’s Order of Merit with 247,616 euros this year, but France’s Gwladys Nocera turned up the heat on her, winning the Hero Women’s Indian Open on Sunday. Nocera is second on the list with 224,901. There are 75,000 euros to this week’s winner.
The Dubai Ladies Masters features a field that includes Hull, Nocera, Rolex world No. 5 Shanshan Feng and No. 12 Anna Nordqvist, as well as American Cheyenne Woods, Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall, Australia’s Minjee Lee and England’s Laura Davies.
Despite a final-round, 4-under-par 68 Sunday at LPGA Q-School in Daytona Beach, Fla., the low round of the day, Hull came up two shots short of making a playoff for a chance at full LPGA status - and she wasn’t unhappy with conditional status. She played nine LPGA events this past year, six on sponsor exemptions, two through her Rolex world ranking and one via a Solheim Cup exemption. She could get those same starts next year, plus possibly 10 or more with her conditional status.
“If I would have had this status this past year, I’d easily have gotten my card,” Hull said.
Hull will be looking to mix LET and LPGA starts next year as she seeks to make the 2015 European Solheim Cup team. She helped the Euros upset the Americans and win the cup at the Colorado Golf Club in 2013.
