Chevron Championship: In-form Georgia Hall set to contend for second major, live on Sky Sports
Georgia Hall has been a model of consistency in 2023 but a title has so far eluded her. Will that change at The Chevron Championship?
The first women’s major championship of the year, The Chevron Championship, takes place in Houston, Texas this week – live on Sky Sports Golf – and Britain’s last major winner, Georgia Hall, is in fine form heading into the tournament.
Hall won the 2018 Women’s Open, becoming the third Brit to do so and just the fifth British major winner ever, and seems well placed to double her tally at Carlton Woods.
The 27-year followed up two second-placed LPGA Tour finishes, at the DIO Implant LA Open and LPGA Drive On Championship, with another impressive outing at the LOTTE Championship last week.
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The world No 10 had thrown herself into contention and one shot off the lead after a superb 66 on the second day, though her challenge ultimately faded with three bogeys in her final five holes on the final day to finish in a tie for sixth.
Still, the performance – Hall’s fourth top-10 of the year – pushed her to the top of the LPGA season rankings and reaffirmed her status as a major contender.
The men have just wrapped up their first major of the season, with Jon Rahm producing a near-flawless performance at Augusta National – barring that four-putt double-bogey on the very first hole – to win the Masters less than a fortnight ago.
It is that very tournament which forms the inspiration for Georgia’s name, having been born on April 12, 1996, just two days after Englishman Nick Faldo’s famous comeback victory that year at Augusta, in the US state of Georgia.
Twenty-two years on, Hall produced her own scintillating performance to claim a major championship, winning the Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham with an aggregate score of 17 under in 2018.
Hall won the Women’s Open in 2018, beating Pornanong Phatlum by two strokes
Such success had always seemed likely with Hall from an early age.
Having taken up golf at the age of seven, she quickly rose up the junior and amateur ranks, winning the British Girls Championship in back-to-back years (2012, 2013), before following that up with victory at the British Ladies Amateur Championship in 2013.
That same year, Hall represented Team GB at the 2013 Youth Olympic Festival where she won two gold medals, while she was also part of the European team in that year’s Junior Solheim Cup, albeit one which was beaten 14-and-a-half to 12-and-a-half by the United States.
In 2014, aged 18, Hall turned pro and had a strong start, finishing in the top-20 six times during the 2015 Ladies European Tour and claiming her first victory as a professional in February 2016 at the Oates Victorian Open.
Hall has four top-10 finishes in five LPGA Tour events so far this season
The following year, Hall had a first top-10 finish at a major, placing 10th at the 2017 Evian Championship, before finishing in a tie for third at the Women’s British Open – laying the groundwork for what was to come the following year.
Ahead of her final-day triumph at Royal Lytham in 2018, Hall had trailed Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum by one shot but she swiftly made up that ground with a birdie on the first hole to move level.
It was neck-and-neck for much of the round thereafter but, as a tense final day neared its conclusion, Hall pulled away when, on the 17th, Phatlum carded a double bogey after finding the bunker.
It meant Hall headed to the 18th with a three-shot advantage and she duly wrapped up a two-shot win after a safely-navigated bogey on the final hole.
Hall’s fellow Englishwoman Charley Hull, ranked 16th in the world, has also played well in 2023 so far, with a second-placed finish at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January – she ended four-strokes behind Brooke Henderson – and a tie for seventh at the LPGA Drive On Championship.
Major success has eluded Hall since, with no finish in even the top-30 over her next two barren years, but her form has returned with back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Evian Championship in 2021 and 2022, while she narrowly missed out on a second Women’s Open triumph in 2021 at Carnoustie, finishing in a tie for second and one behind winner Anna Nordqvist.
Her impressive form on tour to start 2023 suggests that she’ll again be challenging for major honors yet again this year. But can she now turn her recent near misses into a second major trophy lift come Sunday?
Find out by watching The Chevron Championship live on Sky Sports. Coverage of round one begins at 4pm on Thursday on Sky Sports Golf.
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