The Rise of Katherine Hull

During Inside The LPGA yesterday, Karen asked me if I had any explanation for why Katherine Hull had played so well at the Canadian Open and Safeway. Since I didn’t, I had to go find out.

It certainly wasn’t her putting. Over the two events, Katherine used 28.86 putts per round, considerably higher than her seasonal average of 28.11. Hull has suddenly gotten super-accurate off the tee, hitting the fairway at an .827 clip. She was averaging only .597 going into Canada! For a player who swings such a short driver (242.1 - T118), starting off in the fairway becomes critical. Her distance numbers at both events were comparable to her seasonal average so she most likely wasn’t passing up the driver any more often than she used to. The improved accuracy helped boost her GIR rate to .786 (way up from .625). I also checked Katherine’s numbers from the Jamie Farr (where she finished sixth) and although her accuracy there wasn’t nearly as good (.661), it was still quite better than her established norm. Her GIR at the Farr was .764, not quite her most recent number but worlds better than usual.

Credit the jacked-up GIR rate - most of which was set up by the vastly improved driving accuracy – for Katherine Hull’s recent success.