Charley Hull has admitted her off-season was far less enjoyable than she would have liked after suffering with multiple illnesses and even spending some time in hospital recently.
After recording a T9 finish with Justin Rose at the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational, the Englishwoman spent much of the past five weeks battling sickness - including a bout of Covid-19 and salmonella-induced food poisoning - before returning to competition at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour last week with an excellent top-10 result.
Although Hull was unable to catch eventual champion Lydia Ko, she positively skipped to seven-under for the tournament to finish alongside Solheim Cup teammate Gemma Dryburgh and Team USA's Rose Zhang.
Her high-quality performance was perhaps something of a surprise, though, given the ordeal she had endured in the weeks prior. Speaking to the LPGA Tour's Hope Barnett, Hull explained: "I have had a crazy off-season. I came back from Grant Thornton [Invitational] and had Covid for 10 days.
"Then I was poorly over Christmas and on antibiotics. I then got better and went out for food on New Year's Day, and I was then sick for that whole week. I went to Dubai last week to practice, still being sick, and then I was in hospital from Sunday to basically the Tuesday. I found out I had salmonella food poisoning.
"I then got on the plane and landed [Wednesday], so it was pretty late to an event. I don't normally turn up this late to an event. But at least I'm here and at least I'm living - but yeah, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster off-season."
Hull - who recently signed a clothing deal with Malbon - admitted her late arrival at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club meant she was unable to prepare how she would like, and it did appear to affect her over the course of round one.
The 27-year-old carded a two-over 74 on Thursday before a brilliant fightback on Friday saw Hull shoot a six-under 66 to haul herself back into possible contention. While a win did not materialise, Hull managed to grind out a three-under total at the weekend to nudge herself up into the top-10.
Speaking immediately after the tournament, Hull said: "Yeah, I feel pretty happy, especially with arriving so late. I wasn't prepared. Came in and played the Pro-Am, and that was it really. Yeah, no, I'm actually happy with that start to the season."
Hull will be hoping to go one better than she managed in 2023 after finishing as runner up in two of the five women's Majors as well as two other LPGA Tour events. And after working hard in between her sickness over the winter, the two-time LPGA Tour winner says she is optimistic it will lead to benefits in her game this season.
She said: "[I'm excited to work on] pretty much everything. Just started to get back into the feel. I was grinding hard, but then I've been so poorly for five weeks, so I just felt like I wasn't quite settled the first day.
"Apart from that, I played some solid golf. Today was so tricky out there and I hit some great shots coming in. Missed a few putts, but it wasn't really my strike, it was the greens got so fast. Used to putting on a six stimp in the UK and now it feels like a bloody 14!"
