Davies hopes Hall can ignite new era

Open glory can inspire next generation, legend of the women’s game tells James Corrigan

Despite the lifechanging success that has launched Georgia Hall to millionairess status, the Women’s British Open champion will honour her commitment to play alongside Dame Laura Davies in this week’s inaugural European Golf Team Championship at Gleneagles.

Yet, while Davies is delighted to have the newest member of the British major club by her side – and, in truth, the duo must be overwhelming favourites to win – what most thrills the 54-year-old is the effect Hall’s breakthrough could have on the women’s game in this country.

At just 22, Hall became Britain’s youngest women’s major champion and the reception she received at Royal Lytham hinted at what it could mean. More than an hour after her two-shot victory, a crowd of children – the majority of whom were girls – congregated outside the media centre chanting: “Georgia, Georgia”. After her press duties were over, Hall was embraced by the adoring crowd and signed all the autographs. It was a scene of rich promise for those who have yearned for a British heroine to assume the mantle which Davies held for so long.

However, the Dame herself was finding her own elation, thinking of a similar reaction in living rooms up and down the country, as Britain welcomed its first home female Open winner in nine years and England’s first in 14 years.

“You know there are lots of little boys and girls watching the final round on TV and they’ve seen a young girl winning something quite sensational,” Davies, the four-time major champion, said.

“Hopefully, they’re going to say to their parents that they want a set of golf clubs and, who knows, she might end up inspiring the next British women’s major champion.”

Davies was in the event herself and stayed on after missing the cut to perform analysis for Sky Sports. Like everyone, she was enchanted by the story of Hall’s father acting as her caddie.

“What a dream moment for Wayne, as well,” Davies said. “He first took Georgia to play when she was seven and what a journey they have been on since. Maybe he will motivate more fathers to take their daughters to the golf club with them. It is an inspirational tale.”

Indeed it is and, for the Hall family, a lucrative one as well. The £378,000 winner’s cheque was more than twice as much as she had ever collected – and that is only the beginning. Trade figures say there would have been bonuses in her sponsorship deals and that her final earnings for the week will run towards seven figures. “And that will just be the start,” one insider said. “Her management company [IMG] will be able to put a couple of noughts on the end of her sponsorships from now on. She is in the big league.”

Hall’s first top-flight professional triumph rocketed her 29 places into the top 10 of the world rankings, and Davies believes the confidence will take her on to yet more extraordinary feats.

“Georgia’s progression is meteoric, really,” Davies said. “Her debut at the Solheim Cup last year and her third-place finish at the British Open was one thing, but this is another level. She had a bit of a rocky start this year, but then she started making cuts on a regular basis, then top-10s and is now a major champion. She can draw on this for years to come.”

That is in the professional game Dream day: Georgia Hall is mobbed by her adoring fans at Royal Lytham but as far as the grass roots go, England Golf was quick to welcome Hall’s glory, calling it “the perfect end” to Women and Girls’ Golf Week, the campaign supported by the R&A.

There is no doubt Hall is a product of the system. She was the English Under-13 and Under-15 champion, won individual and team Youth Olympics gold medals, was the British girls’ and women’s champion and played for England as a teenager.

Hall admits that money was “tight” when she was growing up and that she would have struggled without the support.

However, it must be pointed out that she could not afford to compete in all of the majors for which she qualified as a garlanded amateur, but she insists that just made her even more determined to succeed.

“I always told myself that if my golf ’s good enough, then it can take me anywhere regardless of how much money I have,” she said. “And then I just kept going.”

Hall will likely require that overload of energy and ambition this week as she heads to Perthshire to compete in the European Championships, the multi-sport event centred in Glasgow. She will play with Davies in the female pairs, which begins tomorrow, and then the duo will join Lee Slattery and Callum Shinkwin in a mixed-team event on Sunday.

Hall will add much-needed stardust to a field that a week ago appeared deeply unimpressive and credit to her, because it would have been easy to duck out after all the emotion – not to mention celebrating – of Sunday night.

“I couldn’t let Laura down,” Hall said with what will soon be called her trademark giggle and smile. British golf is already in her debt.