Vaping Charley Hull plays her way out of Olympics contention as hopes go up in smoke

“I don’t think people realize what happened to me and that I had an MRI and everything,” she said. “That is 100 per cent why I shot this today – and not the no smoking.”

Hull, 28, was in a chipper mood at the start of July when preparing to fly from America to London for the Aramco Series event at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead. She had finished second in the same tournament the year before and since then she had recorded six more top threes, including a second in the Women’s Open at Walton Heath.

Hull was seventh in the world – its highest-ever ranking – and with the two majors in Europe to come, as well as this Olympics and the Solheim Cup in September, everything was coming together very nicely.

But then, she took a shower and suddenly the campaign threatened to disappear down the plughole. “I fell over when I was getting out and took something on my shoulder,” she revealed. “I wish I’d never had that shower before my flight. “It is so frustrating.”

Hull tried to play at Centurion a few days later before retiring after six holes. She also teed it up at the next week’s Evian Championship, the major overlooking Geneva, and missed the cut. “My hip had gone out by then and I shouldn’t have played,” she now concedes.

Hull has only resumed full practice in the last few weeks, although stressed she “bust a gut” to be ready for this Le Golf National challenge.

“I played 10 rounds in six days before getting here,” Hull said, probably knowing there were raised eyebrows that she didn’t get to the French capital until Monday evening. “And I practiced every day from six in the morning until six in the evening.”

The rust was still immediately apparent. Officials decided to use the same yardage on first hole as in last week’s men’s competition, to give the women the full experience with the fans congregated around the teebox. But the crowd was small and there was not much atmosphere to speak of.

Hull duly pulled his drive into the water on the par-four and, from there, took a double bogey. She steadied the ship with four straight pars but then proceeded to make six bogeys in the following eight holes. Hull is a birdie machine and it is very rare that she goes 18 without circling at least one figure on her scorecard. But she was a long way from distraught.