Annabel Dimmock and Chris Hughes: the Perfect Match!

Annabel Dimmock, the 2019 Jabra Ladies Open champion, and TV presenter Chris Hughes, who first found fame on Love Island, met last year at the Aramco Team Series – London Pro Am and their relationship has gone from strength to strength. The glamorous, sports-mad pair tell us about their lifestyle and how they are making golf cool, fashionable and accessible for a young and image-conscious audience.  

How and when did you meet?

Annabel: We met on the first tee at Centurion Golf Club in the Pro-Am ahead of the Aramco Team Series – London.

Chris: I saw her on the putting green beforehand, but she was concentrating with her caddie.

What impressed you about each other’s golf?

Annabel: Not much impressed me about his game! I’m joking, he actually drove it really well. I thought he was going to be absolutely terrible, but he hit some drives that were really long and straight, so I was surprised!

Chris: She said to me that she thought I was going to chop it round. I played off 8 and I was kind of taken back. I had never seen ladies’ golf in the flesh before. I know you see it on TV but with any sport, when you see it in the flesh, it comes alive, especially with golf. You can hear the strike and impact and they way the players crush it.

Chris: you caddied at the Dubai Moonlight Classic. How did you find it?

Chris: I’m a Tour caddie now! I had a warm up at the Rose Ladies Series at Buckinghamshire Golf Club. Then in Dubai. The caddying life was good fun with Annabel, but if I was with anyone else on tour, it wouldn’t be for me. I don’t find too much satisfaction in carrying a golf bag round, if I’m honest! It was harder work than I thought and it was hot and humid at the Dubai Moonlight Classic. I’ll probably get roped in to do it again though!

Who’s the most competitive? Can you give us an example?

Annabel: We are so competitive about everything and we have an amazing relationship where we are like mates-competitive, like best friends but also have the relationship, which is quite fun. We spend a lot of time together and we do everything together because it’s fun and we just take the mick out of each other. Sometimes we nearly get into arguments because we are so competitive. We played golf together recently but normally if it’s golf I win.

Chris: I did beat you on the par 3 course though.

Annabel: He has beaten me once… on a par 3 course.

What other sports do you play?

Chris: I was at Swindon Football Club until I was 17. I played football there from when I was a boy. My mum and dad used to drive me up there three times a week, similar to what Annabel did.

Annabel: I was with Watford and then I finished with QPR.

Chris: We obviously have that football background. I also played four years of County Cricket for Gloucestershire and I now work with the BBC presenting The Hundred. I enjoy the cricket. I enjoy golf and horse racing, because I’ve rode race horses since I was about nine or ten years old.

Annabel: Before I was with Chris I knew quite a bit about football and obviously golf, but since I’ve been with Chris I’ve really got into horse racing and cricket. I loved The Hundred and was so into it. I absolutely love horse racing and the horses. I love Chris’s horse, Annie Mac. I’ve become really invested in it.

Chris: You learn a lot when you’re with someone and with horse racing there’s so much preparation. We just love sport. If sport didn’t exist there would be no point in me waking up anymore.

Annabel: Me neither.

Chris: I might as well be dead.

Annabel: That is the same for me. My job is sport and I love it.

You post a lot on Instagram. Why is social media important to you?

Annabel: For me, I want to make golf cool. The amount of women and girls participating needs to grow. People need to see that you can be a cool girl and good at sport. When I was at school I used to hide the fact I played golf and football. I would never tell anyone that I was really good at golf because you would be made fun of and it was embarrassing. Looking back, I would never want anyone else to feel like that. Girls drop out of sport because it’s not deemed as cool and they want to go shopping with their friends, they want to go to parties and don’t want to get up to practise, but it’s changing. There are more girls in sport and it is cool. To be a female professional sportsperson is really cool. I do a lot of work with Girl Golf Rocks, with Surrey Girls’ and going into my mum’s school to spread the message. I get a lot of good feedback from the girls, for example, that they can’t believe I’m a professional golfer. I want girls to see that you can be cool and play sport and pursue that as work.

With 2.1M followers on Instagram, can you help, Chris?

Chris: I had an old school friend message me the other day. His girlfriend has just taken up golf because they watch our videos on YouTube all the time, which made her want to play. It influences people to pick up a golf club or go the range. That’s the power of social media.

Annabel: I would love for people who see me and Chris together in our videos, messing about on and off the course, to understand that our relationship is so healthy. We don’t go out drinking or clubbing together. We have no interest in that. We would rather go and have a match together or even throw an American football about together. I feel like that’s missing in society. People just want to go out drinking.

Chris: Drinking bores the life out of me. If you put me in a night club I want the ground to swallow me up.

Annabel: I do like my nights out with the girls but we are sporty and do so much fun stuff and I’d love other couples to see that and be a bit more like that.

Chris: how important is your YouTube channel?

Chris: I’ve been a bit slow on the content, but we’ve put out some funny videos and people absolutely love them, because it’s me and Annabel having a laugh on the golf course.

We film it, then break it up into three parts. It’s really competitive and proper banter because we do want to win. The night before, I’m cleaning my clubs, proper prepping.

What are your goals for 2022?

Chris: I want to play in the actual three day Aramco Team Series with Annabel – possibly in Sotogrande, Spain.

Annabel: Getting my full fitness back following my wrist injury and getting my second win, for sure.