At one point during Charley Hull’s Tuesday press conference ahead the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham, the colourful star held up her smartphone to show assembled media the look on her caddie Adam Woodward’s face when he realised he had been pranked by his boss with a fake £100,000 winning scratch card she bought at a joke store.
“He’s literally running around the player’s lounge saying, ‘I’ve won £100,000. I’m taking today off.’ He couldn’t believe his luck, and we had to tell him it was fake and he nearly quit the job,” Hull said, laughing. “Now I have to have my back up because I don’t know what he’s going to do to me for payback.”
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One of the biggest personalities in women’s golf, the three-time LPGA winner just expanded her reach with the launch of her own YouTube channel, Sweet Spot Golf, with childhood friend and former DP World Tour pro Ryan Evans.
The idea came when the pair were playing golf last year and Hull was eight under par through nine holes, before Evans came back with six birdies in the last seven holes to halve their match.
“I was like, ‘We have like played so well and like had so much banter; imagine someone recording this,” World No. 7 Hull said. “It would be hilarious.
“I’m not doing it to make money or anything. I just wanted to do little challenges, little projects, and I just love playing golf. So for me to come back on a week off and then film a YouTube of me playing golf is no different to me just going down to the golf course and playing … and just capture some cool moments and have a bit of a laugh.”
Something that didn’t make Hull laugh, though, was one hole at last week’s Women’s Scottish Open. At the par-5 fifth at Dundonald Links in Round 1, Hull had about 15 feet for birdie to get back to level par but walked off the green with a 9.
“I thought it was a pretty good nine by the end of it. I holed a 10-foot putt, so, yeah, I think I even fist bumped. It was [on] me, but the pin shouldn’t have been there,” Hull said. “I had four chips up the slope, but I shouldn’t have putted off the green. I texted the commissioner straight after the round. I was like, listen, at the end of the day I know everyone f***s up, but the pin was about a yard from a massive slope.”
Hull managed to make the cut despite the quadruple bogey and finished T-44. Perhaps bouncing back can inspire the resilience needed to win the Women’s Open. She’s looking forward more to Royal Lytham this week.
“It is a very, very good golf course and compared to last week this is more of a traditional links, so if it does get windy and bouncy you can then run it in,” Hull said, comparing the course with Dundonald.
“If you’re in the bunker it’s a penalty area, especially with the tee shots, so you just got to pick out your lines and trust them or play smart and just layup a bit short of them.”
Hull is searching for her breakthrough major victory having finished second twice in the past three AIG Women’s Opens. It’s why the 30-year-old—who has six top-three finishes in majors—doesn’t see her relationship with four-time major winner Nelly Korda as a rivalry. Not yet, anyway.
The two players are undoubtedly women’s golf’s biggest stars and recently battled down the closing stretch of an epic U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, where Hull finished second to the World No. 1.
The joint runner-up result only made Hull hungrier to break the barrier.
“I don’t really see it as a rivalry at the minute, because no offense, Nelly has got however many majors and I’ve got none; I’ve got five second places,” Hull said bluntly.
“So let me get my major in first and then that’s something we can think about in the future. But listen, what Nelly is doing for the game of golf is unbelievable and so good to watch and she’s a nice girl as well.
“I just want to get over the line and win my first major. Five second place finishes in majors kind of hurts. I remember looking at the faces [on the tournament banners] walking in on the first day last year and I was like, ‘Oh, I wish that was me.’”
It would be fitting for an Englishwoman to win the 50th edition in front of home fans. Maybe then it’d be a rivalry.
