Charley Hull has quit smoking but she’s still getting her nicotine fix elsewhere.
That’s why she may have been the perfect player to participate in the inaugural on!vitational, a two-day golf and entertainment experience that took place Oct. 16 and 17 at TGL’s SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Sponsored by on! nicotine pouches, the competition brought together current and former professional athletes, high-profile creators and consumers, age 25+, who got to compete alongside some of the biggest personalities in the game for golf’s “orangest jacket.”
There are fewer bigger personalities in golf these days than Hull, a 30-year-old English golfer and the eighth ranked female golfer in the world, who took time out on Friday while waiting
for her UberEats order to arrive — sweet potato wedges! — to dish on smoking, slow play, and the wild story of her first tattoo during a wide-ranging Zoom interview with Golfweek.
GWK: How do you feel about your season up to this point? What sort of letter grade would you give it?
CH: I feel like it's been pretty decent and I just need to get another win. I won one at the beginning of the year (PIF Saudi Ladies International) and then second at the U.S. Open and played well in all the other majors. It would just be nice to get one across the finish line before the end of the season.
GWK: What grade would you give it?
CH: I don't grade my seasons. It's a good season or a bad season, and then on to the next one.
GWK: How is it going giving up smoking?
CH: Yeah, good. I'm pretty strong minded when it comes to things, and, yeah, I find it pretty easy.
GWK: How old were you when you started smoking?
CH: Well, my dad smoked 40 a day since he was about 10 years old and he's 75 now. So, I grew up actually hating smoking and cigarettes. We used to make bets if I got down to a scratch handicap, he would stop smoking, and I got down to scratch one day, and then, I think, two days later, I was off like +1. So, he started smoking again, and I was fuming, because, obviously, he said, when I got down to scratch, but not when I got down to plus figures. But my whole family are all smokers, my nephew smokes, he's six years younger than me.
I'm from England, and it's a lot more common over there, and I was just stressed a couple years ago, so I got, prescribed Xanax. And I felt like I was going to get addicted to them, so, I chucked them straight in the bin, and I just needed something to ease me a little bit. And so, that's why I started Vaping, and then I felt like I was vaping too much. You can Vape inside, you can Vape anywhere. So, that's why I started smoking. I thought at least when I have a cigarette I can go outside, and I'm not gonna do it inside, and then, I slowly got off them, and that's why I'm on the nicotine pouches now. It was kind of like when I got my ADHD diagnosis is when I was on the Xanax. I’ve been taking the nicotine pouches about a year and a half.
GWK: The sponsor of this event is nicotine pouches. Do you use any of those?
CH: Yeah, I do.
GWK: If you got a tattoo, what would you get and where would you put it?
CH: I’ve got three tattoos. I've got one on my foot. I got drunk when I was in Ibiza when I was 17 years old. Me and my friend James went out partying. I was coming back from the club, and I thought it would be a great idea to get a tattoo across my head, because me and my best mate, James, our favorite thing we always said to each other was "Hold tight, hold tight." He wouldn't let me get it on my forehead. Instead, I got it on my foot and it says, hold tight. He got a matching one on his arm. We went back to the hotel, woke in the morning hung over, and I went to James, "Bloody hell, was I that drunk last night? I walked back with a plastic bag on my foot." He said, "No, Charlie. That's the wrapping after you've had your tattoo." I was like, "What? I got a tattoo?" He said, "Yeah, you were trying to get it on your forehead and we had to stop you there."
So yeah, I've got one tattoo there. I've got one of my ex-husband's name on my wrist, which I've tried to get removed. And then me and Georgia have matching lightning bolts. Mine is on my right pinky. We always do pinky promises with each other like that. And she's got the same one.
GWK: Why did you pick lightning bolts?
CH: I would say that we are electric together, you know what I mean? We got each other's back.
GWK: Has your caddie, Adam, attempted to get you back for fooling with him with the fake scratch card?
CH: No, not yet. He actually is one of my best friends. He's been on my bag for 10 years and he loved the joke. He thought it was hilarious, and he stayed with me for the whole week after, and we just hung out, but no, not yet. I'm sleeping with one of my eyes open at night when I'm around him. I'm probably staying with him in a few week’s time, so I'll probably expect it then.
GWK: Switching gears, how would you fix the pace of play problem on the LPGA?
CH: Oh, God, I don't know. I think you should get banned from the tour for a year or a three-month ban to start off with. Because I want to play golf and I'm sure the slow players want to play golf, and if the punishment is strict enough, you're not gonna play slower. You would make sure you'd play a lot quicker than we do.
GWK: If you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?
CH: If it was up to me, I'd have a 100-person field every week and cut to 50-55 and playing twosomes on the weekend all the time.
GWK: Would you like to see a co-ed event beyond the Grant Thornton 'silly season' event? And if so, who would you ask to be your partner and why?
CH: I would love to see it. I was meant to be partners with Michael Brennan this year again in the Grant Thornton, but I can't because I'm a bridesmaid at my best friend's wedding, Georgia Hall, who plays on tour. I was pretty pissed off with Georgia for not picking another date. Michael's having a great season. If I could play with anyone on the PGA Tour, it would be Michael because he is one of the most impressive golfers I've ever seen and he's going to be a major winner.
GWK: Were you and Brennan paired together randomly at the Grant Thornton, or did you guys know each other beforehand?
CH: I was meant to play with Daniel Berger last year and then he pulled out. Michael was first reserve. He's such a nice guy. I had my niece out there with me and he couldn't have treated her any better. I think he's great for the game of golf. So, yeah, I see him definitely being a future world No. 1. Yeah, that's how high I rate him his golf game.
GWK: You turned pro at a young age. What went into your decision to do so?
CH: Well, I left school when I was 12-13 years old, and I thought to myself, and my family thought, I've got one shot at this, one life. I love playing golf. I can always come back to my education. I played in my first major when I was 15 years old. It’s now called the Chevron and I came in like 29th. Looked up the paycheck, what I would have got, and I thought, damn! A week later, I played another pro event as an amateur, and came sixth on the Ladies European Tour, looked up what I would’ve made for a paycheck had I been pro and I thought, damn! And, so, at the end of that year, I thought, might as well turn pro, use it a bit of apprenticeship and earn money. And I had nine seconds on my first year on the (LET). So, that’s pretty much how I went about it.
GWK: How'd you celebrate your 30th birthday this year?
CH: I renovated my whole house. When it was done, all my friends came over and we had a massive party. It was great.
GWK: What do you wish you were better at saying no to?
CH: I wish I was better at saying no to myself sometimes. Like, I always think I have to be doing something all the time. I feel like that's why sometimes I run myself down a lot. I try and get so many things crammed into a space of a day. Sometimes, I feel guilty for like laying on the sofa, and I think, right, I should be going to the golf course, and I wish I'd be like, no, just have a day off. I think that's the biggest thing for me. I'm a workaholic.
GWK: If you could have front-row seats to any concert or sporting event, what would you choose?
CH: I would love to have front-row seats to watch the Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua (boxing) match in Cardiff (scheduled for Dec. 11). But I can't go because it's Georgia's wedding again.
GWK: How come you consider Seve Ballesteros to be a big role model?
CH: I love watching Seve. Like, I love the way that the men used to play back in the day. I love watching Shell's Wonderful World of Golf. I thought golf was a lot more fun back then. You had to create shots. You had to hit high draws, hit low fades or hit low draws and hit high fades to get to certain pin positions. It wasn't about bombing it. They played by feel, they weren't like robots. Seve had so much charisma and flare. Golf to me these days, especially in the men's game, is boring. Everyone hits it far and straight. It's just a power game. But, yeah, I just love Seve because he had flair.
GWK: What do you think you need to do to get to No. 1 yourself?
CH: I think I'm too golf obsessed sometimes, I really am. After a tournament, I let it affect my whole mood rather than just forgetting about it and just chilling with my friends and stuff. I kind of shy away from reality and just be like, go, go, go, go, go. I feel like I just got to put less pressure on myself, you know what I mean?
Adam Schupak is a senior writer for Golfweek.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Q&A: Charley Hull on quitting smoking, her 3 tattoos and her radical way to fix slow play
