Charley Hull walks down the golf green in the course of the second spherical of the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership on Could 31, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa.
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The previous 12 months had all of it — loopy profitable streaks, new main champs, a major-week arrest (!) and extra. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are trying again on the most memorable moments from 2024.
Largest Golf Moments of 2024 No. 15: Charley Hull goes viral
Oddly sufficient, it began with a cigarette. Charley Hull took it from there.
As Nelly Korda staked her declare on the ladies’s golf world — profitable seven occasions in 16 begins, together with 5 straight — it was Hull, the 28-year-old English professional, who rivaled Korda’s recognition late in 2024.
Again in June, GOLF’s Seen and Heard video sequence captured Hull puffing on a cigarette whereas signing autographs on the U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership. The video went viral, and so did Hull. She gained greater than 70,000 Instagram followers in two days.
“It’s truly fairly humorous,” Hull mentioned that week. “I don’t know, throughout a cigarette, I suppose. However I genuinely was strolling to the vary, had my arms full, somebody requested me for an autograph, I’m not going to say no as a result of I all the time like signing autographs. Had a cigarette in my mouth, signed it, after which it’s gone viral. I don’t know. It’s simply considered one of them issues. Nevertheless it’s been loopy. Just like the followers have been shouting my title this week. Somebody mentioned I’ve dropped one thing after which handed their cellphone quantity on a bit of paper in my hand. He was like, ‘Right here’s my quantity. Textual content me so we will determine the place I’m taking you out for dinner tonight.’ I by no means texted him clearly, but it surely was simply so humorous.
“It’s been a little bit of a wild week.”
However her recognition endured gone Lancaster. The extra Hull spoke with the media — recent, unfiltered (no pun supposed) and with a intelligent English wit — the extra observers continued to be intrigued. She gained followers on the course, borrowed lighters and even fielded requests to autograph cigs.
Extra necessary, her sport drew the eye it deserved as nicely.
Hull tied for nineteenth on the U.S. Ladies’s Open, added one other prime 20 on the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship and completed fifth on the Scottish Open. She was prime 20 in her remaining six occasions of the 12 months, which included a victory on the Aramco Crew Collection Riyadh occasion to snap a two-year winless drought.
Hull’s largest week got here in September, when she secured a team-high 3 factors for Europe on the Solheim Cup and dominated Korda, the world’s greatest participant, in Sunday singles. The U.S. cruised to a 15.5-12.5 win, however Hull’s 6-and-4 victory over Korda within the first match of the day sparked storylines specializing in the potential for the ladies’s sport’s subsequent large rivalry.
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The Korda-Corridor dynamic was fueled once more final month at The Annika, when Hull held the 54-hole lead and was within the remaining threesome with Korda and Weiwei Zhang.
Korda gained (Hull tied for second), however maybe it was a precursor for what’s to return. Korda is firmly established because the No. 1 participant on the earth, however Hull’s now as much as tenth. She’s nonetheless gained solely twice on the LPGA Tour — her final victory got here in 2022 — and he or she’s had 5 prime 10s in every of the final three years. She’s all the time been an extended hitter, however her ball-striking (4th) and greens in regulation (eighth) made main leaps in 2024.
Any sport is best with a rivalry, even when it’s a pleasant one like Korda and Hull’s. Will there be extra of it in 2025? Will Hull’s outcomes maintain tempo along with her newfound recognition?
“Should you suppose I’ve acquired a whole lot of character on the golf course, you must see what my life is like at dwelling,” Hull mentioned. “However yeah, it’s fairly humorous. I’m simply me. You don’t know what’s popping out of my mouth subsequent. I don’t know what’s popping out of my mouth subsequent. It’s considered one of them issues. I’m simply me. I’m not going to alter for the world. I’ll simply be me, and other people will both prefer it or lump it.”
