Why Charley Hull’s smoking is hot topic at Olympic Games

Earlier this year, English golfer Charley Hull went viral less for her ability than her relatability.

Hull’s moment of internet fame came in late May, when this outlet shared footage of her signing autographs at the U.S. Women’s Open with a half-smoked cigarette pinched between her lips. The notion of a professional golfer casually tugging on a dart during one of the biggest tournaments of the year proved irresistible to the golf-watching masses and beyond, as indicated not only by the millions of views the video has racked up on Instagram and X but also by the widespread media coverage of the clip. Crowed a GQ headline, “Charley Hull Cig-Blasted Her Way Through the US Open.”

Obscured by all the buzz around Hull’s she’s-one-of-us appeal, though, was that she played well that week in Lancaster, Pa. (a final-round 67 propelled her into the top 20), as she has for most of this season. A month after the U.S. Open, Hull, who is 28, tied for 16th at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at tree-choked Sahalee, just east of Seattle. A week after that, she partnered with one of her best friends and fellow Brit, Georgia Hall, at the Dow Championship, an LPGA team event in Michigan. (This was just days after Hall and Hull had been confirmed as members of the team that would represent Great Britain in the Paris Olympics.) The pals’ good vibes translated into good scores, with the Brits tying for fifth. Hull was rolling.

Then … she stumbled.

Literally.  

Hull’s next scheduled start after the Dow was an Aramco Series event back home in England the following week. Hours before hopping a flight to London, though, she slipped stepping out of the shower and thought she had torn something in her right shoulder. Hull tried to play through the pain at the Aramco, but after just six holes, she withdrew. An MRI showed no evidence of a tear, but she did have arthritis in her shoulder joint. A week later, Hull played in the LPGA’s fourth major of the year, the Evian Championship in France. After a seesaw first two rounds (79-69), she missed the cut by six. Needing rest, Hull took off about 10 days and then started practicing again for what would be her second appearance in the Olympic Games.

In her pre-tournament press conference Tuesday in Paris, Hull was not asked about her shoulder. But a reporter did inquire about Hull’s unexpected burst of social-media celebrity and whether she was comfortable for being “famous” for her smoking.

“I haven’t gone on Instagram in about four or five months,” Hull said. “I just let my agent do it. I just concentrate on my golf and just hang out with Georgia off the golf course.”

Here’s how the rest of that exchange went:

Do you smoke on the course?

Yeah, I do smoke on the course. It’s a habit, but I won’t do this week. Yeah, just something I do.

Why don’t you do it this week?

I don’t think you’re allowed.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Will that affect you? Does it help you?

Yeah, I think it will. Because it relaxes me a little bit. But it is what it is.

Hull was correct about the smoking ban. According to the official 2024 Olympics Spectator Information Guide, smoking is prohibited at the Olympic venues — Le Golf National included — except for in designated smoking areas. (Surely the list of Hull’s fellow Olympians this rule would impact is short, but it’s not non-existent. Ask Shoko Miyata, Japan’s top female gymnast and team captain, who last month was expelled from the Japanese team for allegations of underage smoking, which was a violation of the federation’s conduct code.)

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The most interesting question Hull addressed, though, was whether her inability to puff would impact her game, as she speculated that it might. Hull did not start smoking because she felt like it might give her any kind of competitive edge. She said at the U.S. Women’s Open that she picked up the habit last year to help her kick another vice: vaping. “Even though smoking is not better than vaping, it’s just you can vape indoors all the time,” she said. “I thought if I smoke, I’m going to go outside and smoke a cigarette.” Soon enough, lighting up became part of Hull’s on-course routine.

Just not this week in Paris, where Hull’s pursuit of gold began at 9:44 a.m. local time Wednesday alongside Hannah Green of Australia and American star Rose Zhang.

If Hull was hoping to ease into her round, she was on the wrong golf course. Narrow and water-lined, Le Golf National exposes poor ball-striking with ruthless efficiency. As Viktor Hovland said last week, “If you’re struggling, it’s going to kick your ass.”

Hull’s wake-up call came with her very first swing, a tugged tee shot that caught the lake left of the 1st fairway, leading to a double-bogey 6. She settled down with pars on the next four holes but then bogeyed 6, 7 and 9 to turn in 41. Four more bogeys followed on 10, 11, 13 and 17 for a back-nine 40 and an opening nine-over 81 that left her third from last in the 60-player field. Hull was shaky throughout her bag, but, in terms of strokes gained, nothing cost her more than her short game and putting; in both categories she ranked last in the field.  

“I feel a bit rusty,” she said afterward, adding that too often she’d left herself in bad positions. “I’m looking forward to hopefully shooting freaking nine under tomorrow.”  

As for the lack of nicotine? Had it unnerved her as she thought it might?

“No, not at all,” Hull said. “It’s just because I’ve been injured. I don’t think a lot of people realize that I did pull out of the Aramco team series, and I did take, like, 10 days off golf and had an MRI and everything. I think that is 100 percent why. Not because of smoking.”

She said she also tends to struggle on courses without trees, because of the absence of aiming points.

Whatever the cause of Hull’s poor form, she said her overriding emotion coming off the course was frustration. “I wish I didn’t have a shower before my flight now,” she said. “It’s really pissed me off.”

But she’s also confident that now that she has more familiarity with the course, she’ll show improvement on Thursday.  

“This year, I felt like I was having quite a good season, very consistent, top 20s, a few top 10s and I was very focused,” she said. “When I obviously did have an injury, it knocks your confidence — not how I’m swinging it but more mentally. But I feel like a couple rounds under my belt, I’ll be back.”