‘I’ll let him play off the red tees’: LPGA star hits back at golfer’s sexist DM, challenges him to match

Delusions of grandeur are not unique to the game of golf, though they are rampant on the fairways and greens of munis across the world.

But one particular fantasy comes up again and again from a certain type of keyboard warrior: the idea that an average male recreational golfer could beat an LPGA pro on the course.

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In pretty much all cases, the idea is little more than a hallucination. Yet the fallacy persists, as evidenced by a recent X (formerly Twitter) post by golf coach and stats guru Lou Stagner.

On Monday Stagner shared a DM he had received from this exact type of golfer, who wrote him in part, “I am a 3 handicapper that plays from 6900 yards and I hit my driver 290. I would make every cut on the LPGA and be a top20 plyr.”

Unable to let the offense slide, Stagner quote-tweeted the DM with his own takedown message, writing, “I love some of the direct messages I get. This guy would finish DFL in every single event.”

Stagner’s post blew up immediately, with commenters filling his replies with near-unanimous (and hilarious) rejection of the DM’s premise.

Even LPGA star Charley Hull, who no doubt has heard stuff like this throughout her career, couldn’t resist piling on.

Hull — who has two LPGA wins, three Ladies European Tour wins and top-6 finishes at all five majors — responded with her own jab, jokingly challenging the “3 handicapper” in Stagner’s DMs to a match.

“Shall we sort this game out 👀 I’ll let him play off the red tees whilst I’ll play off the whites,” the English pro wrote.

Hull’s post received a wave of support, with many commenters expressing their glee at the idea of watching the hypothetical match on pay-per-view, with some even offering to arrange the showdown.

Hull, of course, has more important things to deal with, like competing against other professionals. This past Sunday, she nearly added a third LPGA win to her resume, narrowly losing the Kroger Queen City Championship to Minjee Lee in a playoff.

Next week, she’ll head to Spain to star on the European Solheim Cup team in the highly-anticipated biennial team event.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.