Charley Hull has never sounded especially interested in making herself easy to manage, and that much was made clear again at the Women’s Open. The latest flashpoint was not a swing change, a missed putt or a tactical issue. It was a £100,000 scratchcard prank on Adam Woodward that Hull clearly thought was hilarious and a fair few others did not.
Before the tournament, Hull revealed she had bought fake scratchcards in a Blackpool joke shop and used one to convince Woodward, her caddie for most of her professional career, that he had landed the jackpot. Some people saw it as harmless mischief. Others saw something closer to cruelty, especially given the long working relationship between the pair. Hull, predictably, did not spend long apologising for herself.
After posting a two-under-par 69 at Royal Lytham & St Annes, Hull was asked about the reaction and went straight on the front foot. Her message was blunt: people needed to lighten up. People with complaints, she said, should loosen up. She even made clear she would do a similar prank again. If there was any sense of regret, it was limited to a brief admission that she felt bad for Adam before insisting she still had a good week to play.
No apology, no retreat
That refusal to soften the story is what turned a prank into a talking point. Hull also made the broader point that she keeps social media off her phone during tournament weeks, deletes it, and only adds it back when she goes home. That tells you plenty about how she handles attention: stay in the present, ignore the noise, and do not waste time trying to make everybody comfortable.
In fairness, there is a version of this story that is easy to laugh off. Hull said Woodward thought it was funny afterwards and that he is not uptight. She also said, “It’s a joke. If people don’t like it they can lump it.” That is classic Hull: direct, unsentimental and not remotely interested in handing out a polished apology just because the internet wants one.
But the reaction matters because the prank landed in a world where athletes are judged not just on intent, but on tone. A fake £100,000 win is a big number to hang over anyone’s head, even as a joke. And when the target is a caddie who has worked for you for years, people are bound to ask whether the punchline was really worth the discomfort.
Hull’s round still mattered
Of course, the Women’s Open was not pausing for a side story. Hull’s two-under-par 69 kept her very much in the mix, even if the leaderboard tension sat elsewhere. Atthaya “Jeeno” Thitikul was leading on seven under, with Ryu Hae-ran on five under after a year in which she had already won the PGA and Evian Championships.
Thitikul’s record gives the event real weight too. She won top amateur honours when the Women’s Open was staged at Lytham in 2018, and since 2021 she has posted 11 top-10 finishes in majors. That is the standard Hull is trying to chase over the next three more days, and the tournament battle is serious even if the prank dominates the headlines for a moment.
That is the split nature of Hull’s public image in a nutshell. She can produce a useful round and still leave the wider conversation circling around her personality, her mouth, and her refusal to back down. Some players spend their entire careers trying to avoid that kind of spotlight. Hull seems to treat it like part of the deal.
There is no mystery here. Charley Hull said what she thought, doubled down on the prank, and made no serious attempt to pretend she wanted to be everyone’s idea of sensible. For fans who like their sport neat and polite, that will always grate. For Hull, apparently, that is exactly the point.
