Is Charley Hull’s Mental Peace Affecting Her Game, Or Is It Just A Rough Patch?

Every athlete has their own thing that helps them relax. For some, it’s yoga; it’s meditation; but interestingly, in LPGA superstar Charley Hull’s case, it’s smoking. The golfer garnered a lot of attention at the Women’s US Open for smoking while signing autographs, and ever since, questions about her peculiar habit have been in the news. In the past, she has described this habit as a way of seeking calmness.

In Paris, when asked if being unable to smoke at Le Golf National would bother her, she said, “Yeah, I think it will. Because it relaxes me a little bit. But it is what it is.” Now, ironically, her calming agent has been proven bad for her health.

It all started at the 2016 UL International Crown, where Hull experienced a severe asthma attack, which forced her to miss a day of competition. She reported feeling unwell at a sponsor dinner and woke up the next morning struggling to breathe and with a fever. She revealed that doctors had put on a mask with medicinal inhalants to help her breathe better. That’s not all. During the 2023 AIG Women’s Open, Hull was seen struggling with asthma again.

Just as Hull was on the verge of winning the title, two Extinction Rebellion protestors suddenly stormed onto greens and released colored smoke, which filled the air with red and yellow dust. One can imagine how scary that must’ve been for the golfer, and to make things worse, she didn’t have her inhaler with her. “What a bunch of idiots! I suffer from asthma, but I didn’t have my inhaler on me, and that stuff was really thick, so no, it was not nice,” said Hull, according to the Telegraph.