Charley Hull
Charley Esmee Hull is an English professional golfer who has won tournaments on both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour.
Aged nine, Hull won the Ladies Golf Union Championship, playing against adults. She went on to have a successful amateur career, winning several national titles, and she was selected by Europe for the Junior Solheim Cup in 2011, and by Great Britain and Ireland for the Curtis Cup in 2012. Hull turned professional in 2013, and after ten top-10 finishes and a debut appearance at the 2013 Solheim Cup, she was named LET Rookie of the Year. Her first LET title was achieved at the 2014 Lalla Meryem Cup, and she won the LET Order of Merit at the end of the same year. Hull won her first LPGA title in 2016 at the Tour Championship. She won further LET titles in 2019, 2021 and 2024, and she won her second LPGA title at the Volunteers of America Classic in 2022.
Hull has won eight professional titles during her career, including three on the LPGA Tour, and four on the LET. She has ten top-10 finishes in majors, and has finished runner-up on four occasions: at the 2016 ANA Inspiration, the 2023 U.S. Women's Open, the 2023 Women's British Open, and the 2025 Women's British Open. Hull has competed in seven Solheim Cups, winning three, and has a career high year-end world ranking of eighth.
Early life and career influences
Hull was first introduced to golf when she was two years old, and she began playing with her father at Kettering Golf Club. She joined Woburn Golf Club aged nine or ten and later left school at the age of thirteen to be home-schooled. Hull has stated that once she started home-schooling, she focused on golf ahead of her studies, saying "I was playing golf from 9am to 3pm every day." While discussing her role models, Hull has said that when she was young she looked up to Laura Davies, with Davies herself acknowledging similarities in their style of play. Speaking about Hull, Davies has observed "She plays golf the way I played golf...She gets her driver out on pretty much every hole, goes for pins and isn't scared of messing things up." Hull has also cited Seve Ballesteros as a role model.Amateur career
Hull came to public attention aged nine, when she won the Ladies Golf Union Championship at Turnberry, competing against adults. During the event, she scored 28 stableford points from a handicap of 26. Aged ten, she played alongside Morgan Pressel in the British Open Pro-Am. Hull then won several amateur events in Great Britain and the United States and became ranked in the top-10 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings. She won the English Girls under-13 title in July 2008, and in March 2010 she won the Leveret at Formby Ladies. In January 2011, she travelled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she was victorious in the Jones-Doherty match-play Championship, and in May 2011, she won the Welsh Women's Open Stroke Play Championship. She followed this up by triumphing in the English Women's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in August, and was then selected to represent Europe in the 2011 Junior Solheim Cup. Hull lost all three of her matches in the tournament, including a 2 and 1 loss to Lindsey Weaver in the singles. The event concluded with the United States retaining the trophy after a 1212 tie. At the end of 2011, Hull was crowned the winner of both the English Girls, and Ladies Order of Merit, the first player to win both in the same year.In January 2012, Hull returned to Florida where she secured victory at the Harder Hall Invitational, winning with a two-stroke margin over Ariya Jutanugarn. Hull was selected by Great Britain and Ireland for the 2012 Curtis Cup at Nairn Golf Club in Scotland. Speaking about her approach to the sport before the competition, Hull said "I don't set myself goals really. I just go out and play. Just have fun, that's what I say." She lost her fourballs and foursomes matches on the first two days but won her singles match 5 and 3 against Lindy Duncan on the final day, with Great Britain and Ireland defeating the United States 10.5–9.5. Hull had initially been removed from the team in a dispute with the Ladies Golf Union over a mandatory training session that conflicted with the Kraft Nabisco Championship, a major championship on the LPGA Tour, to which she had been invited. The LGU re-instated Hull to the team and she finished T38th at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. She also competed in the 2012 Women's British Open at Hoylake, where she was tied for third after the first round.
Professional career
2013
Hull turned professional on 1 January 2013. She made her professional debut on the Ladies European Tour in March 2013 at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Agadir, Morocco, where she finished T2nd, three strokes behind Ariya Jutanugarn. She then achieved four further consecutive second-place finishes, culminating at the UniCredit Ladies German Open, where she lost in a playoff to Carlota Ciganda. The tournament had been curtailed to two rounds due to heavy rain. In August 2013, Hull was selected by European Solheim Cup captain Liselotte Neumann to compete in the 2013 Solheim Cup against the United States, with Hull becoming the youngest person ever to play in the tournament. Europe then won in the United States for the first time ever, triumphing 18–10. Hull contributed two points, including a 5 and 4 singles win over Paula Creamer, and finished the event with a 210 record. Neumann later praised Hull's performance, calling her "special" and saying "She plays in a fearless way."With five additional top-ten finishes on the LET, including T8th in the season-closing Dubai Ladies Masters, Hull finished sixth on the tour's Order of Merit with earnings of just under €135,995 in fifteen official events. She was awarded the 2013 LET Rookie of the Year award, and was also voted the Best International Newcomer by the Sports Journalists' Association. Hull was also on the shortlist for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, and Tony Jacklin described her as a "precocious talent". At the end of 2013, Hull said that she would divide her 2014 schedule between the LET and the LPGA Tour in the United States.