Given its country-club roots and prim and proper dress codes, it’s easy to dismiss golf as a sport for the upper class and out of touch. Every once in a while, though, a golfer comes along and upends our idea of golf as fusty: John Daly posting up at Hooters during the Masters, say, or the revolutionary Arnold Palmer combining iced tea and lemonade. This weekend, we got another reminder of golf’s cross-cultural potential when Charley Hull, one of the best female golfers in the world, played a prestigious tournament with cigarettes hanging out of her mouth.
Hull, a 28-year-old from Northamptonshire, England, smoked her way through the U.S. Open this weekend, and she did so while looking unbelievably cool. While the negative health effects of cigarettes are well-documented, so is the fact that ripping a heater on the golf course is a vibe and a half. Hull understood that beautifully during the weekend’s festivities at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Nowhere in the LPGA Tour Player Handbook does it say that players are prohibited from lighting up on the course, which means that Hull is totally within her rights to blast away. She’s partaking in an ancient tradition: on the men’s side, we’ve seen the likes of Daly, Palmer, and Ángel Cabrera go chimney mode. The humble cigarette is perhaps the greatest unifier between pro golfers and the duffers at your local muni, since the pros (unlike you and your buddies) are not allowed to drink while they play.
Surely, Hull would have liked to finish a little higher than 19th—although that still comes with a reported $125k payout—but if you can’t win, you gotta at least serve looks. And it’s hard not to look suave when you’re photographed wearing shades and facing a dart. Better yet, she’s unapologetic about her behavior, breaking out a wonderfully British “like it or lump it” for the haters.
Apparently, smoking’s not the least of it, either. “My friends always say I should have a TV show of what goes on in my life,” Hull told reporters on Sunday. “You think I’ve got a lot of personality on the golf course? You should see what my life is like at home!” She went on to say, “I’m just me. You don’t know what’s coming out my mouth next. I don’t know what’s coming out my mouth next … I’m not going to change for the world. I just be me. People either like it or lump it.”
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