OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Okay, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to be joined by Charley Hull. Charley, welcome back to the AIG Women's Open, of course here at Royal Lytham, now the 50th anniversary. Can you talk to us maybe about your earliest memories of this championship?
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, so in 2006 I had -- I think I was ten years old and I played in the pro-am here with Morgan Pressel, so it's pretty cool to be back here. I think there are some pictures of me in the players lounge after the pr-am with like Laura Davies and Lorena Ochoa, Annika, and Morgan and Natalie, so it was pretty cool.
OLIVIA MCMILLAN: So it's somewhat like a full circle moment for you to be back.
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah.
OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Questions.
Q. I know it's already a big week for you launching Sweet Spot Golf. Take us through the origin story of your YouTube channel.
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, like Ryan is one of my very good friends, my best friends, and he's played golf with me since I was ten, 11 years old. We was just playing some -- loads of golf rounds last year, and like some of the rounds I was -- I think one of the rounds I was 8-under through nine holes and then he birdied six of last seven holes to then be all square.
I turned around to him I was like, oh, my gosh, like we have like played so well and like had so banter in this round. Imagine someone recording this. It would be hilarious. He was like, yeah, and I was like, maybe we should start our own YouTube channel like joking around.
I actually never watched YouTube golf, just to let you guys know.
So then we've just thought, screw this, go ahead with it, and, yeah, launched it the other day. It was pretty good because we played here just the week after the U.S. Open and on the front nine with him caddieing for me and me like kind of sussing out the golf course and then next Monday launching the back nine of me versus Ryan one-on-one.
Q. Speaking of the golf course, there is a lot of hidden pot bunkers in the fairways and it's a tricky property in that regard. Can you speak to the bunkers, the challenge they provide?
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, obviously if you're in the bunker it's a penalty area, especially with the tee shots, so you just got to pick out your lines and trust them or play smart and just layup a bit short of them.
It is a very, very good golf course and it's -- compared to last week this is more of a traditional links, so if it does get windy and bouncy you can then run it in.
Q. Congratulations on launching the YouTube channel. A lot of players have had a lot of the success past few years. What do you hope comes from it? What's success to you launching it?
CHARLEY HULL: I said to Ryan, like I don't actually care. Like I'm not doing it to make money or anything. I just wanted to do it. Like I like little challenges, little projects, and I just love playing golf.
So for me to come back on a week off and then film a YouTube channel of me playing golf is no different to me just going down to the golf course and playing because I'm going to be playing anyway and just capture some cool moments and have a bit of a laugh doing it and stuff.
I just think it's really cool. The Solheim Cup episode this will get launched the week of the Solheim Cup was? By far my best one because usually when I've been on YouTube golf it's been like with the YouTubers, and then you kind of -- it's not really like -- you're not like hosting it, so I'm just doing my own thing.
Now I'm hosting it it's like, oh, I've got to talk all the time. So then the Solheim Cup episode we kind of got used to each other, like being on the camera, and it was a brilliant episode. Like he pulled out a fog horn when I was hitting a golf ball and it backfired on him. Like I went and made loads of birdies after.
So he tried to cheat me and play a prank on me, and then I got make back last week in Scotland with a fish and chips in his face.
Q. Pivoting slightly, a lot of fans are enjoying the rivalry you've had with Nelly this year, particularly at the U.S. Women's Open. Do you hope that keeps going? Do you yourself hope that rivalry --
CHARLEY HULL: I don't really see it as a rivalry at the minute, because no offense, Nelly has got however many majors and I've got none. I've got five second places.
So let me get my major in first and then that's something we can think about in the future. But listen, what Nelly is doing for the game of golf is unbelievable and so good to watch and she's a nice girl as well.
Yeah, but I just want to get over the line and win my first major. Five second place finishes in majors kind of hurt. I remember looking at the faces walking in on the first day from last year and stuff I was like, oh, I wish that was me.
Q. I wanted to ask a question about the golf distance debate and rollback. I was wondering where you stand on that debate and if you think there should be a rollback? Do you think it's the ball that should be addressed instead of drivers?
CHARLEY HULL: I'm pretty rubbish with saying what should be done and shouldn't be done, but let's just put it this way? For me, I prefer watching golf back in like the 1970s and '80s and stuff, and golf back then to me was more of an art. Like you see all the old school players, like if it was a back right pin they used to have to hit a high fade and cut the ball in, where these days you can just straight at the pin and you're so far down there you are just hitting wedges in from -- the clubs that they were playing in their time was 6-irons in.
So it was a lot more of an art back then, a lot more creative, and that's kind of the golf I like to watch and I kind of like to play. I think it's more fun and more challenging, but I don't know how they would address that.
But listen, I hit some old hickory clubs last week and I love the feel with the way I struck them and stuff. I've always played with blades. I've never not played with blades. So I like that kind of challenge and being a pure ball-striker and having to hit the ball well to be rewarded for a good shot. Even though sometimes I might need a bit of help, but I choose not to.
Q. Just wanted to ask about the prize money this week. Just read now it's tripled since 2019. How important is that for you players, and thoughts on what the number has risen to?
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, obviously great for AIG for raising the bar. I think in the last few years the majors have really gone up in prize money and it's really, really good to see.
It's just now the Tour's job to, you know, as players to make it really exciting for everyone to get more people come and make it a massive event for the sponsors.
I think it's great what they've done. It's nice and it's good because I love playing for money. I'm not going to lie. That's why I think I play so well in the majors. Even if I'm quite a lot behind I am like, make loads of birdies today, extra dollars, for me and him to get.
Actually talking of money today, I was in the -- went to a prank shop last night and I've got some scratch cards. So we are going into the players lounge this morning and I was like, oh, right, I got some scratch cards from the shop. He was like, oh, yeah. This one was like $100,000.
We've got it all on record. He's like scratching it, scratching it, scratching it, and he's like, my gosh I've won. He's taken his hat off. He's taken his glasses off. He's literally running around the players lounge sayin, I've won $100,000. I'm taking today off. His face looks so happy. He was sweating. He was trembling. He couldn't believe his luck, and we had to tell him it was fake and he nearly quit the job.
I've got it on camera to be fair. I'll try and find it and send it to somebody. It's absolutely hilarious. This was his reaction when he thought he won 100,000 pounds. It was just hilarious. I think he's high fiving everybody. (Showing video.)
Yeah, it's so funny. I can't believe I won 100 grand. Yeah, I felt bad. Now I have to have my back up because I don't know what he's going to do to me for payback.
Q. I don't know how to follow that.
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah.
Q. You talked especially last week about trying to embrace links golf. I am wondering, the fifth hole in the first round, how you process what happened there?
CHARLEY HULL: Beth Ann, out of everyone in this room I knew you were going to ask me that question. Listen, at the end of the day it's about position. I am not going to sit here and say, oh, yeah, it was me. Which is was me, but the pin shouldn't have been there.
I texted the commissioner straight after the round. I was like, listen, at the end of the day I know everyone f***s up, but the pin was about a yard from a massive slope, and where it was on a downslope going towards a slope.
I've had a 12-foot putt for birdie and walk off with a nine. Yeah, I had four chips up the slope, but I shouldn't have putted off the green. Just shows in fact that I'm human. Even the world so and so can make a nine.
I thought it was a pretty good nine by the end of it. I holed a ten-foot putt, so, yeah, I think I even fist bumped.
Q. And went on to make the cut. Did you get over it quickly?
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, I made a ten before on the golf course and still shot 5-under par, and that was a few years ago. It was very, very windy and the golf course last week was playing quite tricky.
But I was happy to make the cut. Actually I hit the ball pretty good tee to green that week. It was just the putt was not behaving.
Q. Charley, just wondering if you took anything out of how Tommy handled playing in front of home fans, and any lessons for you when you play a massive event like this in England?
CHARLEY HULL: Yeah, I think Tommy played very well. He's a very steady player. I kind of felt like I was in the home crowd a couple yards ago when we was down at Walton Heath. You just got to kind of deal with it and think to yourself it's just another golf event rather than adding too much pressure.
But, yeah, just kind of go out there and feel relaxed as you can be.
Q. You've been quite outspoken about slow play. You're obviously one of the fastest players out here. I know you spoke quite a lot about it a couple years ago and how things needed to change. Have you seen any change in the last couple years? Is there anything more that needs to be done to improve the pace?
CHARLEY HULL: I feel like when we are playing two balls it's so much better, but I just get frustrated how slow it can get sometimes because I'm quite a quick thinker and quick mover with everything I do in my life. It's just for the rules officials, like tell them to carry on, pushing everybody on, it's kind of a hard one at the end of the day because you have so many factors in golf: wind, slopes, greens. Some people in front could have had a ruling that had to wait. So it's quite hard to speed it up.
Yeah, I just know it's a massive difference when we play in twos how quickly we go round.
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