For someone who’s awfully serious about winning her first major championship, Charley Hull is trying to keep the mood light at Royal Lytham ahead of the 50th AIG Women’s Open.
The world’s seventh-ranked player has had a busy start to the week, launching her YouTube channel (Sweet Spot Golf) on Monday and tricking her caddie Adam Woodward into thinking he won the lottery a day later.
Come again? Yes, from social media entrepreneur to prankster extraordinaire, Hull is doing a little bit of everything to help spark a journey to the winner’s circle after a pair of runner-up finishes at her national tournament.
“I went to a prank shop last night and 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 and this one [could be worth] like $100,000,’” Hull explained her set-up to get Woodward to grab one of the fakes from her.
The 30-year-old English woman told reporters Tuesday at Royal Lytham that Woodward fell for the trap immediately and that she got it all on record — holding up the video on her cellphone to media as proof.
“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,” Hull said, describing the scene and showing the video 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.
“He thought he won 100,000 pounds. It was just hilarious ... he’s high fiving everybody.”
Hull admitted she’d have to keep her guard up over the next few weeks as she’s expecting some form of payback.
And speaking of payments, the entire pranking episode came out of a discussion about the tournament’s purse being tripled to $10 million this year since the first time Hull played in it.
“I love playing for money, I’m not going to lie. That’s why I think I play so well in the majors,” admitted Hull, who has a total of five runner-ups at majors including the two here at AIG in 2023 and 2025. “Even if I’m quite a lot behind I am like, ‘Make loads of birdies today, [make] extra dollars.’”
Sweet Spot arrival
Sweet Spot Golf is the brainchild of Hull and her close friend Ryan Evans, who debuted the channel with a tour around Royal Lytham and St. Annes.
And despite never having watched YouTube golf, Hull believes this week was the perfect time for the channel’s launch.
“We was just playing 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,” Hull told reporters at her pre-tournament press conference.
“I turned around to him I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, like we have like played so well and like had so much 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.”
In June, Hull and Evans shot the front nine at Royal Lytham following her most recent runner-up experience at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera. The back nine segment was filmed later on, with the duo playing one-on-one.
“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,” Hull said.
“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.”
And like any good content creator, Hull left her audience with a teaser for her next episode.
“The Solheim Cup episode, getting launched the week of the Solheim Cup, was by far my best one,” said Hull, who detailed she played Bernardus Golf with Evans as preparation for the September tournament.
“It was a brilliant episode — he pulled out a fog horn when I was hitting a golf ball and it backfired on him. I went and made loads of birdies after,” Hull said. “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.”
