Charley Hull has never been short of an opinion, and the world No. 4 has spent her week at the Chevron Championship in Houston confirming exactly that. In two appearances spread across podcasts and the LPGA media centre, the 30-year-old Englishwoman has revisited an old wardrobe horror story, dismissed regular men's PGA Tour events as "boring", and made the case that golf is best when it gets ugly.
The eyebrow-raising stuff began on the Vanity Index Podcast, where Hull recalled the 2015 Canadian Pacific Women's Open and a moment she has spent a decade trying to laugh off. Then a teenager rapidly filling out, she had skipped the gym, gained weight, and pulled on a pair of trousers that no longer fit.
"I was so skinny growing up and when I got to about 18 or 19, I started going out drinking cider and I didn't understand what a hangover was," Hull said. "Whenever I had a hangover, I'd eat loads of unhealthy food and I put on loads of weight."
The wardrobe failure came on the back nine. "Coming down the 15th hole I hit this shot and one of my trousers was tight for me where I'd put on a bit of weight," she explained. "My button flew off as I hit this shot. The cameraman recorded it as the zipper went down as well. I was like, 'Oh no, this is on live TV.' The cameraman has had to radio into the other cameraman to get a little pin so I can pin my trousers together to finish the golf round."
She still finished tied for seventh at nine under that week, behind eventual winner Lydia Ko, and has since become one of the most committed gym-goers on tour. Her viral fitness videos have done plenty to tell that story for her.
"I much prefer that," Hull said of major championships. "I think that's the way golf should be. It's way more interesting. I don't really watch golf, but when I watch the men's golf I watch the majors and I enjoy it a lot more when they're struggling on the golf course. I think it's a lot more fun."
She then took aim at the modern professional product, arguing that softened set-ups and modern equipment have stripped the variety out of the average PGA Tour Sunday.
"It's quite boring watching a birdiefest," Hull said. "All you see is hitting a long drive, hitting a wedge on the green and holing a putt. It's nice to see golf be played as an art, like when they have to create shots. I much prefer that. That's why I preferred golf 20, 30 years ago."
The "birdiefest" line will sting on a tour that just wrapped up a Masters with a 12-under winning score and is bracing for another wide-open Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral next week. It is also at odds with much of the LPGA's own product, where major venues this year include Shadow Creek, Erin Hills and PGA Frisco's Fields Ranch East, all set up to bare teeth.
Hull's own form so far in Houston has been steady rather than spectacular, and her position has not changed since she nearly won the 2024 US Women's Open and finished second again at the AIG Women's Open. She has been the most consistent non-Korda figure in women's golf for two years, and her honesty about the broader game travels further than her scoring average.
For an English star who once had to pin her trousers shut on live television and finished seventh anyway, telling the truth about the rest of the tour has never been the hard part.